Use Freshers Week

Even if you're not a fresher, freshers week is full of fantastic opportunities that only come around once a year - make the most of it! Go along to your freshers fair and sign up with any societies that you're interested in, as extra curricular activities will add instant value to your CV. You could even help with any events in freshers week or work for your uni showing new people around. This role is commonly known as a 'Student Ambassador' - ask your university marketing department for more information.

Make the right choice, not the popular one

Further education or work experience? A recent trend we've picked up on is the increasing number of graduates who are leaning towards further study as the only option to secure a job in the future. We believe that although it can help, further study will not necessarily increase your chances ahead of work experience - even if that experience is not directly related. Of course this varies from industry to industry, so if you're considering it what you need to do is actually find out direct from a few employers if it would make a difference in their selection process. From this research you will be able to make a much more accurate judgement as to whether your graduate job search will really benefit in the long run.

Short and Sweet Graduate CVs

From an employers point of view the best length to make a CV is no more than two pages. Some employers can receive over a hundred applications per vacancy so you want to make their job as easy as possible by cutting out the padding and bullet pointing the important facts. Avoid going into huge amounts of detail on irrelevant points, for example - only give descriptions on relevant work experience and either leave out or list other work experience under another small section. If you feel that there are some more text heavy points you would like to make, use your covering letter to get them across. Another space saving idea is to replace your references section with the simple text 'Excellent references available on request'.

Slow Down and Digest

When applying for a job, how well do you read the job description? Slow down, break it down, digest it and research before approaching the company. Employers regularly receive CVs from people who seem like they have skimmed over the requirements and just put forward a re-produced application - don't be put in this category! Use your covering letter to relate to each point in the specification and comment or compliment on something related to the companies work or industry. Build your CV around the role. Yes, it takes a lot longer, but the merits are unquestionable