Graduate job hunt: tips and personal experience

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a graduate in possession of a degree must be in want of a job.

But today’s job market is indeed a tough one. Fortunately, it’s not all bad. There’s a recovery on – the overall employment rate for UK and EU graduates from a full-time first degree after six months was up from 68.5% in 2013 to 70.7% in 2014, and unemployment after six months was down from 9.1% to 7.8%. The recession hit us hard but things are looking up.

Improving your chances

Something I wish I had realised earlier on is that the graduate job hunt starts from the minute university begins. Everything you do has potential to be turned to an advantage in your search. For example, if you want to make your first year count, get involved in societies or perhaps even lead one. Securing a summer internship at the end of your penultimate year is also a way of improving your chances in the successive year. But to improve the results of your hunt considerably, be the early bird by beginning your search as soon as possible!

I started applying at the start of November. This might not seem too late since most deadlines are around the end of December/ beginning of January, but some of these positions are first come first served. What’s the more, the earlier you apply the more positions you can apply for.

Refresh your GCSE Maths skills

Most graduate job applications require you to take verbal and numerical tests. I bet you thought you’d never have to work out the percentage of apples in Bob’s fruit basket again! Well, you thought wrong. The numerical tests I’ve completed so far have challenged my grasp on basic percentages, ratios, multiplications and division. This isn’t so bad, however it’s been a while since I last did GCSE Maths. Oh well, time to dig out the old textbooks I say! The verbal tests normally require you to understand a large chunk of writing. Both aren’t so bad – unless you’re pressed for time. Despite this, practice is key. There are plenty of practice quizzes online to help.

Getting Connected 

So which avenues are available and what facilities are there to support you in this crusade? Well there is a surprising amount of very useful information and support provided by the University and further afield.

The Careers and Employability team.

If you are looking for more inspiration to kickstart your graduate job hunt, or want to know how the market works, then the University’s Career workshop on the graduate job search is for you. The interactive workshop will help you discover your job hunting preferences, find out how to structure your research and begin to create an effective action plan. The dates are listed on the events calendar so make it a habit to monitor it daily.

Get LinkedIn.

A good tip is to put a link to your LinkedIn profile on the header of your CV or on any cover letters you write. Doing so allows employers to paint a better picture of you. You cease from being just another resume and employers get a chance to view you as a real person. You would be naïve to think employers aren’t using social media to find out more about you, so why not use social media to your advantage? Again, the Careers team holds workshops on how to make an excellent LinkedIn profile.


Join Careers Sites. 

For example, TARGETjobs offers a Careers Report Tool that offers an assessment of your capabilities through simple behavioural questionnaires.

Check Emails.

Don’t miss out on the buzz as some great opportunities can be found if time is taken to sift through the hay!

Student Forums.

Extremely helpful advice from those who were once in your position, I would definitely recommend you check these out if you need first hand comments on applications from students themselves. The Student Room is an excellent example.

What else can I do after graduation?

Get a Masters Degree. 

Still not ready to enter the big wide world of working life? Then why not think about further education to further specialise and attain another degree? Although it may be beyond your financial constraints, there are ways to get extra funding. The University of Southampton, for example, offers bursaries, scholarships and studentships to the most talented students. The University also has industry partnerships who offer sponsorship opportunities in some subject areas.

What’s more, once you’ve secured a place on a Masters course, you can defer it and work for a year. This way you can earn enough money to help finance tuition and living costs whilst gaining work experience at the same time.

This is just my experience so far. I’m sure everyone else’s is unique so if you’ve got time, why not comment your tips below?

Good luck on the job search!

Rylyn

How to organise your Christmas revision

Remember when you were at school, and a holiday was actually a holiday? Sure, you might have had a bit of homework to do, but for the most part you were free as a bird. Those were the days. For me the Christmas break now seems less like a holiday and more like a couple of weeks to finish coursework and start revising.

It can actually be really difficult trying to organise your work at Christmas; you can either sacrifice the whole holiday - except for maybe Christmas and Boxing Day - to dreaded coursework, or you can do what you actually want to do and catch up with friends and family. For me, it’s tricky finding the balance, particularly as I don’t go home very often. This is my only chance to see people who I won’t see again until Easter, but the workload that comes along with doing a Masters degree leaves little time for doing much else.

