Episode 119: How Sibrah got 5 Graduate Jobs!

August 3, 2021 Podcast

For the 119th episode of the Graduate Job Podcast, I speak with a listener of the show Sibrah, as she shares how she managed to get an amazing 5 graduate jobs on top graduate schemes. Sibrah signed up for the How to Get a Graduate Job course back in September last year, and we discuss how following the steps in the course led her to be so successful in getting so many job offers.  She shares her experience of going through the application process for a range of different firms, sharing her insights into what she learnt from the CV application stage, completing over 40 different psychometric tests, and just how she managed to have a 100% pass rate at the recorded video interview stage. Getting a graduate job on one graduate scheme is an achievement, so you are going to want to keep listening to find out just how Sibrah managed to get 5 offers of graduate jobs. Now the links to the show notes today including a full transcript you can download and links to everything we discuss can be found at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/Sibrah. In the show today I also announce that the How to Get a Graduate course is now OPEN again for enrolments. As a very special offer for a limited time only I’m including £375 of 1-2-1 coaching with yours truly if you sign up before the 31st of August. That is 5 hours of one-on-one coaching with me where we can practice recorded video interviews, get you ready for assessment centres, get your CV perfected, whatever you want to cover. You have 5 hours with me to use as you see fit. This offer will run to the 31st of August so don’t hang about, sign up now at https://howtogetagraduatejob.com/.

MORE SPECIFICALLY IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

  • Why Sibrah joined the How to Get a Graduate Job course, and why she thinks you should too.
  • How Sibrah managed to secure an unbelievable 5 graduate jobs!
  • Sibrah’s secrets for having a 100% pass rate for recorded video interviews
  • Her advice for making sure your CV stands out from the crowd
  • How she kept on top of over 40 applications for different graduate schemes
  • The £375 of bonus coaching with me that is on offer if you sign up for the How to Get a Graduate Job course before the 31st of August!

SELECTED LINKS INCLUDE:

Transcript 119 – How Sibrah got 5 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 Curran: Hello, and welcome to the show today. I’ve got an inspiring episode for you, as continuing my recent episodes with listeners to the show, I am today joined by recent business management graduate Sibrah as she shares how she managed to secure, not one, not two, not three, not four, but 5 graduate jobs, with highly competitive graduate schemes. Yes, you heard that right….5 graduate jobs. Now Sibrah is just like you, a listener to the show who got in touch with me over a year ago now for one-on-one coaching, and then signed up to the first launch of my How to Get a Graduate Job course back in September last year. In today’s episode, she shares her experience of going through the application process for a range of different firms, sharing her insights into what she learnt from the CV application stage, completing over 40 different psychometric tests, and just how she managed to have a 100% pass rate at the recorded video interview stage. Getting a graduate job on one graduate scheme is an achievement, so you are going to want to keep listening to find out just how Sibrah managed to get 5 offers of graduate jobs. Now the links to the show notes today including a full transcript you can download and links to everything we discuss can be found at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/Sibrah which is SIBRAH.

So the last 5 episodes with Jack, Athavan, Callum, Saffy and Sibrah, all have one thing in common, aside from the fact they all get amazing grad jobs, it’s that they were all the founding members of my How to Get a Graduate Job online course. 7 people joined the course and I’m extremely proud to say that they ALL got graduate jobs, with most of them, as you’ll hear with Sibrah, getting multiple offers. And I’m pleased to say that I’ve opened up the updated and improved version of the course for new members for this new application cycle, and as a very special offer for a limited time only I’m including £375 of 1-2-1 coaching with yours truly if you sign up before the 31st of August. That is 5 hours of one-on-one coaching with me where we can practice recorded video interviews, get you ready for assessment centres, get your CV perfected, whatever you want to cover. You have 5 hours with me to use as you see fit. This offer will run to the 31st of August so don’t hang about, get yourself to www.howtogetagraduatejob.com and sign up now. Of course this is in addition to the 14 hours of video tutorial content, handouts and cheat sheets galore, private members Facebook group, and weekly webinars. Look if you need it to get a graduate job it’s in the course. And you want proof it works, listen to my episode with Sibrah and the previous 4 episodes…it worked for them and it will work for you too. That’s www.howtogetagraduatejob.com, and I look forward to you joining me in the course soon. Ok, let’s jump into the show with Sibrah.

James Curran: I am very excited to welcome to the show, listener of the show, and course alumni member of the How to Get a Graduate Job Course, and also, believe it or not, the owner of five graduate job offers. Welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, Sibrah.

Sibrah: Hi, James. Nice to be speaking to you today.

James: Great to have you on the show, and today, we’re going to explore just how you managed to get five offers for graduate jobs, which is unbelievable, and we will go through what you managed to do and the secrets for how you got so many offers from different companies. Before we do, let’s start at the beginning. Do you want to give the listeners a little introduction to who you are?

Sibrah: Yeah. Hi, my name’s Sibrah. I graduated in 2020, studying a business management degree from the University of Surrey. It was really interesting, and I really enjoyed it, and whilst I was doing that, I did some work experience in consulting. That’s the route that I wanted to go to and get my graduate job in that. That’s a little bit about me.

