18th Dec2009

The lost art of communication

by Berleena

I have just posted a few words for job seekers, which got me thinking about the heavy reliance of graduates on the internet, particularly as a mechanism to find jobs.  Actually, that part isn’t the problem – I agree that Seek, MyCareer etc are a great way to search for jobs and start the application process.  It’s what happens after that which I find strange.

The job boards have created a lazy approach to job seeking.  Click, click, click, browse, attach, click, click.

And then….wait.  And Wait.  Still waiting..

Perhaps you’ll receive a call back, perhaps you won’t.  By the time you do get the phone call, surely you’ve forgotten which job you applied for.  Thats because there is a backlog of other lazy job seeker’s applications to get through. 

Many moons ago, we didn’t have the internet.  I know, hard to imagine, isn’t it?  When we didn’t have the internet, we contacted eachother on the telephone and had conversations with humans and we spoke clearly about our intentions.  This is the piece that has now been lost.

If you’re a job seeker looking to stand out from the crowd (and the other lazy job seekers in the market) then take a different approach.  By all means, start with the internet. But don’t just leave it there and expect the internet to manage the process on your behalf.  Somewhere in the process, is a human (for now, anyway).  Ever thought about calling the human?  Might be worth a shot.  Call them up directly, tell them you’ve applied for a role and you’d like to know what the next step is. 

It’s really not that difficult, is it?  Give it a try…you never know, someone might actually call you back!

Category : Interview Techniques, ProGrad Melbourne
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18th Dec2009

Job Hunting over Christmas

by Berleena

Hints for graduate job seekers

For any recent graduates looking for employment opportunities, why not take advantage of the holiday season to refine your job hunting skills.

Here are some tips from ProGrad to help you over the festive season!

1) Start off with re-writing your resume.  It shouldn’t be more than 2 pages long and should be filled with RELEVANT and concise information.  Ensure your career objective highlights specifically what you’re looking to achieve with your graduate career.  Ensure that your language is not too generic.  Your work experience needs to discuss the skills you have generated, not just the tasks that you completed.

2) Don’t take a machine-gun approach to job applications.  Take your time to really research the type of job you want.  Get some knowledge about the type of role that would satisfy your personality.  Don’t limit yourself in the industry, but do be specific about the role (job) you would want.

3) Then start to apply, slowly and carefully to roles that appeal to you.  Keep a note of the roles you have applied for and which companies they’re with.  It is also worth tracking the company phone numbers too, as this will ensure you can make follow-up calls in January about your application.

4) Start to research information about job interviews and types of questions you can expect.  Ensure that in the New Year, you are well researched, well prepared and well rehearsed for interviews.  This will all help in your job applications in January 2010.

More than anything, don’t be lazy.  Don’t expect that your degree is enough to land you your dream job.  Be proactive, and contact people directly.  Speak to humans on the telephone, not through the internet.  This is such a simple skill, and yet massively under-utilised by graduate job seekers.

Category : Graduate News, ProGrad Melbourne
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18th Dec2009

ProGrad in 2009, the year that was

by Berleena

2009 was an interesting year for many.  Whether you were a job seeker, looking for a job opportunity over the last 12 months, or an organisation facing the constraints of a “tight market” and even tighter budgets from prospects.  We all felt it. 

In January 2009, ProGrad started to analyse the roles available for graduates and started to analyse our sales history in more detail.  ProGrad are a sales led business and we are heavily focused in sales activities such as lead generation, cold calling, booking business meetings and proactively selling our unique concept.  Whilst this has always been the most effective way to sell our model, it started to come with some challenges.

Companies were not quick to make decisions any more when it came to recruiting graduates.  Every business had to start justifying the expense in recruiting.  As more and more businesses were cutting costs, and making some difficult decisions around redundancies, ProGrad had to ensure we had a clear sales strategy to ensure our placements could continue.

When we were analysing our previous sales conversions, we noticed that they had started to dip.  In order to maintain the same level of placements, we would have to up the activity enormously.  This meant increased activity from the sales team, an increase in targets and a greater sales push than ever before to ensure that we could complete placements.

In May 2009, we started our new agressive sales campaign and started to see results in August and September. The campaign has not dipped off since, which has ensured a huge spike in graduate placements in November and December 2009.  The prospects for January 2010 are looking fantastic for graduates.  Whilst it is clear that “confidence is returning” in the market, it is without a doubt down to the tenacity and perseverance of our team of sales people that has ensured our strength in this competitive arena.

