Why awards matter
Posted: April 30, 2012 Filed under: Careers advice, Graduate careers, Graduate employers Leave a comment »
gradireland graduate recruitment awards 2012
Last Wednesday night in Dublin, 480 graduate recruiters, careers services, senior representatives from higher education institutions, business organisations, policy makers, advisers and the Minister of State for Training & Skills, gathered for the gradireland Graduate Recruitment Awards 2012.
Why does this matter? It’s just a bean-feast, right? A prize for everyone in the audience and a stonking hangover on Thursday morning?
Thankfully, no. The gradireland awards are now acknowledged as one of the most important events in the graduate careers calendar. It is the only time in the year when such a vast gathering of key stakeholders and influencers in this sector can come together – people who are shaping the future career opportunities of a generation of Irish students at a historic time in our social and economic development.
A key message that was reiterated several times during the evening was the need for business, academia, government and higher education to work closely together to ensure that our students are equipped with the employability skills necessary for an increasingly competitive global job market. The evening was an opportunity for employers from all sectors to engage with careers practitioners and explain what competencies they are looking for in their graduate recruits; for course providers to hear what skills and knowledge need to be developed in order to meet the fast-changing needs of industry; for policy makers and recruiters to hear from course providers and careers services about the incredibly gifted, motivated and dynamic graduates being produced by our universities and ITs, and the skills that they are ready to put to use (and to meet a few of them, too).
Facilitating this network of the key stakeholders and influencers within graduate recruitment is a crucial element of evenings like this one. Having the opportunity to showcase some of the great courses, students and graduate employers that are at the heart of graduate career development, and that therefore play a huge part in the economic development of the country, is so important. In an era of so much media noise, of such a lot of negative coverage of careers in Ireland, it is vital that the graduate recruitment industry has a night such as this to showcase their work to decision-makers: to show that there is an incredibly dynamic community of passionate and engaged professionals working to provide careers advice, training and development and graduate jobs; and to pull together to ensure that business, government and education work even more closely in the future to provide our students and graduates with the skills they will need to get good jobs and develop great careers in Ireland.
That’s why awards matter. To see the full list of winners on the night visit www.gradireland.com/awards
Recruiters told to spend less money going on about their brand
Posted: March 5, 2012 Filed under: Graduate recruitment Leave a comment »In a recent survey of over 5,000 undergraduates, the international recruitment consultancy Work Group discovered that most students started their search for a career by first looking at the sectors of work they were interested in, then the actual jobs and then (but only then) at the employers that might employ them. Only just over 10 per cent of students in the survey looked first at the attractions of specific recruiters.
Like most research, it looks like stating the obvious but, in this case, there is an extremely serious and important lesson to be learned – not by students who will do what they do anyway but for recruiters who currently spend a fortune trying to persuade you that they are special, unique and so much better than the competition.
Work Group suggests that employers should take some of the money they currently spend on their brand and, together with other similar recruiters, spend it on promoting the sector of work that they inhabit.
So rather than, for example, every law or accountancy firm spending all their attraction budget pointing out how different they are, they would have greater success in the long term by spending a proportion on attracting a pool of talented graduates into the law or accountancy sector where they may very well spend their entire working life.
Their argument, supported by students’ responses, is that it’s far more important for the whole sector to promote itself as a great place to work and inspire the really talented students to commit to working there. They also point out that many graduates move company within a few years and therefore if they love the sector, they will join another similar organisation anyway.
I think that students are pretty sceptical that there are significant or game-changing differences between similar-sized and similar-sounding employers and, as the research says, they will spend more time anyway looking at the merits of a range of work sectors first. This is pretty sound advice – if you make the right choice of sector and job, then exactly where you start your career is not as relevant as you might think.
Are competitions the new graduate job applications?
Posted: January 20, 2012 Filed under: Employability skills, Graduate recruitment Leave a comment »
The gradireland National Student Challenge has really hit a chord, not only with the nation’s students, over 4,000 of whom have already registered to take the online Challenge, but also with leading graduate recruiters. The Challenge is being run in association with Lidl and in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, EMC and Ericsson, and is one of a growing number of competitions aimed at students. So what do these top employers hope to achieve by getting involved in competitions like these, and what’s really in it for the students (apart from the prize-money!)?
We asked the employers involved in the gradireland National Student Challenge to find out what motivates them to support competitions. The first thing that comes to light is something that is often missed in all the talk of recession, austerity and cut-backs – there is still a fight at the top of the graduate recruitment food-chain for the brightest and best students. And companies are increasingly using competitions to identify top talent.
‘Challenges such as these can make a student’s CV stand out from the crowd’ says Paul O’Leary from EMC, who employ approximately 2,000 staff in Ireland. Nessa Kiely at Ernst & Young agrees: ‘The National Student Challenge offers students from all corners of the island a great online platform to showcase their skills to us.’