James: Perfect. You got in touch, initially. I was going through my emails on the 11th of May, so we’re looking at recording this mid-July, so 14 months ago. I can’t believe it was that long ago that you got in touch. What made you initially reach out and email me?

Sibrah: It does feel like ages ago now, but the reason I emailed you was, in my third year, I had done a few applications and gone through the processes of some of the jobs, and gone quite far in some, but not as far in others. All I did was Google graduate jobs looking on Instagram, just seeing where I could go for some sort of help, or those kinds of things, and I think I saw your podcast because I’m quite an avid listener of different podcasts, and I thought it was really interesting, and you’d done hundreds of different podcasts and things. I was just listening to those, and I thought I’d reach out and email you just so I could get some more in-depth talks and trying to figure out what I’ve done well and what I could improve on in the future in trying to get or secure a really good grad job.

James: I can remember when we initially spoke, you mentioned that year, in your final year at uni, you applied to, I think, about 30 jobs, and you got to the assessment centre for was it two?

Sibrah: Yeah, two, three.

James: I can remember thinking I can definitely help you here. Initially, you signed up for the 10-hour coaching package that I offer, but I think your brother ended up nicking half the sessions, didn’t he? I was splitting my time between coaching you and coaching your brother.

Sibrah: It ended up because I did reach out to you in May, and that was the end of the grad job season, so at that time, there weren’t many jobs available for me to be applying to, and my brother randomly got into a degree apprenticeship application for an FMCG company, so I thought that he could use those hours and get a little bit of coaching from you whilst I don’t really have much to do a lot of times.

James: This time of year, it’s sort of the graveyard shift of looking for graduate jobs. In the summer then, later in the summer, towards the end of August, you initially signed up for the three-month unlimited coaching package. Why did you go for this one?

Sibrah: I thought it would be a really great time to start that because, initially, around September, or October, November, at the time, where loads of jobs are coming out, at least one or sometimes five a day are coming out, so that’s really the time it’d be really helpful for that coaching, going through applications, or even video interviews further down the line. That was a really good package for me, as I knew that I was doing this full-time, so I thought as much help as I can get, I would try and get from that unlimited package.

James: Yeah, and we spent a lot of time at the beginning working on a couple of things, really. One was just making sure your CV was as impressive as it could be, and we got it to a really, really impressive stage, and then also just focusing on video interviews. We did lots of video interview prep. Let’s break those down. Any thoughts or advice on the CV stage that you’d like to pass onto people?

Sibrah: I know that you’ve said this so many times, but it’s just tailoring your CV to every application. Even now, when I speak to some people, they’re still quite shocked as I have a CV for every company. I’ve applied to basically 30. Definitely, just tailoring that CV, and just reflecting back on your previous jobs or your experiences and just trying to find out what you did and the strengths that you gained from it, or the skills that you gained from it, because a lot of the time, people have done things and they don’t really look at the big impacts that they’ve had, or just like, “Oh, it’s just a customer service role, or it’s just this.” Actually, when you look through and reflect and give yourself that time to do so, your CV is really able to shine from that.

James: Definitely, and as you said, the fact that your friends were surprised that you have a different CV for each company just shows the value of it and just why it’s so important to do because it really does make you stand out. We did spend a lot of time on that and just making sure that each CV was really crafted and tailored to the specifics of the company that you’re applying to. It wasn’t just one CV for, say, a consulting CV. It was, as you said, really tailored to each specific consulting company that you were applying to so it could stand out, and you did that really, really well.

Let’s start at the beginning then. Where was your thinking, initially, when you started applying in terms of which companies you applied to? I’ve got your application tracker here, and impressively, you applied to 46 — no sorry, 43, I beg your pardon. 43 different companies over the course of this little application cycle. Where was your thinking, initially, then in terms of the companies that you wanted to apply to first?

Sibrah: Initially, right at the start even when me and James were talking before I applied to any, it was really the consulting route, but also any kind of large corporate companies with business or finance-type graduate schemes that could offer training and that experience alongside, so initially it was definitely a lot of just consulting, but then opened up the search to any industry, but in the business or finance route, as I’ve done a business route previously.

James: As well as working on your CVs, one of the things that you spent a lot of time in was putting the practice into the online testing phase, because they come very quick and shortly afterwards. I’m just looking again at your tracker, so it tends to be the gap between you putting your application in and then having to do the test is, on average, three days, three to four days for a lot of companies. The Civil Service, you applied on the 20th, and you completed the test on the 23rd. Listeners, you don’t have long to get your skills up for the online testing phase. How did you find practicing for that? What were the challenges you faced?

Sibrah: It’s really important to be practicing your tests even maybe before you’ve applied, so the summer before or if you have that time before, just make sure that you’re practicing. The reason being once you’ve submitted your application, it’s normally a very automated process. It automatically gives you, within seven days or within five days, you have to do the test, so it’s quite difficult to do your application and then have those few days of practice. If you’ve had that initial practice, then it takes less time during that really crucial period. However, I did have some challenges at the start. Normally, with numerical reasoning, even though I wouldn’t say that I’m horrible at maths, but it’s just the time periods and the time that you have is really short even though it’s quite basic maths. Just getting used to that and being able to do the maths quickly is something really important, and that’s only through practice that I get better in. You do get better quite quickly, so practice makes perfect, really.

