Job hunting: choosing the right companies

Want to get a decent gradute level job? But where? Which companies to apply for? This is the first question you should solve...

The first step in your job hunting efforts is usually to make the decision to which companies you are going to apply for. If you are a fresh graduate as I was you usually don't have so narrow scope as for example experienced professional. On the other hand, it is not a good idea to apply for every company available. The best thing you can do is to choose the right area you want to work in - for me, it was IT or more precisely Information Systems. The second thing you should decided is what type of job you are looking for - do you want to work became valuable expert in one field or you would prefer to be a manager in the future? In general you can choose between two kind of jobs - so called graduate programmes or regular job position. Here are the main differences:

• graduate programmes are more suitable for those who want to became managers rather than focus on one area and became expert. It allows you to go through 2 - 4 assignments, which every lasts for about 6 months. You should receive trainings not just in the area of you interest (example: IT qualifications) but also so called soft-skills training (presentation skills etc.).


• regular job position is about being assigned to a certain department within a company for a certain role. In my area of interest the best example is developer/programmer. If you are good in coding and you want to do it, it is probably better for you to get a regular job position as a developer rather than more general graduate programme.

The third decision you should make is which industries you find interesting and you would like to work in. For example I decided that insurance, technology consulting, energy and automotive industry are those which I am interested in. It is essential to have good reason why you are interested in those industries!
If you made all the decisions - area you want to work in, the kind of job you want to get and finally industries you are interested in, you are ready to choose the companies to apply for. You should choose about 4 - 5 five companies for every industry you are interested in and I really recommend to apply for at least 20 companies, because it is pretty hard to get in one of them!

Hints

• specify well the area you want to work in (IS, HR, Marketing etc.)


• specify what kind of job you are interested in (graduate programme, regular job position...)


• select the industries you are interested in (banking, technology, manufacturing...)


• select from 20 - 30 companies accordingly to previous criterions

Useful links

• prospects.ac.uk - very useful source of information for fresh graduates seeking for a job; only for UK jobs