Episode 85 – 3 lessons you can learn from my coaching calls with clients as they apply for graduate jobs

October 28, 2019 Podcast

Hello and welcome to the 85th episode of the Graduate Job Podcast where I share with you 3 lessons you can learn from my coaching calls with clients as they apply for graduate jobs. As a career coach I work with clients who are applying for graduate jobs and internships, and in this episode I pick out and share 3 key lessons from these coaching sessions. We explore why you need to be thinking very carefully about what your unique selling points are as you apply for graduate jobs, why you need patience before you rush off and start applying for jobs, and finally why underestimating the psychometric tests could prove your undoing. Don’t worry if you have started applying already, as this is still an episode which you aren’t going to want to miss. Now the only link you need to remember from today is https://www.graduatejobpodcast.com/85, as that has all of the links to everything I discuss and a full transcript which you can download, so make sure you head on over there.

And don’t forget to check out today’s sponsor who are our friends over at CareerGym.com. Career Gym is the number one place for you to undertake all of your psychometric tests which you will face when you apply for a graduate job. No matter what graduate job you apply for you’re going to have to face some type of verbal reasoning, situational judgment, and working style tests. You can practice these at CareerGym.com. Use code GJP to get 20% off all of their tests!

MORE SPECIFICALLY IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

  • Why you need to be thinking very carefully about what your unique selling points are as you apply for graduate jobs
  • Why patience is very much a virtue when you are applying for graduate jobs
  • Why underestimating psychometric tests can very quickly derail your graduate job search

Don’t forget, also make sure you check out https://www.graduatejobpodcast.com/subscribe which links to how to subscribe on Itunes, Spotify, Youtube, and by email. So something for everyone there.

SELECTED LINKS:

Transcript- Episode 85 – 3 lessons you can learn from my coaching calls with clients as they apply for graduate jobs

Announcer: Welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, your home for weekly information and inspiration to help you get the graduate job of your dreams.

James: Hello and welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, with your host James Curran. The Graduate Job Podcast is your home for all things related to helping you on your journey to finding that amazing job. Each episode I bring together the best minds in the industry, speaking to leading authors, graduate recruiters and career coaches who bring decades of experience into a byte size show. Put simply, this is the show I wish I had when I graduated.

And a warm welcome to the 85th episode of the Graduate Job Podcast, I’m nearly 2 months into my Asia tour and this episode today comes to you all the way from the beautiful mountain kingdom of Bhutan. I’ve a special episode for you today as I share 3 key lessons from my coaching calls over the last 2 months with my coaching clients as they apply for graduate jobs and year in industry internships. I love coaching and working with people and helping them get their dream jobs. It’s so satisfying to help people develop and see them succeed, especially in areas they might have struggled in in the past, and today I wanted to pick out 3 key lessons from my recent coaching calls that you can put to use on your search for a graduate job.

Lesson 1 – What are your unique selling points?

Everyone. No matter who you are has unique selling points that you need to be highlighting on your applications. These are the facts that you need to be shouting from the rooftops to the recruiter on each application to show them how great you will be for the job. Now of course they differ from person to person, but everyone has them. It might be, your grades, that you have a first or have got one so far all the way through uni. It could be your work experience, it could be your language skills, it could be the specific course you did, it could be the university you went to, it could be your year abroad, it could be the volunteering you’ve done, the university activities you did, or the societies you were part of, the sporting achievements you have or the dissertation you wrote. There are 2 core activities I do with my clients, the first identify what exactly there unique selling points are, and the second once we have identified them is to make sure that they are front and centre in the CV or covering letter, not hidden away buried beneath a mountain of text where you assume and hope the recruiter will see them, but nice and prominent and bold so that they can’t miss them. This focus on unique selling points is needed for 2 reasons, the first is that often the client hasn’t actually ever thoughts about what exactly their key strengths are that they need to be highlighting to recruiters, and the second is that they often take their strengths for granted and downplay them. If you grow up bilingual it’s just normal to you, and you can underplay how valuable these skills are to recruiters, or if they have great work experience on their CV they can assume that it is common and that everyone is the same. So, it’s my job to help them focus on these USPs so they can play to their strengths at this initial application phase and also as we move to the interviews. So what can you dear listener do? Have a think about your key skills and pick out the three USPs you have that will be of interest to each graduate job you are applying to. These are the 3 things that will make them think ‘Yes, this is the candidate for us’ as they read your application. Keep in mind though, that of course these 3 USPs could differ from company to company. Once you’ve got these 3 things, make sure that you are making the most of them and bringing them to the fore in you CV, covering letter and when you get to interviews.