James: Definitely, and just looking, again, at your tracker, there was a couple you did fail initially. That served as, maybe, a kick up the bum in terms of just the standard that was required for some of them, especially the more numeric consulting firms. After that, then you flew through all of them, and you did really well, but it was great advice, as you said. Listeners, this is going to go out in July. There’s no reason why, if you know you’re going to be applying for jobs in September, you wouldn’t start the online testing phase now and just getting that practice up. You don’t want to start practicing when you submit it because you’re going to be properly behind the curve. If you know you’re going to be applying, why would you not get yourself ready and just start building that muscle straight away? Quickly coming after the online tests for a lot of companies was the video interview stage. Had you done any recorded video interviews before this application cycle?

Sibrah: I had done about two or three, so quite limited in my experience with video interviews.

James: One of the things that we did practice on and was part of the course came with what you had, the unlimited package. We did lots and lots of mock recorded video interviews. I can remember your initial performance, the reason we did most of the practice, one of the things you struggled with was time and just getting your answer in within the initial two minutes, or three minutes, or whatever the countdown timer was, which is why we practice them. How did you find those initial practice sessions?

Sibrah: Initially, it was quite brutal and I didn’t know how people could do it within the time limit and get everything in within the time and be able to explain themselves. I really thought it was kind of like I just didn’t know how people did it, but I think I’m probably going to be saying this a lot, but it was just the practice that we did. Multiple times, and having that little bit of confidence as well because you’ve gone through a few of the stages now, and it’s normally the video interview comes one before the assessment centres, so right at the end. Just having a little bit of confidence in your abilities, but also just making sure you’re practicing, being able to really shorten your answers, making them very concise is something that you have to learn to do as well.

James: It’s definitely a skill, and listeners, you don’t want to be doing it for the first time. When it really counts, you have a company you really want a graduate job for, you don’t want to be like, “Oh yeah, this is the first time I’m going to do a recorded video interview.” It just doesn’t make any sense. You wouldn’t do that in any other walk of life you practiced. Practice really does make perfect, and it does pay to do that. Check out the show notes, which you can find today at GraduateJobPodcast.com/Sibrah where I link to my service where we can do mock recorded video interviews tailored specifically to you, specifically to the companies you’re applying to, the same time limits, and the same questions that you’re going to face from the real thing just to make sure that you are performing at your best and not leaving anything to chance.

Sibrah, you mentioned that you were doing this full time. In the initial period, so looking at your tracker, towards the end of September, beginning of October, where a lot of these companies were opening up, how did you prioritize your time? How did you balance, A, all of these companies you wanted to work for, submitting quality applications, which you did, and then making sure you were ready for the testing and the video interviews? How did you manage this?

Sibrah: A lot of it actually comes down to very simple concepts, and one of them is I just did a lot of to-do lists, and listing, and just prioritizing everything that I had. I basically have a list for everything, so I’d have a weekly list, a daily list. That really helped me just make sure that even within the month what I wanted to do longer-term periods, so within three months, what do I want to have achieved by then, or within the hour, what I need to do and what time things are submitted, or the deadlines. Definitely, prioritizing all of that, being really organized and meticulous in everything you’re doing was really helpful.

James: At the same time, as part of the unlimited package you had, you were part of the How to Get a Graduate Job Course as well. How did you find going through the process with a cohort of other people who were also applying for jobs at the same time?

Sibrah: It was really nice to have those people going through the same processes you were, being able to talk about it weekly with everybody. I definitely recommend it to anyone, and especially as a lot of my friends weren’t applying this year or had already got a job, so it left me with not many people in the same position as me, so it was really nice to have people applying to similar roles or similar companies, and just being able to talk about anything in terms of jobs, or interviews, or things like that, and having that support from them.

James: Yeah, and that’s the beauty of the course is there’s weekly meetings where everyone gets together, we share where we are, we go through reviewing each other CVs so you can learn from other people and see what their CV looks like. We’d go through recorded video interviews so you can see how other people answer them, and their skills and techniques, and help critique them, and they could help critique you, and also did the mock group exercises as well just so you could understand what it’s like to be in a group exercise situation, which is something which is very alien. Again, practice does make perfect with these, so it’s good to make sure you get the practice in beforehand.

Let’s take you back to September, October, November time. In terms of morale, how were you going through this period? I know other people had a bit of a dip, and we’ve talked about that in the episodes with Jack, and Athavan, and Callum. How did you keep your spirits up at this time?

Sibrah: Initially, so September, October, November time was quite good. I was really in full force with the application. I was doing so many applications at the time, and the testing, and things like that. Because there was so much on, I was able to be distracted and just basically doing work all the time. Initially, morale was kind of good, but it did kind of dip, as you were talking about the rest of the group.

