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A Guide to graduate employment in a recession

David Hendersond.m.henderson@durham.ac.uk Careers Advisory Service

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Contents

• Current graduate recruitment situation

• Durham picture

• How to manage the situation

• Questions

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Graduate jobs vanishing, says poll of recruiters

Guardian, 14th January

Panic on the campus as graduate jobs disappear

The Independent, 14th January

Graduates hit as job vacancies in City fall 65%

Financial Times, 14th January

Media Coverage…

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• Media headlines reflect what is a very difficult situation but sometimes can be misleading or unhelpful

• Graduate recruitment is different to general recruitment

• Graduate job market always competitive

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Graduate recruitment…• Employers (top 100) expect to hire 3,400 fewer graduates in 2009 than

planned; levels of graduate recruitment similar to 2006. Just 13% of employers believe recruitment will be cut further in 2010

• Some sectors of employment have been hit harder than others especially Investment Banking and Finance (2500 entry level positions cut), Consulting, IT & Telecommunications, Retailing, and Accounting & Professional Services

• Some sectors have always recruited in very small numbers e.g. Pharmaceuticals, Property, Advertising, PR, Environment, Strategic Consultants

• Legal sector experiencing difficulties; fewer training contracts and evidence of deferred offers of training contracts e.g. Lovells and Eversheds

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Graduate recruitment…• Graduate employers still have recruitment needs in certain areas,

particularly finance and IT but also sales, HR and general management

• Graduate employers have much smaller recruitment needs in consulting, retailing, media and investment banking roles

• Exceptions to the rule: four major retailers planning to recruit additional 200 trainees (ASDA, ALDI and TESCO); despite 8.8% reduction in vacancies, accounting and professional service firms still largest recruiter of graduates (20.9% of all graduate jobs)

• Areas of relative stability and some growth include public sector (including Bank of England and FSA), armed forces, oil and energy

• Concern about employers reneging on offers of graduate schemes and internships

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The Graduate market today

Graduate vacancies in 2008, by industry or business sector

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0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

Accountancy &

professional services

Arm

ed forces

Banking &

finance

Chem

ical &pharm

aceuticals

Consulting

Consum

er goods

Engineering

Investment banking

IT &telecom

munications

Law

Media

Oil &

energy

Public sector

Retailing

Planned

actual

High Fliers Research Limited: The Graduate Market in 2009

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The Durham picture…

• The Careers Advisory Service opened its bookings system for employer presentations in Michaelmas 2009 at the end of January and nearly 60 employer events have been confirmed…the quota for law events has been reached but spaces still exist in respect of banking and finance

• The Information Fair (our largest recruitment event) has almost reached its capacity of 70 employers over two days. The Law Fair is also expected to be full although a couple of large firms, including Eversheds, will not be attending

• Organisations currently actively engaging with the Careers Advisory Service to promote opportunities to students include: Corus, ECM, BT, Teach First, FSA, Barclays, Centrica, Proctor and Gamble, PWC

• Employers are actively engaging with Durham in other ways – sponsorship of student societies, sports teams, Careers Advisory Service publications…

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The Durham Picture…Cancelled presentations in Epiphany term

HBOS

Norwich Union

Capital I.Q

Cancelled presentations on campus not due to recruitment changes but

low student sign up – all still recruiting for 2009

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The Durham PictureVacancies advertised on the Careers Advisory Service website:Graduates 71

All Students 68

Final Year (Any Subject) 74

Postgraduate Taught Students 1

Various - See Vacancy Details 57

Final Year (Specific Subjects) 36

Penultimate Year (Any Subject) 28

Penultimate Year (Specific Subjects) 6

Total number of vacancies: 466

www.durham.ac.uk/careers-advice/vacancies

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Vacancies by sector…

Finance 65Education 62Languages 22Public Sector 6Administration 14Legal Services 80Self Employment 2Health Professions 3Scientific Services 13Information Services 12Information Technology 59Insurance and Pensions 12Creative Art and Design 4Logistics and Transport 11Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications 16

Social and Pastoral Care 8Buying, Selling and Retail 22Charity and Voluntary Work 35Manufacturing and Processing 14Human Resources and Employment 23Leisure and Recreation Services 24Hospitality and Events Management 13Armed Services and Law Enforcement 3Management and Management Services 33Advertising, Promotion and Marketing 51Construction and Property Management 4Natural Resources and the Environment 12Publishing, Media and Performing Arts 9

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Employers believe…

That it is important to maintain graduate recruitment toensure an uninterrupted supply of management talent intheir organisations now and in the future.

