Why you still haven’t found a graduate job

Five months have passed since you’ve left university…still no job. You’ve done everything you should. You’ve spent countless hours trawling through job boards, you’ve applied for marketing jobs, fancy grad schemes, even roles paying not as much as you would’ve hoped for.

You’ve may have been to a few interviews….

Nothing.

Maybe the odd email letting you know you’ve been unsuccessful, but given no real reason as to why? The 3 recruitment companies you’ve signed up to have gone silent on you. Your parents start chiming in with advice. You know it’s out of love but it only adds to the pressure. On top of that, distant relatives are starting ask questions.

The air of awkwardness thickens as you realise that the rising  frequency of their “how is your job search going?” questions.

Doubt begins to creep in.

“What’s wrong with me?”
“Was my degree a waste of time?”
“Am I not good enough?”
“Will I be destined to work a retail job the rest of my life?
“Am I a failure?”

Do these questions sound familiar?

I am going to tell you why you haven’t got a job (yet) and what you need to do to change your mindset and find yourself a job before the end of the year.

1. You’re not trying hard enough
2. You don’t know why someone should hire you
3. You’re not thinking big enough

So let’s say you want a job in Marketing. I can’t tell you how many times a day people come through our doors saying they want a job in marketing.

There is nothing wrong with marketing. In fact, I myself like to dabble in the fine art. But that’s the problem: SO DOES EVERYBODY.

Everybody thinks they want to be a marketer nowadays. But if I was to mention PPC, SEO or copywriting, few of you so called “marketers” would know what I am talking about.

I don’t have a problem with people wanting to do marketing, be my guest. But you have to look at it from an employers perspective…

They get 10000 applicants a day applying for their marketing positions. You need to think about why they would choose you over the rest.

– What courses in paid advertising have you done?
– Have you started a sort of semi successful blog? (have you even got one that you’ve been updating recently?)
– Have you got a portfolio of work?
– Have you done any freelance work?
– Do you know what CPA / CPC is?

If the answer is no, you’ve got some work to do.

You can literally start a blog within an hour. It doesn’t even have to be gaining 10,000 views a week, you just have to be consistent with it. You have to show employers that although you don’t have a relevant degree, you have shown initiative.

Furthermore, it not all about you. You employer doesn’t hire you because they want to make you feel good. They hire you to help solve a problem.
I get it, you need some commercial experience to bolster your CV, I am not saying it isn’t important. But you need to give them a reason to want to give you the job.

If you’ve applied for five jobs today, that’s a good start. But it’s not enough. It’s a numbers game. You have to put yourself out there, still try and tailor your applications as much as you can, but be applying to jobs consistently.

Getting rejected is part of the process. Sometimes your biggest wins in life are an unbelievable stroke of luck.

So, how can you be in the right place at right time if you aren’t making any moves?

You have to APPLY APPLY APPLY.

Make three CV’s, tailored to different kinds of roles you’re applying for.

Now do your research. Research your chosen industry/ job role and look at what skills commonly crop up on job specifications. Now think about whether you have those skills or not, and if you do, how can you demonstrate this on paper?

If you don’t, get studying.  There are some great resources out there. You can find great courses on Udemy, Google Garage and Lynda. We even blogged on top 10 career boosting courses you can do on Udemy.

Closing thoughts

The fact of the matter is more young people than ever are attending university.  When you haven’t gone to a leading university or got an 2.1 or 1st, it makes things little harder. The one thing that will make you stand out is not what you did at university, but everything you did outside of it.

So if you haven’t got any extra curricular courses under your belt or a portfolio, get to work. These things make all the difference when it comes to picking between you and someone else. It also speaks volumes about the type of person you are.

– Resourceful
– Entrepreneurial
– Hungry

These are all things employers look for when in a new hire. Saying it on your CV is one thing, proving it is another. Be the person that provides proof through action. Not just for the sake of a new job, but it will do wonders for your confidence.

When you’re unemployed, time is the greatest resource you have. Use it to up-skill yourself. You don’t have to be an expert before you apply for a job, you just have to be competent enough to hit the ground running.

As I’ve said before, nobody expects you to know everything.

But if you think your degree is going to be the only thing you need to get a job, you’ve got it wrong.

If you’d like to discuss your job search with one of our career consultants, get in touch on 0207 269 6144. You can take a look at the roles on our job board. 

This article was written by one of Inspiring Interns & Graduate’s own career consultants, Adrian Asuquo.