James: What, personally, did you do to try and mitigate that? How did you keep your spirits up?

Sibrah: It was quite difficult because it was during lockdown, so not many things were open, and you weren’t able to see your friends, or go to the gym, and things like that, which you normally would do which would help a lot in terms of mentally and physically. The things that I was just making sure that I was doing is trying to spend a little bit of time just on myself, or doing something that I like, or a little bit of cooking, or reading, and things like that just to get my mind off, basically, just applying for jobs the whole time.

James: Did you treat it as a full-time job? Were you doing it eight hours a day or more? How much time and effort did you put in?

Sibrah: Pretty much, it was a full-time job, maybe even more than that because I wasn’t really giving myself weekends off. Unfortunately, with the timings of, for example, interviews or tests, you had the certain amount of days, and you don’t really get weekends off. If you have to get a video interview on a Sunday, unfortunately, you do have to do it then. It sometimes does end up that you haven’t had a day off in many days, so that is a little bit of an issue, and I’d probably say to people listening to just make sure that you’re aware of giving yourself that time off and not just going at it for such a long period of time.

James: Yeah, completely agree. Just having that something that you can do to break and just relieve the stress and tension is definitely recommended. How did your approach to the types of companies you applied to changed? In the beginning, we mentioned a focus on consulting, but there’s not that many consulting companies who have large graduate schemes. How did it evolve in terms of the companies you were applying to?

Sibrah: As you were saying, there’s only a certain amount of consulting companies that I was able to apply to, so once I’d done that, I was really interested. The thing with doing a business degree is that I’ve been really interested in a lot of different industries, and doing different assignments on things, so I have a little interest in lots of different things. That was quite good because I was able to share that with the companies that I was applying to, and having a lot of interest in lots of different industries did help me because, sometimes, maybe if somebody saw my application tracker, they might think that you’ve applied to everywhere, but I did normally have an interest in that industry, initially.

James: Just to read out a few, we’ve got applications here to credit cards, banks, supermarkets, FMCGs, investment banks, large retailers, logistics companies, the consulting companies we talked about, your Big Four, telecoms. There’s a real mix, but what you did really well, and this goes back to what we talked about at the very beginning, was reading your CV and reading your initial application, it didn’t come across that it was just a cut-and-paste job. It really came across that you might have been applying to an insurance company. There was a couple of insurance companies on this list. It’s still you’d read a CV and it’s like, “Oh wow, Sibrah’s is actually really interested in an insurance company.” You’d be able to pull out the particular aspects of your course, add a maybe financial element of your business degree, or whatever it might be, and it really did come across that you weren’t just blagging it. It wasn’t just, “I’m really excited to apply to ‘insert name of company X’ for these reasons.” How did you manage to, and was it a conscious effort to really make that the case and really tailor it?

Sibrah: Yeah, I definitely think the tailoring aspect and just having a little bit of a genuine interest in that industry is really helpful because it’s very difficult to do applications where you’re not interested at all. Definitely, and in relation to that, I made sure to always be applying for the business or finance routes of that. They were normally quite similar in the sense of the skills that they wanted and the kind of training they were providing as well, and the progression routes. As I stuck to the business roles, it was quite helpful that they did align to a certain degree.

James: Definitely. As you moved later in the year, you were getting the video interviews coming thick and fast. I think this is right. You had 100% success rate with every video interview that you got to. What I mean by this is that every one you did, you passed to the next stage, which is a phenomenal achievement. Well done, and just goes to show the practice really did pay off. What were your lessons and experiences from doing so many video interviews that you learned tips that you can pass onto people?

Sibrah: Thank you. It was really great to see that achievement, and being able to have 100% on all of the video interviews. A few of the things that I would say is I was one of those people who I found it very awkward to be speaking to nobody, basically speaking to the camera. However, in the end, I really actually enjoyed the video interviews, and if I had thought that a few months ago, I’d really be shocked. There’s a few things that you could do. For example, one would be practicing, so whether it’s with your camera in front of you and recording yourself and seeing what that is, and then obviously, with James, I did ones with the time limits, and the questions. Another thing would be to have a bank of some of the answers for if there was a question about why this company or why are you suited to the role, so some of the more generic questions. Having that listed or some answers, or points that you would want to touch upon within the interview, that’s a really helpful tip.

James: Definitely, and what also helped was I know for a couple of the different interviews that, again, this goes back to the value and the power of the How to Get a Graduate Job Course is we have a private Facebook group where we’d share the questions that people were facing in the different interviews.

Again, as you said, even if you know the question, you’d still got to have a good answer, and we worked a lot on your having that bank of competency answers that you said, and also strength answers, and also just the more motivational answers about why you want to work for company X, why you want to work in this particular industry. We spent a lot of time on that, and you had really, really compelling answers there, which is shown by the results you’ve got.