Lesson 2 – Patience.
My coaching clients come to me as they want help applying for graduate jobs, and ultimately, they want results. They are investing in themselves; they are enthusiastic and naturally they want to crack on, ‘let’s go and get applying for some graduate jobs’. But….one of my roles is to temper that enthusiasm, especially at the beginning,  and make sure that before we head off willy nilly pinging out graduate job applications that we are focussed on who we are applying to, and that the initial applications are as good as they can be….not ‘yeah they are ok’, but ‘yes it is brilliant!’ My role as a coach at this initial stage is to hold the clients back, as I know that what they think is good enough could be much much better. This is often the case with the CV and covering letter where (linked to lesson 1 on unique selling points) the messaging is not clear, it’s too wordy and you’re not able to clearly see the message that they are trying to get across. So, it’s about spending the time to work on these, making sure they link with exactly what each company is looking for, and the so the USPs shout from the page and are nice and prominent. This time and patience at the beginning really is crucial and serves my clients well further down the line. So dear listener, what can you do? What tip is once you have completed your CV and covering letter is to give it to a friend and ask them to pick out what they think are the 3 key messages you are trying to get across. See if the ones they pick are the ones you wanted to get across, if not, have some patience and go back to the drawing board. Lesson 3 – Practice the tests

Lesson 3 – Practice the psychometric tests
The next lesson is a recurring theme for regular listeners to the show, the need to practice psychometric tests. I was working with one client on his CV and covering letter for a graduate job he really wanted. He was excited about this one and we had spent some time on the CV and covering letter and they were looking good! We sent them off and straight away they came back and said ‘well done you have made it to the next stage, the psychometric tests’. My client thought they were ready and gave it their best shot, but the next day they quickly found out they had failed the numerical and situational judgement tests. And with that it was the end of their application. Do not pass go, do not collect £200, thanks but no thanks. They could have been the perfect candidate, with the perfect experience and perfect CV and covering letter, and they could have been the best employee. But we will never now know, all because they failed the psychometric tests. So, the moral of the story and the lesson they learnt is you need to practice and practice and practice to make sure you are in the top percentiles for each of these tests. How do you do this? By practicing, not with some free tests online or your GCSE notes, but with some paid for sites. I’ve linked to 3 of the best in the show notes, Assessment Day, Job Test Prep and Career Gym. Use the links in the show notes and help support the show as they each provide a small commission to the show at no cost to you. On each of these you will be able to see how you are performing against your peers so you can see what work you need to do. It’s no point putting time and energy into your application if you are going to scrimp and save here.

So there you go, 3 lessons for you to learn courtesy of my brilliant coaching clients which will help you improve your graduate job applications. If you would also like some expert help as you apply for a graduate job or internship, then get in touch. You only get one shot each year when applying for graduate jobs, so invest in yourself and your future to make sure are as prepared as you can be. Check out www.graduatejobpodcast.com/coaching for the details. I offer a free initial 30-minute coaching call so you have nothing to lose. Drop me a line at hello@graduatejobpodcast.com and we can take it from there. So, episode 85 in the bag. Join me next week when I’ll be in India and will have an episode for you on video interviews. I hope you enjoyed the episode today, but importantly I hope you use it and apply it. See you next week.