2013-06-18T18:47:44-04:00 Abbie Baisden http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=abbie-baisden Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Abbie Baisden Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.3201604 2013-05-02T11:46:01-04:00 2013-05-03T07:14:17-04:00

Abbie Baisden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abbie-baisden/
Utilise your careers service

I was guilty of taking my careers service for granted. Having a resource available five days a week that was designed to help me get a job meant that of course, I never visited it. Now having worked with many careers services I know how much time and effort they put into sourcing great people to give presentations, companies to offer internships, events for students to network, and often they have a very low response. As students are becoming more concerned about their career prospects, it really doesn't make sense that these committed little hubs of careers advice are being ignored. When I left Uni I could've cried out for someone to sit down and talk me through the best way to construct a CV, or the importance of tailoring cover letters, but when at Uni it never crossed my mind. Go and show your careers service some love IMMEDIATELY!

Pick a reference for job applications

When you start applying for jobs you may find that a lot require at least two references from the last three years. Obviously, you would have spent the last three years at the institute you are about to leave, so the most reliable reference will be that of a lecturer or course leader.
Choose a lecturer that you feel understands your skill set the most and can advocate you as a brilliant member of the student body, and your academic reference will become as respectable as any reference a previous employer could give. It may be beneficial to ask your lecturer before you leave if they are OK with being your reference, and the best details to contact them on, as often they may not stay at the institution or may reply quicker using a personal email address, and also, they'll probably be flattered you chose them, which can't hurt.

Join the Alumni Association

I only became aware of the Alumni Association as I worked for them in my final year taking part in their annual call campaign. They contact former students and ask for feedback, and ultimately, some donations as well. I learned whilst working there that the Alumni Association's main goal was to maintain your relationship with your university beyond the first year of graduating and much further into your future. I spoke to alumni who had graduated 20 years before and still had glorious memories of their time at the university. Because so many people feel an affinity to their university, they are more willing to help graduates from the same institute, offering placements at their current employers as well as coming in to give guest lectures. You have an immediate network of tens of thousands of alumni at your fingertips that may be able to help you further your career. They hold networking events and have their own groups on LinkedIn, so get involved anywhere you can.

Have something planned. Anything.

When you leave university you will most likely be hit by an overwhelming feeling of 'so what now?' The only way to prevent this is to have something in the pipeline, no matter how small, that you can look forward to and prepare for. Whether this is securing a place on a graduate scheme, planning travels or even knowing you can go back to a summer job, it is important that you put something in your diary to break up the last endless summer.
I half-managed this. I knew I wanted to return to my university town of Bournemouth and so would need a summer job to pay for my first few months living expenses. Having that ultimate goal allowed me to focus on something other than what my University results might be and the monotony of not having anything in particular to do. Going from the high-pressure of exams and dissertations to complete relaxation can sound like a dream, but it soon becomes boring, and I know that even though working at an insurance call centre for three months over summer wasn't as glamorous as one would hope, it was worth it to achieve my goal of going back to Bournemouth for one more year, and wasn't permanent.

Prepare yourself to go home

It doesn't sound like a big deal, you visit home all the time at holidays and stuff. But this time you won't be the eagerly awaited visitor, the prodigal son returning from their studies, you will be an ordinary resident in your own house just like everyone else, and it is going to be tough.
Having become reasonably independent you forget that sometimes you have to tell people what time you're going to be coming home, and maybe not everyone wants to watch Jersey Shore together. It's nice to have your mum's cooking again but not great to be nagged for already having eaten without warning anyone. You will feel like a teenager again but soldier on. It is inevitable but if you prepare yourself mentally for the big return home at least it won't be such a shock, and you might actually be able to appreciate all the luxuries of living in a family home instead of student digs.

One thing that I did manage to do before I left Uni was enjoy every second of my last few weeks with of freedom as a student, and I'm confident you've all already got that covered, right?]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2382352 2012-12-29T20:30:21-05:00 2013-02-28T05:12:01-05:00

Abbie Baisden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abbie-baisden/
The growing phenomenon of social media allows us to build endless personal profiles to share aspects of our lives with our friends, peers and the world. This can be incredibly useful in the job hunt if used correctly (for advice see here) but unless properly monitored can also be wholly detrimental.

In order to ensure you are promoting yourself as the professional superstar that you are, you must think of yourself as your own personal brand and use the internet accordingly. Launch a PR campaign that will make [insert your name here] the go-to brand for [insert your desired job title here]!