Another couple of things for me that you did really well, and it’s so important when you’re watching back video interviews, which I see quite a lot of them, is your body language was exceptional, and by that, I mean specifically eye contact was really strong. What most people do is they’re looking anywhere but at their webcam, and it’s equivalent, when you’re doing a video interview, the webcam is, in effect, the eyes of the other person. That is what they see. If you’re looking anywhere but the webcam, in effect, it’s like having a conversation with someone where you’re just not looking at them. You’re looking above the camera, you’re looking at the keyboard, you’re looking around to the side, and it makes such a difference to the person watching it if you’re holding that view with looking at the webcam. It’s effectively looking directly at the person who is going to be watching it back, and you did that really, really, really well.

Also, as I mentioned, in terms of body language, you were passionate. You had that movement. You were using your hands, you were expressive, and again, that comes across really well, especially for the video recording software like HireVue, which almost goes where the body language and the tone of your voice is really taken into account, and you did that really, really well. The final thing that you were excellent at was hitting that time limit. In the beginning, something you struggled with, and then it just clicked and you were an expert no matter if you had five seconds left, 10 seconds left. You could just wrap up the answer really well in a nice little neat bow and finish with one or two seconds left, and just keep that gaze for the webcam. You did that really, really well. For me, there were a couple of things that really, really stood out.

Sibrah: Just to add one more point would be that, for people, because I was definitely like this who are very rigid or they are people that look at the paper, or write down their answers previously and regurgitate them, I definitely say that this process, overall, has also taught me to be very flexible and adaptable to different situations just because, for example, there’s only 10 seconds left and you’re only halfway through the answer in the real thing, you have to be able to be flexible and be able to change up what you’re saying, and making sure that you answer it succinctly. Definitely, make sure you’re adaptable to different changes or different things.

James: Completely. You did this really, really well, but it’s a skill which you learned, and you developed, and you put the time in. Listeners, don’t be daunted or feel daunted like this that this isn’t something you can master. This is something you can completely master if you put the same work and energy that Sibrah put in, and she put in a lot of work, but she got the rewards with all of it.

A lot of video interviews end of December, beginning of January time, taking us then to also your early ones in October. Taking us through then to the first assessment centre that you got. The first one was let’s just call them a large multinational logistics company. Do you want to maybe talk us through that initial assessment centre? What was involved? It was your first one this year. How did you feel going into it?

Sibrah: I was pretty daunted by that assessment centre, definitely, but I knew I’d been working for it this whole time, so I was pretty excited as well. At the same time, it was very nerve-wracking. However, I just wanted to make sure that I was going to put my best foot forward.

James: Can you remember what the process was in terms of –? I guess it was January lockdown time, so it was all virtual, it was a group exercise interview. What else was involved?

Sibrah: It was a pretty generic assessment centre. There was a one-on-one interview involved, then there was a group exercise, and then there was an individual presentation that you had to do as well.

James: Any recollections of how any particular challenges, or how they went, or was it all pretty smooth sailing?

Sibrah: That one was actually not too bad. The interview went really well, actually, and the group exercise was not too bad either. However, the individual presentation, it was quite quick and different to what I imagined. That was something that I didn’t know how it went or if it went well, so that was the only thing that I was scared about whether I would get a role or not.

James: Similar to the application stage, what you did really well, and I’m going to put time into this, was really having a good why for why you wanted to work for each of these firms. I mentioned, initially, this is a multinational logistics company. You had a really strong why about why this particular scheme and why this particular company. That was really impressive, and no doubt impressed them because they made you the offer. How did you work on this? What advice would you give people for how they can create that particular why?

Sibrah: In terms of the motivation, I think there’s a few things that you could do. Definitely, be researching about the company in terms of whether they’ve been in the news recently, whether it be their annual statement looking through the whole thing, which I know it takes time, but it really pays off when you are asked that motivation question, which you most likely will be. Additionally, just going onto LinkedIn and speaking to some of the former graduates and getting some insight from them, that was one of the major differences of things that made me stand out compared to other graduates or other people for that role, just having that in-depth insight into the role.

James: Definitely, and that’s something we started working on back in July. I can remember the early sessions was getting you to develop your LinkedIn profile, but also to start reaching out to people for companies who you knew you would be applying to. Listeners, if this is something you’re interested in, finding out how to do properly, check out the show notes at GraduateJobPodcast.com/Sibrah where I link to my five-step guide of the five things you need to do before you start applying for graduate jobs, one of which is telling you how to reach out to people on LinkedIn. It comes with a script to follow when you’re emailing them that really, really works, and you can follow in Sibrah’s footsteps. You did really well with this application, and you got the offer from the logistics company. When was the first offer? Was it the end of Feb?

Sibrah: Yeah, it was around mid to end of Feb.

James: You can see, listeners, the pace that some of these companies are working at. Application for that one went in October time, so you’re talking four months from application to offer. One of the things that we talked about was — the good thing about the group is you’re going through with a cohort of people on the How to Get a Graduate Job Course, but also how did you find it, Sibrah, with the fact that some of the other members got offers quite quickly? Jack, who I interviewed in, I think, episode 114, he got his first offer before Christmas. Offers were starting to come in, and I think other people were getting in January and certainly by February. How were you feeling about this time? Because I noticed you did, and I was trying to keep you G’ed up, and enthusiastic, and, “Don’t worry; it’s coming,” and I don’t think you believed me. Would that be fair?