My balance comes with accepting that sometimes work is going to have to take a backseat, and I will just relax and try to forget about it for a little while. Other days I’ll have to ignore my Mum’s pleas to help her in the kitchen or go shopping and actually get some work done.

Something that has really helped me is delaying my trip home until the end of this week, giving me a few days to catch up on last minute Christmas shopping, finish tutoring for the year and get some coursework sorted. Whilst my parents aren’t so happy that I’ve decided to stay in Southampton a little longer, at least once I get home I can actually be with my family, rather than constantly having to say ‘oh sorry I can’t come with you, I have to stay home and get this work done….’

Even then, trying to get work done at home is not the easiest thing. Here in Southampton I have the library and my desktop computer. At home I have an endless supply of baking materials, and chickens and ducks to look after. Plus, my parents have told me they are buying micro pigs - so no doubt they will be an endless distraction over the winter break!

There won’t be much room for anything else in my suitcase….

Whatever work you have to do, make sure you enjoy the Christmas break and take some time away from work to de-stress and relax with your family and friends. January exams will be upon us before we know it!

Merry Christmas!

Emma

Remaining productive over Christmas

The holidays are at long last here - whether you choose to stay in Southampton or find yourself heading off to somewhere slightly different, one thing remains clear: there’s now a lot of extra time to play with.

With teaching in all its forms taking a break for a few weeks, it’s now very much up to us students to keep things on track, which can be, surprisingly enough, actually pretty difficult. When you’re left to your own devices without much structure, staying productive can prove to be a bit of a challenge. With January exams and deadlines floating around in the ether, now’s a relatively important time for work.

So, in order to keep things relevant and procrastinate from my own University work for an hour or so more, here are a few ideas for how to remain productive when people keep thrusting mince pies and sparkly trees in your face.

Give Yourself a Break 

It may seem a bit strange having the first tip be basically 'don’t work' but there is method behind such madness, I assure you!

Here my reasoning is that it’s called a Christmas ‘break’ or ‘holiday’ for a reason. It’s been a long and solid semester, so taking some time off to rest and recharge is insanely important. In fact, it’s one of the most important things you can do.

Staying in the productive mindset is obviously still essential (we’ll get on to that a bit later), but so too is approaching things with a fresh mental state and an eagerness to work. If you’re shunning any sense of relaxation and staring in misery as all of your friends and family dance around the Christmas tree, whilst you desperately attempt to get that next essay done, you’re going to be distracted. I’m not saying do nothing, but definitely plan plenty of down-time in between the work. You’re allowed a break. Use it.

Work plan: the Relaxation Edition

Keep Tasks Manageable 

I’ve mentioned before how I find lists very useful in general, and here’s where they come into play again. Following on from what I mentioned above, make sure you plan out your tasks for the day, and make sure they’re manageable. You want to have enough time to relax, but also to keep that productive mindset going; you want to feel like you’re achieving something every day. If you fail to do everything you set out to do for that day, it can be incredibly disheartening, whereas staring down at a to-do list with every item crossed through is very much the opposite.

Make sure that the tasks you give yourself are achievable. There’s no point waking up in the morning and saying you’re going to write an entire dissertation; unless you’re the academic equivalent of Superman, realistically that’s never going to happen. Be reasonable, and understanding of yourself.

Organise Everything Before You Leave 

Obviously for those staying in Southampton over the holidays, this won’t be too much of a problem, but for those jetting off somewhere different, this is another important one. There’s nothing worse than getting home, attempting to start an essay but finding that you don’t have the right book, or that you don’t quite understand the question. You’re suddenly stopped in your tracks and you can’t possibly move any further.

Make sure you plan ahead and take out the relevant books from the library before you leave. There’s even extended loan periods over the holidays so you won’t need to live in fear of having to dash back at any point to return them!

Also, don’t forget that Christmas extends to lecturers as well as students: believe it or not they are human beings too. Therefore, do ensure that you ask them any relevant questions before they’re due to leave their office or you may well find yourself lost without a reply for several weeks.

