How graduates can improve their chances of getting a job

# UPDATE: Wednesday, 23 October, 2024

I just came across this article from intelligent.com and the findings are shocking to say the least!

 Intelligent.com surveyed 966 business leaders involved in hiring decisions at their company to explore attitudes toward hiring recent Gen Z college graduates and found:    - 75% of companies report that some or all of the recent college graduates they hired this year were unsatisfactory

• 6 in 10 companies fired a recent college graduate they hired this year
• 1 in 6 hiring managers say they are hesitant to hire from this cohort
• Hiring managers say recent college grads are unprepared for the workforce, can’t handle the workload, and are unprofessional
• 1 in 7 companies may refrain from hiring recent college graduates next year
• 9 in 10 hiring managers say recent college graduates should undergo etiquette training

So another bit of advice for graduates is prove you’re one of the good Gen Z‘ers!

I graduated from Imperial College London in 1993, with a B.Eng. Hons degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering. Back then, the job market for engineering graduates was better than it is today, and I was optimistic about getting a job, even if I didn’t know exactly what that job was. Little did I know my optimism was misplaced. Sixty job applications later, most of which went unanswered, it dawned on me my degree wasn’t as valuable as I’d thought. Companies didn’t want to hire someone with zero experience. It was soul-destroying getting so many rejections. The few face-to-face interviews I did manage weren’t any better, and I came close to never starting the career I’d dreamed off. I was so despondent, I nearly went back to painting and decorating.

In 1994, I finally got q lucky break after 12 months of trying. I got a graduate training placement at Orange, a start-up mobile phone operator in Bristol. The rest is history, because after your first job, getting a job is infinitely easier. So, looking back, what advice would I offer any graduates today?

I hate to tell you this, but your degree isn’t worth half as much as you think it is….. yet. You need real work experience before you unlock the full value of those four years of sweat, blood, and tears!

# Preparing for a job starts in the first year of your degree

If you’re waiting for graduation day before looking for a job, you’re missing a trick, and making it harder to find one. Secure summer placements starting in your first year, rather than waiting for the last or penultimate years. Employers’ look at any work experience favourably, and it sets you apart from the herd. It demonstrates initiative and provides real experience. It doesn’t matter if you only get unpaid work, because the dividend from the experience is worth more than any salary at this stage.

Working gives you the chance to discover the different roles that exist, and of course, you also find out whether you like doing the job. You’ll spend most of your life working, so make sure you love, or at least don’t hate what you’re doing. The statistics showing the number of people who aren’t engaged in their job is staggering:

“Only 15% of the world’s one billion full-time workers are engaged at work”

― Gallup poll 2017¹

I loved my jobs because they never really felt like jobs. It was akin to someone paying me to do my hobby. I am clearly in the minority, so try to be that minority because it will make a huge difference.

# Do something useful in your spare time

Getting wasted and playing Xbox all night is great, and I am not saying don’t do those things, but can you add that do your CV? You don’t need to spend all your time on productive activities. Just 30 minutes a day doing something useful adds up to 130 hours a year. That’s a lot of time to hone a skill and learn something new.

There are few things you can do, regardless of your chosen profession:

• Writing — I know you’re probably doing a lot of this in your degree, but being able to succinctly make compelling arguments is a powerful tool in your arsenal. Writing forces you to hone your arguments and focus. It doesn’t matter what you write about, just write anything. Understand different writing style and the structure of content. Next time you read an article, really pay attention to the tone, the structure of sentences and what it makes you feel. Effective writing skill combined with mediocre talent is better than being a rockstar who can’t write.
• Research — collecting and categorizing data is harder than it seems. Copying a link from a website, or just cutting and pasting someone else’s work, isn’t research. You won’t really digest what you’re reading, and let’s be honest, it’s lazy. Next time you read something interesting, summarize what you read in your own words and categorize the article. Start here or here if you’re stuck.
• Read — read, read and read! Read a variety of things, fiction as well as factual. Aim to spend at least 20-30 mins a day reading something online, but avoid trashy stuff.
• Try as many things as you can — Innovation is about joining up the dots between different, often unrelated, ideas. The greatest innovators have one common thread — breadth of experience. Don’t take my word for it, listen to one of the greatest innovators in the world, Steve Jobs.
• Learn to code — You’re probably thinking this is only relevant for engineering grads, and yes it is more applicable to them, but coding isn’t just relevant for developers. It forces you to exercise logical thinking as well as providing an insight into technology, something every profession relies on to some degree in this day and age.

# Don’t be shy

We all feel nervous about putting ourselves out there. Get over it. Being silent means you might as well be invisible. If you’re nervous about asking a question in case you sound like a fool, or hesitate doing a task for the fear of failing in front of your peers, then remember it’s a natural feeling for most of us. Force yourself to do the things you feel uncomfortable about to build confidence. You will get it wrong now and again, but you’ll learn more by engaging, than sitting back quietly. What most people don’t tell you is the knowledge gained from failing is just as important, if not more so, as the knowledge gained from succeeding, as long as you learn from the failure. If you’re not failing every now and again, then you’re not trying hard enough.

“Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t”

― Thomas A. Edison

# Is it that obvious?

If this all seems obvious, it’s because it is, but how many people do the obvious? Don’t underestimate the significance of the obvious. Finally, there’s another lesson I learned, and it’s a tough one. You’re going to get rejections, time and time again. You’ll cry and feel down. You’ll want to give up, as many do. Don’t, keep at it. After every failure ask yourself why, and what are you going to do differently next time, because anything else is madness.

“The true definition of madness is repeating the same action, over and over, hoping for a different result”

―Albert Einstein

And of course, universities still matter, so choose your course and uni, wisely.

Don’t be a busy fool. Work smartly, and tirelessly. Treat every failure as a learning for the next interview. Practise intelligent persistence.

# Footnotes