Get prepared before you start
The summer before you enter your final year is your chance to do some all-important career planning and prepare for when employers open up their opportunities in the Autumn.
If you haven’t already, try to establish which industry sectors you might like to work in; the Gradcracker Toolkit is a good place to begin.
Explore our Company Hubs to identify which employers you’d particularly like to work for. Here you can often find out when an employer intends to open to applications. Give yourself ample time to look into the company, decide whether it’s right for you, and gather the information you need to put together an impressive application.
Make sure you are following the companies you’d particularly like to work for once you graduate, and are receiving their graduate job alerts (you can manage your Follow list and update your alert preferences in your Dashboard.) This will ensure you don’t miss out on any graduate opportunities when applications open in the Autumn.
Most university courses begin in September and October, which is also when employers start to open their graduate and undergraduate vacancies and it’s best to start applying as soon as possible.
Deadline season
From January through to April many of our employers start to close their recruitment campaigns, especially their graduate programmes.
Become a successful job-hunter
Graduate programmes are very competitive and have thorough recruitment processes. Therefore, it’s very likely that you’ll be completing applications and online tests, and attending interviews and assessment centres, at various points throughout the year.
If you want to secure a graduate job, it’s not only important that you remain resilient, but also that you continue to develop and improve your application skills as you go.
The Gradcracker CareerCentre will walk you through the various stages of the application process, and features advice from many of our employers on how to succeed every step of the way.