Of course, everybody has their own methods, so if these don’t quite work for you I fully understand, but hopefully they’ll be of some use.

It’s been an incredible first semester, filled with much productivity and merriment; here’s hoping the next is just as awesome.

Merry Christmas from Ben’s housemates on behalf of Ben because Ben is holding the camera

Otherwise, all that is left to say from me is have a very Merry Christmas, and I’ll speak to you all again in the New Year. Here’s hoping it’s a good one!

Ben

Homebound - my airport survival tips

It feels like it was only yesterday that my countdown for the Christmas holiday was at 55 days, hence why it is a bit surreal that today it’s now 0 days! Apart from the lovely Christmas decorations around campus and in the city centre, it doesn’t really feel like Christmas at all. Can you blame me, when it’s still 10+ degrees outside?

Apart from two deadlines after Christmas, I only have exams left and then Semester One of my second year is officially over. Time has flown by so fast; I keep asking myself why the time always seems to go by so extremely slowly when I’m going home, especially when I’m waiting at the airport.

I imagine most international students here at Southampton going home over Christmas will have to make the trip to one of the London airports, and so I have made a list of my best tips on how to make the most out of the time it takes to get home!

A very familiar view …

Firstly, why not google the airport you’re going from and see what you can do. All webpages have some sort of overview with shops, restaurants and other services. This will allow you to plan a bit ahead if you know you’re going to have a long wait.

Secondly, the obvious one: do some work! As a lot of my required readings can be found online I like to download them in advance and read when I have a spare moment. Remember to use a VPN when you’re off campus so you have full access, or consider the Southampton Virtual Environment (SVE). Airports are full of places to drink a coffee or have a meal and you can get work done too. The time you have to wait at the airport can actually be very productive. I personally wouldn’t be able to write an essay if there’s too much noise around me, but I have no trouble reading. Waiting to board or even being on the aeroplane is a great time for me to get ahead with my reading.

The painful one: window-shopping. This is the way I easily make 30-40 minutes fly by in what feels like a second. Although mostly not affordable, you can find all the high-class brands in almost every airport, so I usually go around looking at nice things I can’t afford and motivate myself to work hard so I can buy something like that in the future. Besides, if nothing else, you’re at least walking around the airport instead of sitting down doing nothing, which is bound to be boring.

The luxurious one: go to a lounge. If you have a lot of spare time or you’re travelling far away, you can go to a lounge. If you don’t have a fancy loyalty card of some sort, you will probably have to pay a bit, but it could be worth it if you want somewhere quiet and peaceful to wait or do work. I know some lounges allows you to have a shower or go to the gym, so why not if you have a good couple of hours to kill before you fly?

Regardless of whether you’re flying, driving, taking the train or walking home for Christmas, I want to wish everyone a happy holiday.

If you’re not going home for Christmas and staying in Southampton or Winchester, remember that there are loads of events going on during the holiday and plenty of festive things to do in the city.

I’m super excited to be back in January 2016, but until then I shall recharge my batteries promptly for the exams and the new semester.

Alexandra

Getting to know Enactus Southampton

When I heard that the Southampton Enactus team won the 2015 World Cup, the first image that came to my mind was – believe it or not – football.

Of course, I have heard of Enactus before but never really understood what it was about.

Well, it most certainly is not about football, I tell you. Enactus is a non-profit organisation that mobilises university students to give something back to their communities using the genius of entrepreneurship.

Enactus is an international group and Enactus Southampton, one of our many student groups, is just one of hundreds of teams worldwide. This year, Enactus students from the University of Southampton won the prestigious World Cup in competition with other budding young entrepreneurs from 36 countries!

The Southampton team won because of the sustainability of their projects. At the moment there are three international Enactus Southampton projects:

SanEco: a sanitation project based in Kenya that delivers re-usable sanitary towels, waste composting toilets and natural soap through local entrepreneurship.

Right Light: offers solar powered alternatives to kerosene light. Kerosene is dangerous; it is bad for the respiratory system and hazardous for young children. Last year alone there were around 4000 kerosene related child deaths in Kenya.

Juamaji: a project which integrates social entrepreneurship with water purification to remote communities across the globe.

