Finding a job requires time, effort and a pro active approach to choose the methods that are most appropriate to your target career area. The best job hunters do not wait for jobs to appear; instead they track down the best opportunities.
This page is designed to help you develop your job hunting skills, with useful resources along the way.
Identifying Vacancies
- What type of employers recruit for the roles I am interested in?
- Do employers advertise? If so, where do they advertise?
- Do they use recruitment agencies? If so, which ones?
- Are there trade or professional job sites?
The following sites will help you to answer the questions above:
Vacancy Sources
It is not possible to list all the possible vacancy websites in this guide, but below are a list of general sources you might find useful:
Recruitment Agencies
Recruitment agencies can be a useful addition when job hunting, but ensure you research the agencies to find out if they recruit in the sector where you would like to work. Target your CV for your specific area of interest to increase your chances of being selected and keep in contact with the agency regularly to be updated on any progress.
More information on recruitment agencies can be found on the Recruitment & Employment Confederation site.
Use the Yellow Pages website to search for agencies in your area.
Newspapers
You will also find job vacancies in national and local newspapers, use the table below to target your search to the relevant paper and days.
Specialist newspapers or journals should be used to maximise your exposure to relevant positions, for example titles such as New Scientist, Marketing Week, Community Care and Travel Weekly. For more details of specific journals or trade publications, visit the sites listed under the ‘Identifying Vacancies’ section above.
To search for a list of newspapers in your local area, visit the Paperboy website
Graduate Recruitment Schemes
These schemes or programmes are run by large “blue chip” companies. There is sometimes a misunderstanding that these are the only positions available for new graduates, therefore you must apply, but in reality this is not the case and as you will find out from your job hunting, opportunities exist in a variety of areas. Graduate recruitment schemes should be treated as another job hunting avenue to explore.
Most of these schemes are advertised in the autumn term and many have closing dates before Christmas, so be aware of this and start your research early.
Schemes are advertised in either the free Prospects or Hobsons directories available to collect from the Careers & Employability Service.
You can also find details of these schemes on the following sites:
Graduate/Careers Fairs
These recruitment or information fairs can be a good opportunity to find out more about relevant employers and vacancies.
Fairs can either be general or targeted towards specific areas, such as IT or finance. For details of forthcoming events, please visit the Prospects website
When arranging to visit a fair, ensure you are fully prepared by checking the fair website to confirm registration details and review tips about the event.
Creative Job Hunting
Did you know that a huge 80% of all jobs are never advertised? So as well as following the job hunting tips above, you need to ensure that you do not miss out on these opportunities – so in other words – you need to get creative in your job search!
Identifying Employers
Firstly, you need to find out the employers you wish to target – use the same sources as outlined in the ‘Identifying Vacancies’ section above.
Generating contacts
- Ask your friends, family, tutors, etc if they have any contacts in the area you are interested in.
- Use business directories to locate company contact details.
- Use current vacancies/adverts and make a note of contact details for companies.
Contacting Employers
The next stage is to contact the company/organisation directly.
- Speculative applications
A speculative application is when you contact a company directly to enquire if there are any potential opportunities.
Ensure you have a named contact at the company so that you can address your covering letter and you are able to follow up after you have sent your CV.
Target your CV and letter to that one specific company and aim it towards the job role you would ‘like’ within their company. Sending a generic CV and letter is not going to impress the employer, but targeting will show you have put the effort in and this could really help your applications.
- Information interviewing
Information interviewing is a process of arranging an informal meeting to ask people about their own job. Most people tend to respond positively to such requests and as you are not asking for a job (at this point), many are happy to meet to pass on information and advice.
One approach is to email the company to say that you are interested in working in their field and you are looking for some more information. Ensure you make it clear you are not looking for a job, but instead you are wishing to gain more information and an insight to what the work is like – mention that you would only like approx 15 minutes of their time.
After this initial email, telephone the contact to ask if you can set up a meeting (the worst they can say is they don’t have the time). Some possible topics for the meeting could include:
- details of their job role,
- typical activities,
- how they gained their position,
- what would they class as good work experience
After your meeting, follow up with a thank you letter, keep the notes and record details of the meeting for future reference.
Not only will this information gathering exercise develop your network of contacts, but it will also be useful to gain an insight into companies and job roles to see if it is right for you.
Summary
- Undertake research into your job areas so you know where to look for the vacancies you want
- Research occupations so you know the structure of the industry and the types of job roles available
- Regularly check vacancy sources and sites so you don’t miss out on published adverts
- Develop your contacts to maximise speculative applications
- Target your CV and covering letter for each application