
Preparing for Life After Graduation
Being in my last year of university is surreal and is met with several different emotions; excitement and sadness being the most prominent. But a new emotion has emerged since September, and that is the anxiety of finding a graduate job after finishing my degree. But I’d say I’ve been pretty vigilant in finding a suitable graduate programme, and I’m sharing today how I managed to do it.
Firstly, I can’t overstate how daunting it is to look for a job within the environment sector, and how incredibly frustrating it can also be. The ‘environment’ encompasses a broad range of topics, and can also be paired with disciplines like engineering, science, and geology to name a few. This slowly gets annoying to me- an environmental management student- when I get advertised jobs to be a graduate geotechnical engineer. However, my saving grace has taken the form of the University’s CareerConnect service and has helped me avoid a lot of hassle!
When I signed up to CareerConnect I was unsure of what to expect, but it has been one of my biggest aids for finding a graduate job alongside LinkedIn. Many highly desirable companies in the sustainability sector post vacancies here, and from a vast range of professions too. So, I actually get to choose whether I want to apply to a Carbon Mitigation scheme, or to something like Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems. CareerConnect also boasts a competent filtering system so that I can finally stop getting advertised Engineering roles. Plus, you can opt into receiving emails daily, once a week, or whenever is most convenient for you. Since I’m frantically applying for jobs, I get sent vacancy updates every day, so I have my finger on the pulse when it comes to job applications. I will say my willingness to be located anywhere probably helps my chances too, since I’m applying for jobs basically everywhere but London (sorry London you’re just not for me!).
The worst part of all my graduate hunting adventures is undoubtedly the CV writing part. I find it really hard to ‘brag’ about my achievements even though I have plenty to talk about (having a job, being a society president, and completing over 150 hours of ecological-based volunteering makes me a pretty good candidate I think!), but putting that in a concise way is difficult, and making myself stand out seems harder than ever when there’s so many incredible people also applying to work in my sector. Quite fortunately, I’ve been able to make my CV a bit more unique with a helping hand from my dad and the University’s CV service- my CV now ‘pops’ and doesn’t seem generic and cliched like it used to be. And, in some graduate job applications, you don’t even need to attach your CV. I’m proud to announce I’ve managed to secure 2 interviews since I started applying last month- things appear to be working for me!
Overall, I feel a lot more confident about my graduate prospects thanks to the University’s Careers service, and a bit of independent job sourcing via LinkedIn. Looking early has totally worked in my favour- a lot of my friends didn’t look last year and are kicking themselves a little bit. And if I don’t manage to get a graduate job then it’s not the end of the world! There are so many new opportunities out there which I can’t wait to explore- graduate job or not- so I can’t wait to make the most out of my time after university, whatever I end up doing.
Written by Zoe, current BSc Environmental Management at The University of Manchester
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