Finding a Job When You Finish University

You've finished university, and now it's time to get out there and find a job, hopefully in your chosen career. There's a lot to think about from where you want to work to how to find that perfect job. You'll need to know where to look, and how to market yourself to your potential employers too. If you get the chance before you leave your university or college, it can be worth seeking out advice from your careers officer as they may have information they can give you, or even assist with writing CV's, practicing for interviews, and other useful things.

Curriculum Vitae

Getting your CV written up is one of the first steps you'll want to take when job hunting. Hopefully, while at university, you will have gained some good strong qualifications, and these along with any relevant experience you've got will go to form the basis of your CV.

Try to make your CV very clear, and bear in mind that although your employer will want to know that you are a rounded individual, they won't want to read several pages about all the parties you went to. Your CV needs to be clear and concise.

Always head a CV with your personal details including how you can be contacted.
Give details of your most recent work experience if you have any first, and work backwards.
Detail your strongest educational achievements before any lesser ones.
Be clear and concise with everything you say and keep your CV to just 1 or 2 sides of A4 paper.
Remember to sell yourself, a CV has to sell you before anyone ever gets to meet you.
Try to include details of two people who are willing to give you references - ask their permission first.
Spell check and grammar check your CV.

Ask someone to look it over for you to check for errors. If you are in doubt about writing a CV for yourself, you could go along to your local careers office and ask for their assistance, or use a CV writing company to do it for you. This is one document which you want to be really strong and professional looking.

Covering Letters

When you apply for any job, your CV will remain the same, but the covering letter that you send to a company can be written to suit the job you are applying for. Use this to sell yourself and why you are the right person for the job.

Name the company and job you are applying for, don't be vague.
Explain what makes you the right person for this position.
Mention specific experience you have that makes you suited to this job.

Note the qualifications that you have which they've asked for.

Where to look

Different types of jobs are advertised in different ways, so where you look will vary a little depending on the type of position you are seeking. Start by trying the following:

Job Centre
Local and National Papers
Employment Agencies

Online Job Sites

National newspapers can be expensive, but most larger libraries carry a subscription, and your local librarian can be very helpful in helping you learn which papers on which days will be most useful to you.

Another method of job seeking which you could try would be to seek out companies who work in the field and location you are searching in, and contacting them directly. It can be worth briefly phoning a company to ask who deals with human resources/recruitment and addressing your letter directly to them rather than just addressing it to either a random figure within the company or 'dear sir/madam'.