Frustrated Graduate !!

[webster1771]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 23 December 2014 at 23:22

[conanius]

Chin up and keep trying.

You are going for a top company, so I presume you have a top degree from a top university ?

That might sound sharp - I don't mean it to be - but competition is high for roles, especially with experienced hires also trying graduate recruitment schemes to try and get a job.

Keep trying, but if you have no luck, try a more junior role and work your way up from there of that is what you are desperate to do.

Stay positive, and fingers crossed you get good news from RR and Toyota.

[rog007]

I agree with the response above; competition is fierce! Whilst you think your CV and cover letter are good; how do you know? It's not just the presentation, it's the content; what differentiates you from the potentially high hundreds if not thousands of other applicants? Have you had to sit any on-line tests? How did you fare there?

It's not easy, so keep trying and work on that differentiation. Good luck!

[Engineer1]

I hate to say it but not everyone gets to work for the big firms earning big bucks, you can be a brilliant graduate but your application doesn't tick enough boxes, try and find alternatives sometimes the smaller firms can be a better option as you are closer to the work and can end up doing more interesting stuff.

[anonymous-user]

webster1771 said:

... a sales advisor in a solicitors.

... Im eagerly awaiting

... my cv and cover letter's were very well written and concise

...ill be stuck in a job im not happy in.

There are five clues as to your current lack of success.

[richatnort]

I graduated 2012 so know what your going through. IMO i wouldn't bother going for the big companies. The competition is MASSIVE! Go for the the companies you never heard of. I applied to a ton of jobs and on my last one i applied for before giving up i got the job and couldn't be happier with it.

What did you study at University? I know my company are always on the look out for good grads. I have a big involvement in our graduate scheme now and are currently changing it around.

If you can tell us what you did at uni / what results you got people can suggest things.

[edcs]

Keep working at it as the probability of getting the job you want when you graduate is quite low. If you got everything you wanted right away, what would you have to work towards?

[Neilsfirst]

I'm with Breadvan72 on his points. From what I can guess you have a degree in Marketing, as that is what you are looking to do. You then say your application is well written and concise. Were these jobs advertised and applied for along guidelines or are they speculative?

If they are speculative may I suggest you view webster1771 as a product and market the hell out of yourself. I would be much more interested in seeing what you could do for me as you have no commercial track record in the field. What makes you unique? Why should they select you over the 1000's of other applicants? Sit the other side of the table and think what would make you buy webster1771 and then head in that direction.

Good luck with your other applications.

[webster1771]

Thanks for all the input, and that you for being so candid and frank, maybe I need a reality check in some ways.

I think maybe I am aiming high, but if you dont aim high you'll never know right?

My degree is 2:1 BA Media and Sociology from the University of Leicester,so its a good uni but obviously not the top ones. I have had sales jobs since I was 16 in call centres primarily (02 sales, littlewoods, PPI and now a solicitors doing ppi and personal injury).

It is also frustrating how the rejection emails dont give any feedback just generic (we have better candidates).

Ill keep searching for other routes in and lower down the scale and keep trying, I can imagine a high volume of people apply for the VW grad scheme which pays 27k and gives you a new car every 6 months!!!! Ill keep dreaming.

[GadgeS3C]

webster1771 said:

My degree is 2:1 BA Media and Sociology

Ill keep dreaming.

I'm not sure anything more need be said.

I'm sorry if this is harsh but why did you do a degree combining the two most ridiculed subjects ever and then expect to get into sales and marketing with top tier employers?

If you want to get in to a graduate scheme with a blue chip employer then you really need to justify why they should pick you. Given you haven't covered business subjects in your degree, why are you a better candidate than someone with business or marketing degree? What automotive experience do you have? Are you surprised that they say they have better candidates? Lose the sense of entitlement and learn to market and sell you.

Perhaps getting a sales role in a car dealership might at least get you some sector experience?

At the moment the closest you seem to have to automotive experience is chasing ambulances.

Edited by GadgeS3C on Wednesday 18th December 11:38

[anonymous-user]

OP, you appear to have missed my hint, so I shall spell it out: learn the correct use of the apostrophe. You managed to misuse it five times in your opening post. If similar errors appear in applications for graduate level jobs that involve presentation skills, your letter/form may be guaranteed a rapid route to the round file.

[BoRED S2upid]

webster1771 said:

It is also frustrating how the rejection emails dont give any feedback just generic (we have better candidates).

Ill keep searching for other routes in and lower down the scale and keep trying, I can imagine a high volume of people apply for the VW grad scheme which pays 27k and gives you a new car every 6 months!!!! Ill keep dreaming.

Have you phoned them and asked for feedback?

These graduate schemes if they are anything like the ones i applied for backin the day take on every year, so apply next year and the year after. I got through to a couple of assessment centres I was applying for banking. And the other applicants had been there the pervious years and pretty much knew what was going to happen.

Also can you do additional courses this year to make your CV more attractive the next time you apply?

[Gargamel]

Appreciate it can be frustrating. You need to stick at it. If you make it to an interview you are going to get asked "why did you choose Media and Sociology?"

So get some practise in on here, justify this decision, either be honest or try to be convincing I don't mind.

As a corporate recruiter I can tell you that our last grad scheme for 3 positions attracted 900 candidates. so perhaps you'll forgive us if we don't give more specialised feedback other than a standard response.


Also, quite a bit of CV filtering is done on key words - so try to use key words in your CV. (Ie read the job spec and use similar langauge in your CV)

[DJRC]

You have a monkey degree from a monkey uni with no experience and a track record which says "my current job is not good enough for me".

Case closed.