One of the difficulties faced by graduate recruiters is that candidates tend to be inexperienced, and need to find ways to add ‘flesh’ to the bones of a CV. Success in competitions can be a significant factor in getting noticed.
And a tip for career-minded students is that it is never too early to get involved in competitions and to get noticed. PricewaterhouseCoopers was Ireland’s largest graduate recruiter in 2011. As such, one of their priorities is to identify potential recruits at all stages of their academic career. Lorraine Toole from PwC explains: ‘We are constantly looking for new ways to develop and grow our talent pipeline, so we look to be involved in new and innovative events which will help us identify and recognise Ireland’s brightest students. Competitions help us identify leaders of the future during their formative college years.’
So why competitions rather than recruit traditionally via application and interview? The key differentiator is how these competitions are structured. For example, the online test and the Final Day Challenges which make up the National Student Challenge are all based on the core competencies that leading graduate recruiters look for in their graduate hires. If you perform well, you are already showcasing your employability skills.
Competitions also allow recruiters to meet potential recruits, which reverses the traditional approach whereby the written application is put in front of the recruiter long before the actual candidate is met. ‘The National Student Challenge Final Day will allow us to monitor students’ performance within a controlled environment – allowing us the opportunity to see them in action. This can be directly related to possible future performance in the workplace,’ says Paul O’Leary of EMC. This is a common theme with all employers involved – the opportunity to identify bright students and see them interact, communicate and complete Challenges is a very modern way to engage with possible future talent for their organisations.
However, for many students, with pressing work and exam commitments, the key question is – will this get me a job? Paul O’Leary of EMC is clear on this: ‘If, through competitions such as the National Student Challenge, we can identify high potential students who display our competencies then there is a very strong possibility of those students being offered a position within our organization.’ Equally PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, who between them in 2011 took on almost 600 Irish graduates, are both using the National Student Challenge to identify ‘leaders of the future’ and ‘shining talent’ at all levels of study. This could lead to possible internships for students in the early stages of their academic careers, or ultimately for places on their graduate recruitment programmes.
It is evident that there is more than prize-money or an iPad to be won by students taking part in competitions. Lorraine Toole from PwC sums it up nicely: ‘Academic study gets your foot in the door; employability skills push that door open to a far wider range of opportunities. Competitions like the National Student Challenge help students identify the skills they’ve developed inside and outside university, and explain just how transferable those skills are to every area of our business. Quite simply, experiences and achievements not only enrich students lives; they will also enhance their career prospects.’
The online element of the gradireland National Student Challenge is open until 29 February 2012; the top 60 students on the leaderboard will then be invited to attend the Final Day Challenges in UCD Quinn Business School on Wednesday 14 March.
Insights into IT recruitment
Posted: August 18, 2011 Filed under: Graduate recruitment, IT and telecoms Leave a comment »
We’ve all seen the news stories talking about the job opportunities that exist in the IT sector. But what does that mean to graduates looking for their first job?
It’s actually good news, and not just for IT graduates. I recently met John Caulfield, Solutions Director with Oracle Ireland. Oracle has recently announced a big recruitment drive across the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asia) region, stating that a significant portion of the jobs available are graduate positions. But, he explained to me, they are not just offering jobs for IT technicians. There are also roles in sales, finance, marketing and HR, which means there are opportunities for graduates of all disciplines.
The other bit of good news is that your personal qualities can be more important than academic achievement. A recent gradireland survey suggested that more employers were introducing stricter academic criteria this year, with a majority looking for a 2.1 or above. However, Caulfield said this wasn’t the case with Oracle. The key things that they and similar employers look for are soft skills – particularly communication, project management and customer focus. The best technical skills in the world are useless, he commented, if they cannot be utilised in a team working towards a common project goal.
Much of the collaborative work that goes on in multinationals is now done virtually, so you will need the ability to demonstrate good communication skills, project management skills, the ability to listen to customer needs and translate these into requirements, an understanding of your role in a wider group to achieve a target. Relating past experiences (in project work, student societies and other extra-curricular activities) to the work environment will help you to show employers that you have these core competencies.
Companies in the IT sector are now focusing on growth, which means long-term job opportunities. Large employers have traditionally viewed their graduate entrants as an investment for the company: expanding their talent base by bringing graduates into the business, training and developing them, has been part of a long-term strategy designed to sustain business growth. During recent years, with recruitment budgets being cut, we have seen less of this so it’s encouraging to see a return of that ‘talent pipeline’ approach.
