ProGrad Melbourne

Top 5 Reasons to Find a Job Soon After You Graduate:

Top 5 Reasons to Find a Job Soon After You Graduate:

1)      You spent 3 or 4 years getting this degree, you may as well put to use:  Unless you got an amazing scholarship, a university degree is not cheap to come by, and if you have a HECS debt, then the sooner you jump into a job the sooner you can start paying that bad boy off. It makes sense then that you go out into the world and begin to use the qualification you have worked so hard for!

2)      You can put to bed the ebb and flow of casual/part time work and get some stability: One undeniably reliable aspect of full time work is that it is, full time. Having fixed days, regular working hours and a regular schedule not only means you can better plan your time but you know you won’t have those hectic over the top weeks followed by crazy dry spells that wreak havoc with your social life. Working full time means your weekends are your own and best of all, your pay cheque is regular too, which leads me to my next point…

3)      A decent income: The thing with having a degree is that it usually entitles you to a higher potential income. When you start your career in the corporate sector you can bet you will be doing better than you were your retail salary or that unpaid internship. Whether its travel, a car or even a house,

4)      New friends: When you start a graduate job you not only begin the invaluable process of networking, making the all important connections to aid your career and progression but you also get to make new friends. If you are lucky enough to work in a team or group setting you will inevitably befriend and end up enjoying the time spent with a new group people.

5)      Greater exposure to YouTube classics: Anyone who works in an office has at some stage received an email or link with some entertaining subject matter that helps break up the day. The best YouTube referrals inevitably come from co-workers so you can either spend your time alone on the coach laughing at your laptop or in the office laughing alongside the rest of the team (during a lunch break of course..)

Here are some of our favourites, conveniently edited into a 4 minute package:

If you are a graduate after a career, contact ProGrad’s Graduate Management Team on 02 8235 8300 or alternatively email info@prograd.com.au and let us help you take the first steps to your new career.

Degrees of Success

When you complete your degree, you come out of the comfortable, familiar university environment to face “the real world”. The big scary race to find a graduate job begins often shrouded in mystery and doubt as you leave the security of your campus to step into the unknown.  With all the rumors of the economic downturn, the need for previous experience and the lack of roles available for graduates, where can you turn? What kind of role is going to be available? Does a 9-5, paying job exist for a graduate?

Maybe you should continue to study; you know, put off the inevitable for a little longer and come out with an even shinier award, maybe Honours, Masters or even a PhD?  The uni lifestyle served you well, and you know what you are doing in that world. Then again, study was kind of annoying, and it would be nice to earn some real money for a change..

It’s an argument older than the students who debate it, do you roll the dice and take a risk moving forward on the job board or do you skip your turn and wait for a better hand sticking it out at uni?

While there are many professions better accessed by high level qualifications, (we all know there’s no bachelor of brain surgery) there are many industries that don’t require a thermometer of degrees to get an entry level position. In industries including Media, Advertising, Publishing, IT, FMCG’s, Telecommunications and Events, high qualifications don’t automatically mean a better chance of landing a job. If you are looking to launch your career in the sales and marketing department a bachelor degree is more than acceptable to get you a foot in the door (and a healthy salary on the side).

If you have recently completed a degree and aren’t sure where your qualifications can take you in the business world, contact ProGrad’s graduate management team on 02 8235 8300 or email info@prograd.com.au

What we can all learn from Kanye and GaGa…

Kanye West and Lady GaGa. Apart from being musical superstars, they don’t have a huge amount in common. Something they do share is their unbridled self confidence – which, coupled with their ceaseless self promotion, undoubtedly made them the successes they are today.

Love him or loathe him, it cannot be denied that Kanye is one of the most confident men on the planet. He once called for a revised edition of the bible, because he felt he should be a character in it. Way back in 2002, Yeezy met Oprah at a chance meeting after she took an interest in his car. After they chatted about his wheels, cocky confident Kanye promised the media queen that he would one day appear on her show. The rapper grew up not far from Winfrey’s Chicago, Illinois TV studio and would often eat at a restaurant across the street, so he could dream about an appearance. He added, “I’d come over and just look at the studio and go, ‘One day I’ll be inside that studio.’”

Sure enough, he appeared on her show just three years later. Winfrey remembered the 2002 meeting: “People say that to me all the time – they say, ‘Hey Oprah, I just wrote a book,’ or ‘I’m a singer,’ but you’re the first person who ever made that true.”

It may feel like Lady GaGa has been around for decades, but it is only since 2008 she released her first single. She is officially the most followed person on twitter, the first person to ever break the eight-million-followers milestone, and also leads the Facebook race with a whopping 28,347,356 likes at the time of writing this article.

Although many people believe that Lady Gaga’s rise to fame is an overnight success, it has taken her years to become the absolute pop phenomenon of the new decade. In her high school days, GaGa was made fun of by her classmates. She left her family, went to live at a cheap apartment and wrote music until she would convince an agent to listen. Her rise to the top can be attributed to her complete self belief.  She claims Madonna is her fan and she really believes it.

Both Kanye and Lady GaGa knew what they wanted, worked incredibly hard, and let nothing stop them from reaching their goals.
So how can this help you get the job of your dreams?

Well, it isn’t recommended to wear a dress made of meat to an interview, or interrupt during the interview and say “Yo interviewer, I’m really happy for you, I’ma Let you finish, but I am the best graduate of all time!”. But having the self belief and knowing that you are the right person for the job WILL get you the job of your dreams!

For information on how ProGrad can help you get that all important interview, take a look at the website www.prograd.com.au, contact one of our friendly team on 02 8235 8325, or email ellen.giebels@prograd.com.au

Dear ProGrad.

Help I’m a recent graduate, I have studied my butt off (mostly) for the last few years to get the all important degree, and now, I have the piece of paper but don’t know what to do with it? What’s more, there are approximately tens of thousands of me graduating every year. I don’t really feel as unique as I used to. I know my mum thinks I’m special, but will an employer? Everywhere seems to want 3-5 years experience, does my 3 months of interning count? Should I have done honors? Why are cufflinks so fiddly?

At ProGrad we are all too familiar with the struggles graduates experience when trying to make that important break from student to worker.

ProGrad are a graduate placement and training company who specialize in placing graduates into roles within the Business to Business Sales category. This is a broad term that can cover a variety of different types of roles in almost any industry.

We place graduates with little or no experience into permanent full times roles with small, medium and large organizations in a range of industries, putting you on track for a successful career, not just a job. How does it work? After successfully completing our assessment process and showing us that you are an eager graduate who is looking to get into the type of roles we have on offer, we help you through the interview process and then provide you with a year’s worth of training (all paid for by your employer) in order to ensure that you not only know what you’re doing, but are able to do it well!

The graduate battle can be a hard one, but we are here to help! If you are a recent graduate wanting to get the kick start you need for a successful business career, contact ProGrad’s Graduate Management team, send us an email at info@prograd.com.au or give us a call on  02 8235 8351.