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5 Things to do if you Didn’t get the Graduate Job you Wanted

6th October 2016

It’s that time of year again that universities are breaking up for the summer, meaning that a lot of students will be graduating and trying their hardest to put their degree to good use with a graduate job. A lot of pressure is put on students throughout their degree to think about graduate roles and the schemes they want to be accepted into, but what happens if this doesn’t work out?

If you’re a present student, recent graduate or post graduate, it’s always good to look into a broad range of options so that you have options for IF it doesn’t all go exactly to plan. Graduate jobs, as you will be well aware if you’re a student, are highly competitive. Not only are the applications often very lengthy, everybody tends to apply at the same time giving employers a huge choice of candidates so if you don’t fit their exact criteria you will be eliminated from the process.

There are a few things you can do if this does happen:

Build experience while you keep trying – don’t give up, there will always be graduate jobs around and these jobs are not limited to fresh graduates. If you didn’t get accepted straight away use this as some extra time to build up your experience.
Look into temporary roles – whether you want to build relevant experience as soon as possible or you don’t want to commit to a permanent job yet– look into temporary roles as they are a great way to build experience in a particular sector. Temporary roles are also great if you’re transitioning from university to home and don’t have a set location you’re living in; you can even do these abroad and really broaden your horizons!
Consider roles that aren’t graduate specific – a lot of pressure is usually applied to get a place on a graduate scheme when you finish university but there are so many roles available that aren’t specifically for graduates. You’ll have a greater chance of securing a non-graduate specific role as having a degree will work in your advantage especially as you’re up against candidates who aren’t all graduates.
Work your way up the career ladder yourself – graduate roles usually have set training programmes and a timescale of how long it will take you to get to the position you want to be. You can also do this yourself – search for roles that offer career progression and find out from your employer what is required from you in order to do this. It may take you a bit longer but starting at the bottom and working your way up is very achievable.
Don’t panic! – A lot of people have no idea what they want to do when they graduate, and sometimes it can be a good thing not getting straight into a serious graduate role. It gives you time to work out what you want from a career, build experience and find a role that is right for you!

Lawrence Dean Recruitment Group website can be found here http://www.lawrencedeanrecruitment.co.uk/ We work in Hertfordshire and are based in Stevenage and one of the areas we specialise in is HR jobs in areas such as Hatfield, Welwyn and St Albans.