Savvy job searching
Once you are ready to look, finding a job can sometimes be a challenge. In this post, we’ll cover a few tips to get you started.
To find a job, you should have a clear idea about what you want to do, then work out where to look, and finally think about what you need to do to apply.
What do you want to do?
The Roman philosopher Seneca once said that if you don’t know what port you’re sailing to, then no wind is favourable. In other words, you need to know what you’re trying to achieve before trying to implement steps to achieve it. Before you start looking for jobs, you should think about the kind of job you want. Is it a ‘job’, or something more like an internship, or work experience more broadly, such as volunteering? If it’s a job, do you want a permanent position, or something temporary? What employment sector do you want to work in? Do you want to work in the UK, or elsewhere?
The answers to these questions may already be clear to you. But if you would like some help thinking them through, consider visiting our what can I do with my degree and career planning pages. You may also find it helpful to have a chat with a careers adviser to discuss your options.
By understanding the kind of job or work experience you’re looking for, you’ll know better where to look, and what to do once you’ve found an opportunity that interests you.
Where to look
There are many places to look for jobs. To get started, consider looking at our own jobs hub, CareerConnect, where you’ll find a variety of part-time and full-time opportunities, including within the University. You should also check popular job sites like Prospects, TargetJobs, Reed, and Indeed for a variety of opportunities for students and graduates. For other sources of vacancies, take a look at our jobs pages, whether you’re looking for part-time work or full-time work. As you find vacancies of interest, you might find it helpful to create a spreadsheet to keep track of all the organisations or positions you’ve applied to or researched.
If you have a clear idea of the sector you would like to work in, you may find our career sector pages useful. Here you will find tailored information on where to find jobs within specific sectors, as well as what you need to do to secure a job in a sector.
If you are interested in working outside the UK, consider resources like GoinGlobal and Vault, both accessible on our jobs outside the UK page. These are especially useful if you want to find jobs worldwide or in the US, respectively.
While searching for a job, also keep in mind your professional contacts, or ‘network’. Your LinkedIn connections can be a good source of vacancies, and may even publicise opportunities before they are advertised elsewhere. Your network may also alert you to job opportunities that are not publicly advertised, but may still be a good fit for you. To access these roles in the ‘hidden jobs market‘, you may need to make a speculative application. To further access these ‘hidden’ jobs, use an app like Google Maps to find companies within your chosen sector by geographical location: this can be particularly useful if you are looking for jobs in a specific region or state.
What to do once you’ve found an opportunity
Once you’ve found an opportunity, whether a job, internship, or voluntary opportunity, it’s important to make the strongest possible application.
This means thinking carefully about your application form, cover letter and CV. The Careers Centre has guides to help you with this, and resources like CareerSet to give you AI-generated feedback on your CV or cover letter. We also can give you one to one feedback on your application materials in either a careers advice or CV advising appointment.
If you are successful in the first round of applications, getting ‘short-listed’, you will then usually need to sit an interview and other assessment activities. We provide guides on the various kinds of interview you might encounter, as well as on assessment activities like psychometric tests. Consider using Interview360, accessible on our interview advice page, for live interview practice complete with automated feedback, as well as Graduates First for psychometric test practice, including for specific, large graduate employers.