All projects are clean, efficient and, most importantly, sustainable!

BeInspired

 

As well as international projects, Enactus also runs programmes right here in our local community. I met Amina who is project manager of BeInspired, a local Enactus project based here in Southampton. The BeInspired team themselves are University of Southampton students doing courses ranging from Biomedical Sciences to Economics.

With Amina, BeInspired Project Manager and Imogen, Vice President of Enactus’ Local Projects 

At this very moment BeInspired are running their Social Impact Programme; a six week course in Southampton City College that supports the integration of young migrant pupils in the school. The course is interactive and is part of the pupil’s weekly timetable. In fact, the team are scheduled to run an entrepreneurial exercise at the school today. The plan is to get the pupils to sell cupcakes with the aim of creating profit. This means that the pupils themselves will have to manage their own production line, pricing and marketing of their merchandise. Afterwards, the students will travel to Highfield where our very own Student Ambassadors will be giving a campus tour and a talk on how to apply for university through UCAS. The workshop aims to make these young migrant students aware of their potential with the hopes that bolstered confidence will make integration into their new community easier.

The BeInspired Team planning their interactive workshop

Success Stories

The team told me about Juan, a motivated and engaging student who is originally from Spain. With the team’s Empower1 after-school workshops, Juan is motivated to make the most of his creative skills and resources – from his phone, to his school’s design software and his wider social network – to start an entrepreneurial business.

How to get involved

Amina got involved after seeing a poster about Enactus. A PhD Student, Amina wants to get into teaching and is interested in the matter of international student integration. Indeed, as an international student herself, BeInspired lets her contribute back into the community and at the same time satisfies her passion for education.

Whether you’re a potential University of Southampton student or a current one, I suggest you look out for Enactus at the Fresher’s Fair Bunfight. Alternatively, you can go to the Enactus Southampton website and apply for membership as anyone can join at any point in the year. There you can specify which project you’d like to get involved in and why you’re interested.

Being part of the Enactus Society looks fantastic on your CV. What’s more, you’re bound to cultivate skills such as networking, leadership and according to them, ‘everything in-between.’

Enactus is about taking action on innovative ideas – so why not check them out and take action yourself!?

Rylyn

My Favourite Winter Recipes

I love food. I love going out to restaurants with friends, and I love cooking at home, for just me and my partner or for a large group. I’m so obsessed that my Canadian friend calls me Betty Crocker and my sister calls me Martha Stewart, so apparently I am a middle-aged woman in a twenty year old’s body.

I wasn’t always this way; when I started University I was pretty much cooking-phobic and relied on ready-meals and the offer of ‘will wash up if you feed me’ to get by. However, over time I started experimenting and cooking new things.

With winter approaching, I thought I would share my favourite winter recipes. This is food designed to suit cold winter nights when you are knackered from doing coursework and just want something delicious but simple for dinner.

Impromptu visit to Ghandi in Portswood after a four hour lecture

A bonus of these recipes is that they can be made gluten-free, something that I do regularly so that my gluten-intolerant friends can join us for dinner.

Wholemeal Bread 

I just adore homemade bread; it tastes better than store-bought and kneading bread is a great stress reliever. I buy Sainsbury’s own wholemeal bread flour and just follow the recipe on the back. It produces great tasting bread every time. If you like seeded bread, Sainsbury’s sell seed packets that you can add to the dough, or if you want a slightly different taste, substitute half the flour with buckwheat flour for a rich, nutty bread, or strong white flour for a lighter taste. If you are going to make bread, remember to use warm water and find the warmest place in your house to leave it to rise (I put mine on top of the radiator).

My homemade bread

Leek and Potato Soup 

This is one of Jamie Oliver’s recipes, so full credit to him! All the ingredients can be bought from the market on campus on a Monday and the soup can be frozen once cooked to enjoy later since this recipe serves four. Plus, this is dairy and gluten free so perfect for everyone! Though I will warn you, if you don’t have a very large pan, try halving the recipe to make enough for two. I’ve also put the rough amounts of the ingredients for those who don’t have kitchen scales.