It’s also important that we acknowledge the support of our candidates and clients over 2009.  A large majority of our business this year came from our established account base which remained loyal to us.  We are hugely grateful for those relationships and hope they will continue in the forthcoming years. 

On behalf of everyone in the team, thank you!

Davinia

Category : ProGrad News
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14th Dec2009

ProGrad 2009 – 2010

by Berleena

ProGrad will be closed from December 24th until January 11th 2010.

During this period of time, most of us will be accessing emails and will be able to respond to any urgent enquiries.  We will be fully operational again in the New Year and will be ready to hit the ground running from the 11th January onwards.

2009 has been a great year for ProGrad, despite the economic downturn.  Like many businesses, we went through a tricky time of uncertainty and the difficulty with forecasting each month – however since September we have seen market confidence return with a huge increase of graduate placements completed.

The forecast for 2010 is strong with new business relationships being secured daily.  We’re fortunate to have a number of excellent team members, mostly selected from the ProGrad assessment days.  They’re passsionate about what we do and make a huge effort to meet with new businesses each day of the week.  It is their dedication and excitement that ensures our ready stream of graduate vacancies.

ProGrad are expanding into the US market in early 2010 and are looking forward to working with our client partners there also.  Whilst it is a difficult job market in the US, we’re confident that before long they will be converted to recruiting recent graduates!

And so, we will keep you posted over forthcoming months as we continue to grow and develop.

We hope you will continue to support us!

The ProGrad Team

ProGrad can be contacted on the office number 02 8235 8300 until 24th December.  During the Christmas break, please feel free to email us info@prograd.com.au and we will aim to reach your enquiry as quickly as possible

Category : ProGrad News
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08th Dec2009

Are you thinking of travelling after Uni?

by Berleena

It is graduate season and certainly a time when most graduates are weighing up their options.  Are they to stay and enter the work force, or is it time to see the world?

If travel is something that appeals to you, then our recommendation is to get that out of your system before engaging in full-time work! Employers have spent the last few years bowing to the demands of GenerationY and keeping roles open for those that suddenly decided to go travelling for a few months.  The reality is, that in the current economic climate it should be “all hands on deck”. 

Now is not the time to be starting full time work, and have an employer invest in your training and development if there is even a small HINT of you wanting to leave to go travelling. 

If you’re feeling the travel bug now, and you havent commited to full-time work…then get it out of your system and just go!  If you need to save money then take on a casual/ temporary job to assist you in putting money aside.  Whatever you do, do not take a role unless you know that hand on heart you can be commited to it for at least 3 years.

Companies will only start to see a return on their “graduate” investment after approximately 18 months of being in a role (sometimes longer) and so it is essential that their investment is recognised by candidates. 

Over the last 12 months, in a tight economy we have seen a huge decrease in candidates wanting to go travelling, and certainly and increase in the average tenure in a role.  The job market has been tighter and hasn’t provided the same opportunities as it had several years previously.

As a young person with limited experience, it is easy to overlook the company that first invested in you at the start of your graduate career.  Try to keep in mind that your first employer has had to invest in you enormously, possibly more than any other employer.  They will have invested time, effort and money on your training and development.  Ensure that you treat them well as they are likely to assist in future career moves – going off travelling after a few short months of working for a company is not likely to assist in the form of a glowing reference!

So…if you’re considering a trip away and you havent started work yet…go for it!  There has never been a better time.  Besides, many employers make look more favourably upon you if this is “out of your system” prior to starting.

ProGrad work on behalf of over 600 employers across Australia and are specialists in the field of graduate recruitment.  Feel free to follow us on Twitter by clicking www.twitter.com/progradgraduate

We can also be found on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=168060&id=126475642525&saved#/pages/Sydney-Australia/ProGrad/126475642525

Category : Graduate News, ProGrad Melbourne
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30th Sep2009

What are graduates looking for?

by Berleena

ProGrad are always looking to understand the key drivers/ motivators around graduates accepting jobs…so what exactly are they looking for?  Is it all about the money?  I think thats pretty unlikely…there seem to be more factors that surround a choice of career.  Some of the key themes that we seem to hear about time and time again are:

1) Culture of a company

2) Progression Opporutnities

3) Opportunities to gain exposure within the business

4) Travel opportunities

5) Training/ Investment of the employer

Is there anything else that graduates are looking for?  We’d love to hear your feedback.

The Graduate Management Team, ProGrad

Category : ProGrad Melbourne, ProGrad News
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