How to land your first graduate role

Whether you’ve completed your degree, or the end is near – completing your degree is a huge achievement! This time of celebration often goes hand in hand with the daunting feeling of entering the work force. Landing your first job after university can be challenging.

While Method Recruitment does not hire graduate roles, we understand the challenge that comes with securing your first role. The market can be quite competitive, and it’s hard to know how to market yourself after university. Here are some tips to help you navigate the process of landing your first graduate role:

1. LinkedIn and resume

The first thing a hiring manager or recruitment consultant sees is your LinkedIn profile or resume. It’s important to spend some time and effort on this. Make sure to add all relevant sections (about, experience and education for example) and highlight any relevant coursework, internship, volunteer work, part-time jobs and projects that demonstrate your skill and dedication.

While a degree looks good, you will stand out if you also demonstrate practical experience and a positive attitude.

When applying for jobs, slightly tailor your resume depending on the position. Your volunteering experience might be a USP for some role, while one of your university projects might be more relevant for another role.

As a recruitment agency, we often see candidates neglect their LinkedIn profiles until they are on the market for a new job. From our experience? LinkedIn is one of the easiest way to network, and get a new role locked in before you “need” a new role. Which brings us to our next point.

2. Networking

When the word networking is mentioned – a lot of people get a bit nervous. Luckily, networking isn’t just for those extraverted individuals that love talking to strangers. While attending events is still one of the best ways to connect with people, it’s important not to underestimate the power of social media. Engage with LinkedIn posts you find interesting and connect with those in your field. Leave 5 comments each day and like 10 posts – and before you know it, you’ve built yourself a small network. You can join groups on LinkedIn to connect with others with similar interests and career goals.

If you are attending your first in-person networking event, keep in mind that it’s normal to be nervous. Most people are attending alone, and nobody wants to feel left out. You got this. Make sure you connect on LinkedIn with the people you met, or at least remember their names so you can add them later.

3. Internships

Internships

Internships are a great way to get a foot in the door in your desired field. While these positions are often not permanent nor paid, they provide valuable experience and can often lead to full-time opportunities.

Be mindful that not all companies will have a pathway from internships to permanent positions. If this is not the case, do not see the time at your internship as lost time. Having internships on your resume shows potential employers that you are committed to your career development and willing to work your way up. At the end of your internship, ask your manager to write you a recommendation or ask if you can contact them as a reference in the future.

4. Where to find graduate roles?

Luckily for you, there are plenty of graduate job boards! For those in Melbourne, we recommend having a look at these:

You can also use the job board functions on SEEK and LinkedIn – just add “Graduate”, “Entry Level” or “Junior” to your job search to filter on relevant positions.

Besides job boards, have a look directly at company career pages, especially for those in industries your passionate about.

If you want to work with a recruitment agency – graduate roles are more often posted by larger agencies. Pay attention to the roles that an agency recruits – Method for example focusses on experienced senior (and higher) candidates and cannot take on graduate candidate requests.

We hope that these tips help you land your graduate role! We hope to be able to help you land a role when you are more advanced in your career. To stay up-to-date with roles we recruit, follow us on LinkedIn.