[conanius]

webster1771 said:

My degree is 2:1 BA Media and Sociology from the University of Leicester,so its a good uni but obviously not the top ones. I have had sales jobs since I was 16 in call centres primarily (02 sales, littlewoods, PPI and now a solicitors doing ppi and personal injury).

Right. I've had time to reflect after my initial reply, and you've given us more to work on.

I say all this as someone with no degree, never applied for a graduate scheme. I applied for a trainee role, worked my way up to where I am now, and am studying with the OU for a degree in my own time. However, I was asked to do the degree by my employer to aid my future progression, they are funding it in full, and I take a full and active role on our IT Recruitment, which includes graduates. I've probably sifted a few hundred applications, and done maybe 60-70 interviews. I've also done contractor recruitment

Please take that into consideration. I'm telling you I am not an expert, but I have been around the block a bit.

You have a 2:1. That is good, but it is also the minimum for most graduate schemes. Leicester is a university I know nothing of - what is it strong for? - it reads on first looks like 'I have 'a' degree from 'a' university'. You haven't done anything different. That sounds hurtful and I'm sure you did work hard, but the HR person is effectively heartless and doesn't care. They are doing a fast paper sift. I've seen people sifted out for spelling mistakes in their opening statement, even when the rest of the paperwork was of a good standard because we had so many applicants.

You've also done a few different jobs. I don't know what is special about them. What skills have they given you to excel in these schemes?

You need to make your application stand out. What have you done that is different to others? Have you done things like D of E, volunteering, overseas experiences building a hospital in Somali with the Red Cross... anything. You need to work out what those things are and really sell them too. You have very little work experience, and you need to show them the other skills you can demonstrate. I've got a friend at work who's daughter is currently wanting to become a Doctor. To even get onto the medical courses she wants to get onto, she is doing all sorts of work experience and volunteering in her free time. If you really want this, you are going to have to make some sacrifices.

HOWEVER.

Do not, really really do not, put on your CV 'I have done blah blah blah' and be unprepared to talk about it in some sort of depth. The number of graduates who have engineered CV's to get through HR filtering, and then can say nothing about it really does baffle me. I've had several people list technical skills that when I questioned them they said 'oh, I did that as part of a team in the 2nd year at uni, I can't remember anything about it.' There and then, rightly or wrongly, I immediately went off the candidate and didn't want to progress them further. I had one guy who put that he had taken an active role in some volunteering, and when I asked him about it he'd started 4 weeks previous. That isn't really making me impressed.

As others have said, you will get generic rejection letters. By the sounds of things you are not getting past the first stage or two of paper sifts, so your paperwork simply isn't what they want. You need to work on this. It isn't up to the standard required. I've got no experience in this initial stage of sifting, so hopefully someone else here can give you a hand.

I think the real problem is that people have been brainwashed over the last decade or so that if you have a degree, you will get a job, and it will pay well, and your pay will increase quickly, and you will be promoted quickly. All of that will just magically happen with minimal effort.

It just is not the case, and unfortunately, you are competing against some of the best graduates out there for these kinds of companies. Put simply, I think unless you can really strengthen the rest of your pack, you'll struggle to get past this stage. You want to get into an automotive based company it seems, so consider what you could do to help with this Maybe there is some scheme in some 3rd world country to rebuild cars that needs marketing help that you could volunteer for ?

I've worked with several graduates who did do time in marketing, and several of them worked unpaid for some companies to get experience. Why not consider doing that ?

[Du1point8]

Graduate schemes are not for you if you do not have the relevant degree.

Its like me applying to work in DuPont when I have a degree in computing, but have been a lab monkey for 6 months... never ever going to happen now, it did occur in years gone by (biology degree getting graduate job in IT in a bank), but competition is so fierce now with people with relvant degrees.

I would suggest you look up a trainee dogsbody job and working your way up if thats what you really want to do?

Why not do something in Media and Sociology or do jobs not exist for that?

Why just the Top companies, why not choose a lower one and try and get a foot hold in the door? Whats wrong with your current industry?

[Engineer1]

conanius said:

I think the real problem is that people have been brainwashed over the last decade or so that if you have a degree, you will get a job, and it will pay well, and your pay will increase quickly, and you will be promoted quickly. All of that will just magically happen with minimal effort.

What has apparently happend is that every professional job becomes graduate only but pays just about the same as it did when it was a school leaver job. The 50% to uni move didn't create more graduate roles it just meant the bottom rung of the ladder just got a little higher up in that without a degree you will struggle to reach it.

[Cyder]

I joined my current place (OEM) as a graduate engineer with 3 others, on our first day they told us they'd had over 600 applications.

Right place, right time, right degree, right covering letter etc, etc...

[161BMW]

Cyder said:

I joined my current place (OEM) as a graduate engineer with 3 others, on our first day they told us they'd had over 600 applications.

Right place, right time, right degree, right covering letter etc, etc...

What was your degree in and what uni did you go to :-) ?

[matt3001]

webster1771 said:

I graduated june 2013, currently working as a sales advisor in a solicitors.

I have applied for countless jobs in fields which I am interested in, one of them being the automotive industry.

Many of the top manufacturers have sales and marketing graduate schemes.

I received my rejection email from JaguarLD a month ago the VW one a few days ago and Im eagerly awaiting the rejections from Rolls Royce, and Toyota.

I have sales experience, and IMO my cv and cover letter's were very well written and concise, I am just frustrated that ill be stuck in a job im not happy in.

Any input will be beneficial, thanks. .......or job offer

Why not approach your current firm and see if you can become a paralegal and do a law degree/LPC in your spare time? Maybe a route to getting a proper career?