These days competition amongst graduates for the best graduate jobs is tougher than ever. This is unwelcome news for recent graduates, and students in their final year or two of university or college of further education, but, naturally, positive for employers. As they try to cut their payroll expenditure, they are now more likely to create extra internship jobs, rather than instant, entry-level contracts at the first time of asking. In a graduate scheme, the holder of the position is expected to impress, show talent, and prove an important addition to the workforce. Much desired graduate jobs can be obtained through this kind of process if the worker makes him or herself invaluable to the company in question, so that, when the period of the internship is finally over, the company feels that it can no longer afford to let the intern go, rather than it still being the case that it can not afford to employ him or her on a full time contract. But how does an intern get to this stage?
The first, most important step is choosing the business you want to work for. Unpaid internships can typically last as long as three months, depending on the level of competition, so you need to know that this is a job you really, really want. Do lots of research. Find out who works there and see if you can get an idea of what it is like, and what would be expected from you. If you don’t do this, and it turns out not to be suitable for you, then you might want to stop, but of course you will have wasted time, and you might run the risk of upsetting people in the industry: you certainly won’t receive an excellent reference this way.
First impressions are key. From your research you will be able to judge the dress code. Some companies, for example in the media industry, have a ‘smart/casual’ approach, and it is desirable to fit in. The general rule is: always initially try to be a few notches smarter than the general dress code, then you can relax a bit once you are fitting in.
Good graduate jobs are still out there, it is just that the path leading to them might be a bit longer, with more hoops to jump through. A good graduate scheme will provide good support to those in internship jobs, and good companies understand and appreciate the sacrifices made by their interns, and recognise the value of a good worker. But in this economic environment everybody is required to make sacrifices, and graduates are no exception.
Please visit http://www.careerplayer.com/ for further information about this topic.
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