Sibrah: Yeah, definitely. Obviously, I was really happy for them when they were getting their offers. However, it did have that little bit of comparison creeping up, and you’re thinking that you are putting the effort in, and you feel like there aren’t any results reaping from that. However, definitely what I’ve learnt from this is persevering, and you will get that reward that you put in, or the seed that you sow kind of thing. At first, it was a little bit daunting to see those offers coming in, and you have been applying. However, just making sure that if you’re doing as much as you can within that time period, your time will come to you.

James: Definitely, and I had complete confidence in you, and I kept on saying to you, “Sibrah, don’t worry. They’ll be coming. You’ll get the offers, you’ll get the offers,” because as you said, you were putting the hard work in, you were applying to these companies. You were doing amazingly, you were getting through all the stages. You had 100% success rate with the video interviews. It was just a question of time, and sadly, graduate recruitment is slow. They take their time, they’re chasing people up. It’s really difficult. I knew your time would come, and I kept on telling you, “Sibrah, don’t worry. You’re going to be getting multiple offers, you’ll get multiple offers,” and again, I don’t think you believed me, but we’ll carry on with the story anyway. You got an offer in the bag from the multinational logistics company. How did it feel then when that first offer came through?

Sibrah: It did feel really great just to have that offer, but to be honest, it didn’t feel real at the same time just because you’ve put in so much time and effort, and it had been a lot of months going through the process. Due to my experience a year before, I did get the assessment centres much earlier on, so it was a lot longer, and I wasn’t expecting that, so my expectations were a little bit different. Make sure that you’re either lowering your expectations or not having as many expectations, because once you’re comparing and contrasting, it can have a detrimental effect. It felt really great to have that offer in the bag and just knowing that that work that you put in that they really liked you and they think that you are able to do that role is a really great feeling.

James: With that first offer, did you ever have any thoughts in your head about, “Cool, got it, in the bag, I’m going to pull out of all these other companies”?

Sibrah: Yes, and no. Obviously, it was really great to have that offer, and it really did give me that drive to make sure that once I got that job, I was like, “Okay, wow I can actually do this.” That was the one fence that I had left over to jump, so once I did that, it did feel good, and motivated me. I don’t think that I’d be in this kind of seat right here, so no it was definitely more than I’d ever thought of.

James: I could see a notable increase in confidence. As you said, that’s the final hurdle you kicked over. You know you can do it. Also, it just takes the stress off. I never said you were, but you’re not “desperate”, and some candidates do have that air of desperation of, “Give me the job. Just please give me the job. I’ll do anything for the job,” which is admirable, but also nobody likes people who are desperate. It gave you that confidence of like, “I can do this. I have another job offer, so I want this one, but if I don’t get it, it doesn’t matter. I’m already alright,” which I think really helped you for the other four companies. Let’s take us through the next one then, which is an international telecoms firm which everybody will know. What was the assessment centre like for this one?

Sibrah: This one was quite different, as there weren’t any group exercises, so it was all quite individualized. There was a one-to-one interview, and then there were around two individual case study or presentation type things. It was a little different. With this one, the presentation individual aspect went really well, but with this, whereas in my first job offer, my interview went really well, in this one it wasn’t as great of an interview, so I was kind of worried on that front.

James: No need to be in the end. They got back to you. How long did they take to get back to you? Was it a quick like next day, or was it a couple of weeks’ job?

Sibrah: I think it was a couple of weeks, yeah. It was a bit longer. Some of them were within a week, but some of them were longer to get back.

James: Listeners, advice for you there. No news is good news, so even if it’s two weeks after the assessment centre, Sibrah heard back and she got the offer, so take her up from that. Amazing. You were in two job offers in the bag for two brilliant graduate schemes, but you kept on going. You were still in the process, and offers for assessment centres kept on coming through. It makes sense. Why not carry on with them? The next one, though, was quite interesting. This is for one of the Big Four who all the listeners will know. Am I right in thinking that you initially applied, or you initially wanted consulting, but it was full, so then you switched to audit, and going for an audit role? Is that right?

Sibrah: Yeah, initially I did want to go for the consulting graduate scheme, but I think that had finished or something, so I went for the audit role instead.

James: We talked about this because, they’re an amazing company, everybody knows who they are, but I didn’t think this role would have been the best fit for you. What was your thinking then with going ahead of it just in terms of — some of the guys in the course, Jack and Athavan and Daniel, were applying for audit, audit, audit. That’s all they wanted to do, whereas this one was just — am I right in thinking you liked the company more than you liked the scheme?

Sibrah: Yes, definitely. The company and getting that qualification of accountancy, those were more of my motivational aspects of applying for that role.

James: Focusing on talking about motivation, the fact that you were able to – I’ll say this in a nice way – convince them that audit was the role for you when your heart might not have been set on it is a testament to you and just how well you did with that. Do you want to talk us through the assessment centre for this one and how that one went?