Ingredients: 

2 Carrots
2 Sticks Celery
2 Medium white onions
400g Leeks (two leeks)
2 cloves garlic
400g potatoes (two medium size cooking potatoes, I like Maris Piper)
Olive oil
2 chicken or vegetable stock cubes
Salt and pepper to taste

Method: 

1. Chop and peel all your ingredients into quite small pieces (if you don’t have a blender, the size of the pieces will be the size of the chunks in the soup, so cut them as you would want to eat them!), set the potato aside.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a very large pan over a high heat until a piece of onion dropped in sizzles when it touches the oil.

3. Throw all your chopped ingredients, except the potato into the pan, stir, and leave with the lid askew for about ten minutes. The veg should soften and it will look like there’s about half the amount that you originally put in.

4. Put the stock cubes in 1.8 litres of boiling water and stir until dissolved.

 5. Add this to the pan and chuck the potatoes in. Season with a good amount of salt and pepper.

 6. Bring to the boil (just leave it on high heat) and then once boiling reduce the heat and let it simmer for 10-20 minutes (depends on how desperate you are for dinner at that point), give it a good stir and check that the potatoes are soft and cooked all the way through.

7. Tadaa - and finished! If you have a food processor or a hand blender you can blend it until smooth if you like, or just serve as is.

My leek and potato soup and homemade bread 

Homemade Pizza 

Okay so this isn’t really a winter dish BUT it’s super quick, tasty, and a great way to use up any leftover ingredients at the end of the week, because you can put basically anything on a pizza and it will be good. Thanks to the base I use this feeds two.

Ingredients: 

For the Sauce:

Half a can of chopped tomatoes
One tablespoon of tomato puree
1 clove garlic (crushed or chopped)
Mixed herbs to taste (or paprika and cayenne if you want to go spicy)

For the Pizza topping: 

Whatever you like, I use:
Sweetcorn
Grilled Chicken
Bacon Red Pepper
Half a red chilli
Ham
Cheese
BBQ Sauce

Base: 

I use ready roll puff pastry because it makes for a really light base to hold the toppings, though you can buy ready-made pizza bases.

Ingredients for the pizza ready to go 

Method: 

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees (fan)

2. Pre-cook any raw meat (bacon and chicken)

3. Make your sauce by simply mixing the ingredients together in a bowl

4. Place puff pastry on a baking tray and cook on its own for 10 minutes until its puffed up and slightly brown on top

5. Remove from the oven and cover in your chosen toppings (after I put mine on I add some BBQ sauce because it’s the best)

6. Place back in the oven and cook for another 10-20 minutes (will vary depending on how good the oven is and what ingredients you have on top) until the pastry edges are light brown in colour.

7. Remove from oven, garnish with salad if you like (I love adding fresh spinach).

 The final product 

If you are feeling really adventurous, why not try cooking a roast dinner for your friends before you all leave for the Christmas break? This works best as a group effort, however if you want to try it on your own you will need about four hours and in my case a lot of help over the phone from my mum.

My first roast dinner (including regular and gluten free Yorkshire puddings) 

Dessert! I adore Polenta cake and fully recommend Nigella’s recipe 

I hope these recipes keep you warm and fuelled over the next few weeks!

Emma

Society Projects and SUSU Funding

With December now very much up and running, and Christmas cheer still being firmly spread across campus, this week I found myself a little more busy with other things. Top secret things.

Okay, they’re not really that top secret, but the sense of mystery does make it all seem that little bit more exciting. To be more plainly obvious: this week I’ve been working quite extensively on a project to help boost the University’s focus on film and film-making and to encourage increased collaboration between the creative industries. It’s still a little way off but it’s certainly still an encouraging prospect!

What this post is really about though, is my surprise at how straight-forward it is to go about setting something like this up. Without sounding like too much of a hard-sell, the University and the Students’ Union (SUSU) really do hand you the tools to help you realise a whole range of possibilities. Well, it has to be firmly within reason obviously, but the fact is, if you have an idea for an event or project that you think will benefit the University and/or SUSU, there’s nothing stopping you from giving it a go.

