Information for Graduates
Graduates – be clever at using social networking
Many graduates have not yet wised up to using the social networking sites to look for jobs. You should be trawling Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to look for jobs. It is much cheaper for companies to use these social media sites than pay recruitment companies. Use the sites to make and use contacts. If you [...]
Graduate careers fairs
Graduate careers fairs are an important resource for graduate appointments – even if you don’t get a graduate placement as a direct result of the fair, you’re still taking steps towards your chosen career and moving closer to recruitment in your perfect job. A suitable graduate placement can be difficult to find, and with the [...]
Job Hunting
4 recruitment and job finding tips
1. Put the work into research If you see a job you like advertised and tweeted the recruiter then do your homework thoroughly before the next step of application. Look at the company’s website and look at the keywords for their word and aspirations. Google the company and find the press reports and trading information. [...]
Recruitment Freeze? Focus yourself..
Graduate unemployment is 2011 was the highest for over 10 years – and a survey by the chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that more employers were planning to freeze recruitment so as to reduce redundancies. This will have the knock-on effect of making it more difficult for young people trying to get into [...]
Work Options
Have you thought of becoming self employed?
More and more people are finding that becoming self employed enables them to take some control of their working life and at best can turn into a business and at its basics, allow you to get valuable experience whilst earning some money.
All it takes to become a successful entrepreneur is to have a good business idea and develop it into a business. This takes work in research and checking how your product and service would compare with other competitors in the market. People can start businesses part time, trying out by renting a stall at weekends, or building up clientele from a basis of friends and family and word of mouth.
Other graduates can get into the job market by freelancing – taking on short contracts to do work or one particular job. Many employers may be happy to offer task-based contracts if they have a period of pressure on their key staff, but don’t want to employ someone permanently. IT people traditionally have been able to set up as contractors offering short-term work as developers or hardware or software support. Ideally individuals looking to freelance will need to develop a range of skills, services and “products” to offer to companies in their chosen field.
It is pretty straightforward to set up as self employed or self employed sole trader if you either want to freelance or to set up a business. There is little paperwork involved and no fees to pay though you have to register with HM Revenue and Customs for tax and National Insurance purposes. If you develop to have a series of contracts and the record keeping for tax becomes onerous, more and more freelancers and contractors are choosing umbrella payroll services companies to do the work for them. These companies act as employers to individuals and will issue payslips and account for PAYE tax to the Inland Revenue.