Sibrah: Yeah. This one had an assessment centre, but then also after, you had to pass that to get onto the final partner interview, so it was kind of a three-stage process. With that company, it was quite standard where we had a group activity or exercise, then we had the interview, then we had some sort of presentation. All three of those went pretty well, so I was quite happy, and I pretty much knew that I’d passed it. Because I’d got a few offers, I was able to see whether would I have passed or would I have failed, whereas before I was quite unsure because I hadn’t been in that. I couldn’t critique my own performance. By the time I’d become a little bit more attuned to what they wanted and things, and once I passed that, then we had a partner interview, and that was very relaxed and not formal at all. It was really nice to speak to one of the partners and get to know the firm, and they really just wanted to get to know me. It was a really nice interview.

James: That’s often the final partner interview. As long as you’re not with a law firm, it can be really face-fitting. They’re looking at you with, “Can I see you as part of my team?” and it can be really informal and really relaxed, and there’s not a set list of questions. They’ve got the ability to go off-piste and take the interview where they want it to go. Again, testimony to you that you did so well with this, which was then offer number 3, so congratulations. You are flying at this stage, and I can remember you get in touch and you go, “Yeah, I’ve got number 1.” I was like, “Sibrah, I told you. I told you to keep coming through.” At this stage, did you think, “Alright 3, that’s the one for me,” or were you still thinking, “Okay, let’s keep going”?

Sibrah: By this stage, I think I had become a little bit confident, which is good, but it also makes me a little bit competitive. In your previous year, how many did one of the members get?

James: He got three offers.

Sibrah: You were pushing me along. I learned I was really interested in beating that target. There was a little bit of competition in that sense, and because I think one of the major things I’d have to say is the thing is that all of these were online, and I don’t think I would have done as many assessment centres if they weren’t online. I did about 12 and I had to reject about five. I don’t think I would have ever done as many if they were in real life. Being online was really helpful in terms of that.

James: Yeah, definitely. It just makes it so much easier than having to trek down to London or wherever it is. It definitely makes it easier. The fourth company, we can actually name, which are the Civil Service. You got through to the assessment centre for the Civil Service. How did you find this one? How did the Civil Service compare to these other big multinationals that you got offers from?

Sibrah: The Civil Service, with them, it was different, but it was similar in the sense that it was quite standard with the testing, but there were probably more tests involved. It was a bit of a longer process. They did take their time sometimes to the next stage, but they were quite quick. However, in terms of the assessment centre, that was one of the ones where I struggled in terms of the group exercise, as a lot of them were quite extroverted people, and I’m pretty introverted, and especially on camera, it’s a bit difficult to engage in a group setting. This was one where I was quite intimidated by the people, so it was a little bit of a different experience.

James: It’s interesting you say that because, at this stage, we’d done loads of practice ones, and you’d done loads of real-life ones, but that’s the thing with group exercises is you can practice them, but on the day, it just really depends on the mix of people you get in. It’s always really, really different. You talked about the assessment centre there. What was the outcome of this one? Because, this is slightly different than the others.

Sibrah: With this one, you get a certain grade or points, so if you don’t meet the points that are the average or whatever they’re looking for, the threshold, then you aren’t going through. It’s kind of like if you get the points, you get through, and if you don’t, you don’t. That was the difference with the other ones.

James: The scheme with the Civil Service then is you apply for a particular part of the Civil Service, is that correct? You went for the assessment centre for a particular part of the Civil Service, and then afterwards, they said, “No, you didn’t get the grades to get into this particular part of the Civil Service,” but they then offered you another role in a different part of the Civil Service, is that correct?

Sibrah: Yeah, because my score was, I think, point-something below, they obviously saw that I was a decent enough candidate, so they did offer me a role in a different part of their Civil Service.

James: Which was then offer number 4, so amazing. By this stage, you were nearly ready to finish because you were uhm’ing and ahh’ing between the multinational logistics company and the multinational telecoms company, who have brilliant different business graduate schemes, but then there was the final one that you were really interested in, which was one of the Big Four and their particular consulting graduate scheme. They got in touch and let you know that you were through to the assessment centre for them. That was the biggie. It was interesting because even though you had four job offers on the table and you’d been through the assessment centre before, am I right in thinking then that the nerves are sort of kicking in because this is the one that you really, really, really wanted?

Sibrah: Yeah, definitely that was the case. Even though I had a few in the bag, it definitely hit home just because of the fact that this is what I’d really been going for throughout the start, and then I veered off that path and gone through a different one, but then it also came quite late in the game, and I applied just a few months ago for it, which I didn’t expect to do, and I didn’t expect it to come across. It was a make or break moment for me.

James: How did this assessment go? What was involved in this one?

Sibrah: This one was just the group exercise and an interview, but the interview, it was quite intense compared to the other ones that I’d done, as there were quite a few following questions. They also had a little bit of a case study aspect to it as well. It was multi-faceted in that interview rather than the standard competency or standard strengths-based. It was quite an intense interview, so I was quite 50-50 whether I’d gotten the role or not.

James: The good news came back that you did, and that was it, graduate job number 5, which is an absolutely amazing achievement. You can be so proud of yourself for how well you’ve done that. You hear people talking about the difficulty of getting a graduate job, and you’ve got five. A couple things I just want to dig in with that one, the first of which is – we talked offline about this just before we started recording – how did it feel then to have five offers?