So how do you become part of that talent base? According to John Caulfield, social media is an increasingly important part of the mix when job hunting. While not all companies will have a dedicated recruitment channel, most now will have a social media aspect to their graduate recruitment. In their current campaign, Oracle has set up Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts to engage with potential recruits and try to give a flavour of what it is like to work for them. Networking is also important. Most organisations rely on referrals and recommendations from existing employees to widen their talent pool, so maintaining contacts with lecturers, alumni groups and peers post-graduation is another important element of any job search.
Check out gradireland.com for the latest vacancies in the IT sector. You can also register on site to receive jobs by email for the sectors of your choice.
The Milkround is dead, whatever the hell it was
Posted: June 2, 2011 Filed under: General, Graduate recruitment Leave a comment »In the old days (which due to the accelerating pace of change is actually only a couple of years ago) there was a blessed simplicity in the recruitment process. Regular recruiters of graduates visited Irish campuses on what was called the Milkround (no, no idea why either) to conduct initial job interviews after Christmas. This quaint custom grew up because most employers recruited a cohort of graduates each September and therefore needed to attract them in autumn, interview them in the spring and make offers in the summer. A recent survey of employers – the annual gradireland Graduate Salary and Graduate Recruitment Trends Survey - shows that, despite the continuing importance of campus visits and presentations before Christmas to attract students to apply, there is now much less clarity about closing dates for applications and many less campus job interviews. Nearly half the organisations surveyed had no specific closing date at all and most accepted applications all the year round. Part of this trend is down to uncertainty in the current market and companies not wanting to commit to making early job offers when the situation is so fluid. But, even when the economy improves, the traditional Milkround will probably not return. This is great news for students who always miss deadlines and another reason not to make the assumption that just because it’s the summer, everybody has stopped recruiting. Because they haven’t. But you do need to stay vigilant.
The same survey also shows that the quality of Irish graduates’ applications has risen this year, proving, I believe, that the problems are not to do with the product of third level education (that’s you) but with the current downturn in the number of jobs available in Ireland.
Why awards matter to graduate recruiters
Posted: April 27, 2011 Filed under: Graduate employers | Tags: awards Leave a comment »
Bryan Dobson, RTE, presents the gradireland Graduate Recruitment Awards 2011
Earlier in April, the Mansion House in Dublin saw the largest gathering of the graduate recruitment community in Ireland and the majority of the awards were decided by the votes of students and graduates. Yes, hearts were broken and wishes fulfilled by your votes.
And the organisations on the shortlists for each sector, not just the winners, take it all with deadly seriousness. Why? Because the ultimate test for a graduate recruiter is their popularity amongst students and graduates. It really matters to them. It’s how their measure the success of their campus campaigns and marketing.
The annual voting for next year’s Awards – the results of which also appear in the annual publication Ireland’s leading 100 graduate employers – starts in September and the voting process is organised by an international research firm trendence which does the same student poll in 24 other countries in Europe.
So if you want to put a smile on the faces of Ireland’s leading recruiters, you know what to do. Cast your votes when the survey opens in September. Full details will be on gradireland.com and with your campus careers service.
And if you wanted to see this year’s Award winners, go to gradireland.com/awards.
Like this:
Graduate interviews and how to approach them
Posted: March 17, 2011 Filed under: Careers advice, General, Graduate employers, Job hunting 2 Comments »So, you’ve spotted your ideal job, written the perfect application, and – wahey! – you’ve been invited for interview. Well done for getting this far, but now the hard work starts. If you haven’t had much in the way of interview experience, read on.
An interview can be a daunting prospect – and seasoned professionals will tell you that they never get any easier – but, with careful preparation and the right attitude, you can talk yourself into a job, and you might even enjoy the process.
The first thing to remember is that interviews aren’t designed to catch you out or intimidate you; rather they are opportunities for you to sell yourself. The interviewers are only human and will have been in your position themselves once upon a time, so this is worth bearing in mind if you’re nervous. They want you to do well – they’re looking for the best candidate for the role, after all.
The second thing to remember is that an interview is a two-way process: it’s your chance to appraise the organisation, role and staff, just as they are assessing you. To this end make sure you have questions to ask them: this shows you have done your research, that you’re taking the process seriously and it’s an impressive way to sign off an interview.
Give yourself plenty of time to research the job and the organisation – read company literature, search online for any recent news items relating to the organisation, and be ready to answer the questions: why do you want to work for us? What makes you perfect for this job? Make sure you know your CV and covering letter back-to-front.
And finally, first impressions count! According to the boffins who research these statistics, the impression you make on any first encounter is 55 per cent decided by how you present yourself and your body language (so dress smartly, arrive promptly and bring a few copies of your CV with you); 38 per cent governed by your tone of voice; and 7 per cent generated by what you actually say.