Now, a PR campaign is all about managing communications, and that is exactly what you should be doing. The recent Instagram photo-selling controversy has brought the issue of publicly shared content to the fore, and although this post is not about to delve into the rights and wrongs of selling user-content, it does highlight the issue that all electronic communication has the potential of being seen by someone other than the intended viewer, and is in all senses of the word, 'public'.

This is where your campaign management must come into practice. A rule of good PR is to know your audience, and to communicate with them accordingly. Privacy settings are there for a reason, so for the love of jobs please use them. Human nature dictates that if someone invites you for an interview there is a chance that they will also google your name to get more of a feel for who you are. Everyone is entitled to a private life so if the only thing they can view is a nice smiling profile picture completely free of offensive gestures/substances/imagery then crisis averted (PR is all about averting crises too) and your job is done.

Another great PR rule of thumb is to establish your product as unique, and to make it stand out from the crowd. An example of a great campaign is the old T-mobile flash-mob adverts...remember those? Of course you do! Hundreds of people dancing in a train station? The follow-up advert with the fake Royal Wedding dance? Both classic ads and excellent examples of breaking the mold for promoting a mobile phone company by using very public stunts.

Students of course are no strangers to attention grabbing stunts. Some of the biggest student-based stories this year have focussed on student prank trends that have swept the nation. Pranks are embedded in student culture, and are not going anywhere any time soon. But do they have a damaging effect on employers' opinions of potentially hiring students? This depends on the stunt.

Remember the viral video of Oxford boys doing Gangnam Style? Both goofy and endearing, the video showed a playful side to the university not generally known for its sense of humour. Great PR.

In contrast to this we have the controversial St Andrew's 'Champagning' caper, whereby a few misled students decided to respond to the 'milking' craze (pouring milk over yourself in public spaces, believed to be started in Newcastle. No I don't really get it either) by dousing themselves in champers, mocking their own affluence and sharing the video evidence. The reaction online was bitter, and official apologies had to be issued from the University. The seemingly harmless prank stopped just short of damaging the University's efforts to attract a diverse range of applicants and the Student Union were left to clean up the mess.

Now imagine you are tagged online as the student in the champagning video. An innocent prank which just happened to hit a nerve with a few of the wrong people could find itself whizzing around the world wide web with your name on it. As with most things, prevention is better than the cure, the only way to make sure you do not receive any negative publicity online is to not partake in it. Think about who can view your activity and what they may think. If you're not 100% they will find it hilarious too then probably best just to keep it private, or not do it at all. The same applies to all kinds of communications, blogs, tweets, emails. If it's not suitable for all eyes then ensure it is kept safely within the confines of privacy settings.

The internet is a fantastic platform to promote yourself for free, and if you stick to the guidelines of all great PR, you'll make yourself a superbrand in no time.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2322250 2012-12-19T19:00:00-05:00 2013-02-18T05:12:01-05:00

Abbie Baisden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abbie-baisden/
Check your dates

The graduate recruitment world is one that works in seasons and one of the big recruitment application intakes finishes in January. If you do have a lot of work/revision/sleeping to do and don't possibly have time to complete four-page applications at the moment, at least search through jobs with upcoming deadlines, make a list of the ones that catch your eye and set reminders for when their deadlines are, thus making them easy to locate when you do find yourself at a loose end for half an hour.

Arrange work experience

You can never have too much work experience so try to cram it in whenever possible. The winter break is a great opportunity to find businesses in your hometown that may be able to offer a few days in the office over Christmas, or even arrange a more substantial placement over the next holiday (say, three weeks at Easter). Showing your proactivity and enthusiasm in improving your CV will set you apart to local employers, and let's be honest many of them will probably have a lot of 'down-time' at the moment and will be more likely to take a phone call or an email from a friendly student than when businesses are back to running at full capacity in the New Year.

Start cyber-networking

Are you on LinkedIn yet? No? Well now, there is your problem! Professional networks, and in particular, LinkedIn, are the new go-to devices for recruiters. They offer the opportunity to advertise a role, accept applications and browse suitable applicants all in one convenient space. It's not only cheap and easy for employers to find people, but it's also a super-convenient way for you to bring your CV to the attention of the right people. The best way to maximise the potential of your profile is to just play around with it, but we also have some handy profile-building tips to get you started.