Internships and work experience are increasingly important in improving job prospects.

Government and others predict that the overwhelmingmajority of new jobs created in the future will be atgraduate level

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Employers Outlook For 2010• 25% expect to take on more new recruits

• 50% expect to maintain recruitment levels at 2009 levels

• 13% expect to take on less (I.B/Engineering)

• Employers remain committed to recruiting graduates for entry-level positions; key in securing supply of future management talent

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Developing a strategy Do not abandon existing career goals but do:• Consider related careers or opportunities that will allow you to develop relevant

skills/experience

• Consider non-graduate jobs/temporary positions as a means of ‘getting your foot in the door’; research ‘other’ employers in your field of career interest

• Focused work experience/volunteering (including GAP year activities)

• Proactive networking

• Professional courses…often available via distance learning (refer to professional bodies as a starting point) e.g. CFAB

• Postgraduate Study…consider employability of any programme; will it lead to a professional qualification?

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Developing a strategy Market research: sectors of employment that are faring better, emerging

markets, areas of growth/development etc; develop your commercial awareness

Look beyond the sector headings – e.g. challenging financial graduate jobs available in all large organisations not just IBs; PR roles not confined to agencies and media consultancies

Broaden your job search: graduate recruitment consultancies (e.g. GRB, Freshminds), large job search sites (e.g. Jobsite), job networking sites (Brave new talent), temping agencies, professional bodies, specialist press, career fairs etc

Speculate to accumulate; targeted CVs and cover letters…consider SMEs Use your networks – alumni (Net Community), reports, contacts

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Opportunities…• Shell Step is now open to graduates

(www.studentplacements.org.uk)

• Government internship scheme - Graduate Talent Pool (www.dius.gov.uk)

• Regional graduate employment schemes:

Graduates for Business – NE England www.graduatesforbusiness.co.uk

Graduates for Growth – Scotland

www.graduatesforgrowth.co.uk

Graduates into Merseyside www.gieu.co.uk

Check with regional HE Careers Services for details of opportunities

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Self Assessment• Skills and experience audit…identify areas for improvement

• What do I have to offer? Relate employer competencies to specific activities or achievements:

Academic study

Previous employment/work experience

Extra-curricular activities

Volunteering

• What key things do I want to market about myself?

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Effective Applications/Interviews• CV and cover letters must be individually tailored to the organisation and the

opportunity• Career and Employer motivation questions: demonstrate your understanding

of the job role through effective research (company reports, news stories, market reports, company newsletter, news section of website etc)

• Competency questions: relate to specific examples rather than general occasions

e.g. As President of the Wine Society I demonstrated team work skills X As President of the Wine Society I worked with the executive team to organise a series of lectures entitled ‘wines of the world’. My central role... √

• Practise talking about yourself; be able to answer questions about key competencies, career motivation, commercial and technical issues…pre-plan key points that you want to convey to the interviewer

• Quality of application and performance at interview that will get you a job…this is the same irrespective of economic conditions

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STAR applications and interviews

Describe Situation

Outline the Tasks that needed doing

What Action did you take?

What was the Result?

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Events to consider…• You’re Hired (9th – 11th June 2009)

• Civil Service presentation 22nd June 2009

• IT Jobs for Graduates (8th June)

• Getting into Teacher Training (8th June)

For information on Graduate careers events and fairs across the UK please refer to the Prospects website (http://tiny.cc/rokOv)

Remember…

• You can still use the Careers Advisory Service as a graduate

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Summary• Graduate job market has been significantly affected by the prevailing

economic conditions but this job market has always been extremely competitive

• Situation exacerbated by media; organisations are still recruiting albeit in smaller numbers. Employers recognise the dangers of not recruiting new talent!

• Graduates need to be flexible and proactive in their job search and in the types of opportunities that they will consider; longer term approach to career goals

• Essential that graduates can demonstrate the skills employers require; identify opportunities to build those skills

• Quality of applications and importance of effective opportunity research has never been more important

• Don’t panic; there are jobs available but graduates need to be persistent, resilient and very focused

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Careers Advisory Service

49 New Elvet (next to D.S.U)Term Time – 10am – 5pm

Vacation – 10am – 1pm 2.15pm – 5pmTel: 0191 334 1424/1437

careers- advice@durham.ac.ukwww.durham.ac.uk/careers-advice