The outlook for women in the workplace
Posted: March 8, 2011 Filed under: Graduate recruitment 1 Comment »Today is the centenary of International Women’s Day. Not surprisingly, many commentators point out that women throughout the world still don’t enjoy equality. So how does the picture look in Ireland?
The think-tank TASC has carried out research showing that women still earn substantially less than men. In 2008, just over half of women – 50.3 per cent – had an annual income of less than €20,000. The corresponding figure for men was 37.7 per cent. In contrast, nearly one in five men – or 19.6 per cent – earned over €50,000; the corresponding figure for women was just 10.7 per cent.
The picture for graduates also shows gender disparity. The most recent HEA report on graduate destination statistics What do Graduates do? The Class of 2008 states: ‘Despite higher academic achievement by females entering the workplace, a gender bias in salary awards in favour of males persists.’ They report that women graduates are more likely than men to earn lower initial salaries, and that men dominate the higher salary brackets.
But is this reflected in the aspirations of current undergraduates? The most recent data is available in a survey of undergraduates carried out for gradireland by German research institute trendence. And there are some interesting gender differences.
- The most popular choice of employer for men is Google; for women the most popular destination is teaching.
- 26 per cent of men surveyed expected to earn more than €34,000 in their first job after graduation, compared to only 17 per cent of women.
- When asked ‘What is important for your first professional position after graduation?’, women ranked work/life balance and job security highest; men were more interested in training. Men were also prepared to work longer hours.
But the really interesting question is how respondents view their own abilities. In answer to the question: ‘How would you describe your academic achievements?’ 70 per cent of males answered ‘outstanding’ or ‘above average’; compared to only 63 per cent of women . Compare this to the HEA report of ‘higher academic achievement by females’!
This lack of confidence in women is reflected in research published today by Accenture. In an international survey of business professionals, they found that women were less likely than men to have asked for pay raises (44 per cent versus 48 per cent) and promotions (28 per cent versus 39 per cent). And – possibly as a result – more women report that their careers are not fast tracked (63 per cent of women versus 55 per cent of men).
Where Irish graduates most want to work
Posted: February 25, 2011 Filed under: Graduate recruitment, Job hunting Leave a comment »The public sector is officially where Irish graduates most want to work.
No, we didn’t believe it either but you can’t possibly argue with the largest student survey in Europe, can you?
Each year, the top German research institute trendence undertakes a student survey across 25 European countries asking questions about career choice, salary expectation, confidence in the future etc. It’s pretty detailed stuff and the results are published in the annual careers publication Ireland’s 100 leading graduate employers which also contains, not entirely surprisingly, a list of the 100 most popular graduate recruiters in Ireland.
But it’s the students’ views on sectors of work that are particularly interesting. They are asked to choose the sectors where they would most like to ply their trade and this year, nearly a quarter of the students surveyed wanted to work in the public sector. That’s despite bad news stories about job cuts and freezes on the recruitment of permanent staff.
In contrast, only 12 per cent saw their career starting in financial services – traditionally one of the most popular sectors for Irish graduates.
What does this mean? Is it a backlash against the banks or a heartfelt desire to put something back into the community? Or is it about perceived job security? And will it all change again once the economy recovers?
Solutions to graduate unemployment
Posted: February 17, 2011 Filed under: AHECS, Graduate recruitment Leave a comment »
Guest post from Seamus McEvoy, Chairperson, the Association of Higher Education Careers Services.
As the election approaches, one of the key issues is the scourge of unemployment in our country. That is why AHECS – the representative body for higher education Careers Services – has written an open letter to all election candidates outlining what we see as the three most urgent policy initiatives needed in higher education in Ireland to address graduate unemployment.
Our three proposals are centred on:
- employability skills development;
- career management learning; and
- entrepreneurship and innovation.
We believe that these three issues need to be to the forefront of policy and practice in the Irish higher education sector.
The letter is accompanied by a supporting document, based on consultations with our members, giving detailed recommendations on how these policies should be implemented. The policies support and build on the key recommendations of the Hunt report – national strategy for higher education to 2030.
Every year, our members interact with the 180,000 students who are studying in the higher education sector and particularly with the 50,000 graduating students of that year. This gives us a unique insight into the issues facing today’s graduates in their efforts to find employment. AHECS sees career management as a critical knowledge and skill deficit for many students which hinders and impedes their individual career development and ultimately the development of Ireland as a knowledge economy and society.
AHECS proposes that employability and career management are placed at the heart of curriculum development and that they form an integral part of third level education strategy in Ireland. In addition, we recognise that entrepreneurship and innovation has a significant role to play in our economic recovery. In the current economic climate, graduates need to be job shapers, equipped with the skills needed to identify and create new opportunities for themselves. The benefits of creative thinking and innovation can assist individuals shape new careers within the economy. This too needs to be mainstreamed into higher education.