Start real-life networking

Unbeknown to many students, in towns across the country people in different industries find other people from their industry and organise events. These events are very often free and have the sole purpose of connecting people within the same industry (quite simple really). They meet in pubs and church halls and other public spaces and have discussions about important things affecting their industry, and they network. Find one of these networks and join in, you don't have to be already working, you just have to have a keen interest in the topics they discuss and a readiness to talk to strangers. Also, quite often they have free wine and sandwiches!

Rewrite your CV

You are probably sick of hearing this and think that you have included all you possibly can in the two-page document that summarises every skill and attribute you have ever developed, but no CV is perfect. If you are finding that no matter how many applications you make and how many skills listed in the job description you know you have you are still unsuccessful, then rip-up your old CV and start completely afresh. Creating a new document instead of editing an old one will force you to streamline all the important bits into one slick, recruiter-impressing Curriculum Vitae. If you can't remember what was on it before, it probably isn't relevant anymore anyway! (Check out our CV writing tips too).

That should be enough activities to tide you over for a while, or at least to use as an excuse when your mum asks you to play Monopoly with your younger cousins, "I'd really love to mum, but I'm just developing my graduate career". No one can argue with that.

Have a great Christmas, and happy jobhunting!]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2210294 2012-12-02T19:00:00-05:00 2013-02-01T05:12:01-05:00

Abbie Baisden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abbie-baisden/
The ninth November marks the one-year anniversary of my graduation, and the end to a very eventful year at that. When I graduated I had a detailed plan of what I wanted to happen, and it did not involve me working as a marketing assistant in a graduate recruitment company in London (Milkround), but here I am, and I could not be happier.

I've learned a lot over the past year, and having caught up with a few course mates recently, it has become apparent that there is no 'right' way for you to kick start your career, there is only the right path for you, but it doesn't hurt to pick up a few tips along the way.

Here is my graduate's guide to surviving your first year after University, it may not be rocket science but stick to these guidelines and you'll have your feet firmly on the career ladder with the minimum amount of stress.

Be patient

The job market is still tough but it's getting better, and the likelihood is that you will have to trawl through hundreds of job descriptions, write countless applications, research endless numbers of companies and may still be on the receiving end of rejection, but stick it out. The right job is out there but you won't find it if you give up.

Be flexible

You may have put some thought into planning your route to success, but don't be too rigid with it. My original plan was to secure a job in my university town, spend a year there and ask to be relocated when I wanted to move back home. At first my plan went swimmingly, I earned a place on a graduate scheme with a national company and was lucky enough to be given my first choice of location, my university town.

But three months into the scheme and my year-long plan started to crumble. I really wasn't enjoying my job and the long hours and irregular shifts meant I rarely got to visit home or spend any time with friends. I realised that there was no point wasting time building a career that I didn't enjoy and after saving for a couple months, I bit the bullet and moved back home with my parents to look for a job in London. Luckily I stumbled across my current role at Milkround, and I haven't looked back since!

Sometimes plans come together, sometimes they don't. It's important to be able to see when something is worth persevering with and when it is time to seek alternatives.

Get experience

All experience is good experience. I'm glad I started the first grad-scheme because I learned that it wasn't right for me, and many of my course mates agreed. During our course we had to complete a six-week work placement in a relevant area, so one friend completed it at a primary school. She'd always thought she wanted to work with children but realised on the job that it wasn't for her. She started pursuing other careers and is now successfully working in PR, having been promoted three times in one year.

Another Coursemate completed a placement at the company she'd worked at on her gap-year but in a communications role, she loved the company and the job, and has been working there ever since.

Personally, I completed my six weeks at a recruitment marketing company, an industry I'd never heard of before but really enjoyed working in, and a great name to have on my CV when applying for my current role, as it was one of Milkround's clients. Any kind of experience will teach you something, whether you loved it or hated it.

Be positive & proactive

The phrase that stuck with me is "if opportunity doesn't knock, build a door". There are thousands of other graduates out their looking for jobs and some of them may be better than you (it's true!) but you have to be the one that makes yourself stand out. Contact companies directly to ask if they have any vacancies. Offer to start as an intern to gain some work experience - you never know you may make enough of a positive impact that they choose to keep you on. Use both personal and professional connections to hear about potential jobs, and don't be shy to actually ask for what you want. The only way a company is going to hire you is if they think you are the best person for the job, so you need to start believing that that is exactly what you are, and be willing to prove it.

Leaving university is a daunting experience, but with the right attitude and perseverance you can not only survive your first year but you may even be able to call it a success, whichever route you took to get there.

Mine has been a success, even with the not-so-great first job included, and who knows where I'll be this time next year, I'm trying not to plan it.]]>