This all started a few months ago now at the very beginning of the semester, at the Creative Industries Induction week held by our lovely SUSU Creative team - you’ll find I blogged about said event all those weeks ago! During a team-building exercise, the creative societies in attendance were asked to come up with ways to encourage collaboration with each other, and it was at this point that myself as Film Editor of the University’s entertainment magazine The Edge, and Pippa, the president of the film-making society Wessex Films, hatched an ingenious plan.

 Together we started to brainstorm ideas for a University-wide student Film Festival.

Pippa and I, hard at work on our ideas for the festival

It may have started a little ambitiously, but we soon found that actually, the University itself has everything we would need to run such an event, from a cinema in the form of Union Films, to support staff, a bar and of course, most importantly of all, funding.

Things always seem to become significantly more complicated when money is involved, but SUSU’s funding process was surprisingly pretty straightforward. All you need is access to a society computer account and the forms are all submitted online. After some hefty research to make sure our maths was right, everything was sent off for approval and I let out a huge sigh of relief.

Sending the funding forms off was surprisingly straight forward.

It’s very easy to bat these things away as impossible dreams, but when you sit down and actually begin to plan, it all becomes a lot simpler. The University, its campuses and its many, many societies and services form a condensed version of the wider world. Everything is in one place and within reaching distance (including people to help with the process) making it the perfect time to practice setting up an event or project like this.

So, to end with some wise words from the contemporary poet Shia LaBeouf: “Don’t let your dreams be dreams”. Being at University is the perfect time to give ambitious things like this a go. You’ll always find support around should you need it.

Obviously, keep an eye out for the soon-to-be-named student film festival coming to campus at some point in the new year!

Ben

Visiting Southampton's Christmas Market

Where on earth has the time gone? It feels like it was just Halloween last weekend and now it is suddenly December. I’m going home in less than two weeks, which is crazy and also very exciting. November for me is a month where I find myself missing home a bit more than usual and with all the deadlines I have had in the last month it’s been hard to really sit down and actually realise that my favourite holiday is coming up; Christmas!

Originally, I was planning on writing my blog post on the Winchester Christmas market, because from what I’ve heard, Winchester was the place to go around here for a proper German Christmas market. I don’t doubt it and I will definitely be making my way up to Winchester this week (hopefully). However, I ended up visiting the Southampton Christmas Market this weekend.

This year’s market - they are actually calling it a Festival -  is absolutely worth a visit and, like last year, located on Above Bar Street (just outside West Quay). All the Unilink buses stop in a walking distance to it, if you don’t live in the city centre.

 

The only thing missing from this picture is snow

The Christmas market has something for everyone, no matter your age. For example, when I was there on Saturday they did a ‘Flying Santa Show’ which I can imagine was a fun experience for the kids who were there. Yes, Father Christmas was there and he flew over the market! According to my sources he does this twice a day, so it’s well worth a visit. They even have music!

I can see you, Father Christmas!

With the huge number of stallholders this year, I actually had to use Google to find out how many there are! According to Discover Southampton, there are over 40 stallholders this year. So if you are lost for ideas on what to get family and friends for Christmas, you should definitely visit as they sell proper hand-crafted things like jewellery, coffee beans, scarves and some really fancy hot water bottles!

In addition to this they have loads of places where you can get something to eat or drink. We especially liked the German Bar, which could’ve been taken straight out of any skiing facility in Norway! In addition to this, there were loads of places selling traditional Christmas food like ribs and turkey, so don’t worry about getting hungry either. They also had several stands selling candy, gingerbread hearts and other treats if you are in need of something sweet.

In all honesty, you don’t even need to go there to buy anything. It’s well worth a visit just for the experience and the gorgeous lights they have put up. Next on my list over Christmas markets to see in the nearby area is the one in Winchester and New Forest. Fingers crossed I will be able to see them both before I go home.

I hope everyone is starting to get into the festive mood even with all the deadlines everyone has before the holiday start. Fellow blogger Ben shared some lovely tips on spreading Christmas cheer on campus, so thank you, Ben – my housemate and I are now in the process of getting a Christmas jumper each! We might not be bold enough to wear it on campus, but at least we can spread some cheer around the house.

In the meantime between essays, coursework and reports, we are going to bake gingerbread, eat rice porridge and drink mulled wine.

Happy December!

Alexandra