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Posted on August 18, 2008 by JSB | Posted under Careers Employment
Personal Development for Graduate Jobs
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When leaving school some young people opt to have a so-called gap-year before going to university. This could, of course, simply be the result of indecision, but is more likely to be a question of the student seeking to accumulate a pre-university cash pile and sample the life of work before launching into several more years of study. They do not, in the main, appreciate just how valuable this experience will be when they start to draw on it at interviews for their first Graduate Jobs. Once at university there will be all sorts of further opportunities. Opportunities, perhaps, to get involved in the running of a variety of student clubs and associations; chairman, secretary, treasure positions being particularly good sources of "experience". During the passage through university the question of students having "time off" after their courses end, for travelling, is bound to be a topic of conversation from time to time. Not so much because it is seen as being a good CV addition when they eventually do come to apply for their first Graduate Jobs, but more because by this time they are genuinely feeling the need to broaden their life experiences before "settling down". There was a time when taking a year or so for travelling, whilst supporting oneself by casual employment, before seeking "proper" Graduate Jobs, was likely to be frowned upon by graduate employers. Almost as though it was evidence of some kind of irresponsibility. Happily that is much less likely now as the character / personality building value of such activities is more widely recognised. The chances are that, these days, Graduate Jobs interview panels would be quite interested in this kind of experience. My personal experience in Graduate Jobs recruitment, has been that interview panels are often more interested in the candidate's "experiences" whilst travelling, and how they dealt with those experiences, rather than simply in how many countries were visited and for how long. Again, from my personal experience, interview panels can often be faced with several graduates applying for the same position, all with no previous "proper" Graduate Jobs experience. In such circumstances they will be looking for "transferable" skills. For example, the student who has successfully dealt with several "crises" whilst travelling might have future "management" potential. Likewise the applicant who has organised a student charity-event, or the student who has been chairman of the university tennis club, or whatever, may well be judged to have valuable personal skills that could be developed into business skills, that mark him/her out as more suited to the advertised Graduate Jobs than the other applicants. But post-graduate travelling, in particular, can be a great opportunity to develop transferable skills. Indeed, the really smart post-graduate student might even enhance that opportunity by planning his travels so as to maximise this kind of experience. Rather like obtaining yet another "qualification" to offer when to time comes to be applying for his/her first Graduate Jobs. So, my advise to would-be travellers ... keep records (i.e. diaries) of your experiences. Apart from the pleasure of being able to look back over these in years to come, you may find that they make all the difference to your eventual applications for Graduate Jobs. About The Author: John Bult runs an internet job site for people in graduate jobs in the UK |
Tags: GRADUATE JOBS