Sibrah: It feels pretty surreal. Because there’s a few aspects as to why just because, obviously, I hadn’t gone to any of the offices, and I feel like going to the assessment centres, it does make it much more real, and just doing it from home is quite a lot different. We were talking about it before that the reason is we get a bit of an anti-climax. You’ve been working for so long, and so hard for so many months, and when it’s there, you just feel like you don’t know what to do.

James: Yeah, because by this stage, the offer for the consulting role of the Big Four probably came through in May. By that stage, you’ve been working for a year on getting a graduate job full-time, by your own definition, from September, so a lot of work had gone in, a lot of energy had gone in, the hours have gone in. It’s one of those things you have in your mind, you want to achieve something, you’ve achieved it, you climbed your Everest, you got to the top, and then it’s like you get that anti-climax of, “Okay, what’s next?” That’s completely normal. You’ve got five offers. How did you then begin to think about which one you were going to take or which one was going to be the right one for you? What were the key criteria that you were mulling over here?

Sibrah: I don’t know if you can say they’re a little bit different, or the roles are not completely the same. There was uhm’ing and ahh’ing between a few of the different graduate schemes, a few of the things such as the training aspects or the progression, “What can the company do for you?” so just looking at all of those kinds of things and just being able to look at the pros and cons and figure it out from there.

James: The advice I was giving you was completely look at the pros and cons. Don’t let salary play much of a part in that decision-making process, listener. Focus on the role, focus on what’s going to make you happy, focus on what’s going to be interesting for you, and the money will come. Some of these schemes have a couple of grand difference in pay, and you think, “Oh yeah, two grand difference, that’s great,” but also after tax in your pocket at the end of the month, you’re not talking much of a difference. It’s not really going to move the needle, whereas if you’re taking a job for an extra two grand, but you hate the job, that’s not going to make you happy in the long run. Three, four years down the line, you are going to be in the same money anyway, so don’t really let salary sway you. Sibrah, I’m just conscious that we’ve been going for a while now. What advice would you give yourself a year ago? If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice, what would you say?

Sibrah: One of them would definitely be prioritize mental health just because you feel like it’s a very crucial point in your life, and you finished your degree, or you’re about to finish your degree, and it’s a big jump into the real world. Just making sure you’re prioritizing your mental health, doing things for you, as we touched on previously, and just being able to realize that things will come. Just make sure you’re doing as much as you can do, but you’re just taking some time out for yourself as well. That would definitely be my advice for anyone going through the same process as me.

James: Definitely, and especially if you’re applying in your final year. If you’ve got exams on, you’ve got work on, you’ve got deadlines on, and you’re trying to get these applications in, just cut yourself some slack. Applying for jobs is a hard, stressful time. You’re putting yourself out there, you’re putting yourself out for criticism and rejection from people you have never met before. Make sure that you’re just finding that balance. Jobs will always be there to apply to next year, so make sure you’re applying at the time that is right for you. A great place, Sibrah, for us to finish the main part of the interview on is just that focus on making sure that listeners prioritize their mental health.

Let’s move on then to our weekly staple questions. I’ll be interested to see what your answers are here, what nuggets you’ve got for the listeners. First question: what one book would you recommend that they should read?

Sibrah: I will have to go for StrengthsFinder. I think this has been mentioned previously, but I just think it was such a good book, and doing the questionnaire as well, it helped in so many of the interviews, and as probably people might know, a lot of the companies are more likely to be doing strengths-based interviews or they’re going towards that path anyway, so I think it’s a really good start to finding out your strengths and being able to reflect, if you have that time, on how your strengths will help you during this process.

James: Great advice, and Jack in episode 115 recommended this one as well. Listeners, if you’ve not got this book yet, you need to get it. As Sibrah said, it’s going to really make a difference and really impress when you go through the application process. Check out the show notes at GraduateJobPodcast.com/Sibrah, which is S-I-B-R-A-H, where you’ll be able to find links to everything we’ve talked about today, including a full transcript and Sibrah’s book recommendation of StrengthsFinder. Next question, Sibrah. What internet resource would you point listeners towards?

Sibrah: I would definitely have to do Bright Network. They’re involved in a lot of different things now. They have the job listings, which is quite standard, but they’ve done a lot of different things such as internship experience, which I did last year, which was really helpful. Additionally, they were doing webcasts around every week about these kinds of things as well. For example, tailoring your CV, or what kind of industries to go into, and things like that. That’s definitely a great one for people who are looking for a job and things like that.

James: Excellent, and again, links to Bright Network, you’ll find in the show notes, GraduateJobPodcast.com/Sibrah. Final question today: what one tip would you give listeners that they can implement today to help them on their job search?

Sibrah: It would definitely be make sure you’re very organized, and there are a lot of deadlines that you have to meet in terms of the test or getting your application in, and for a few of the jobs, I did learn the hard way where you’d think that the job would still be available, but you look in a few days’ time, and it’s not. Definitely being organized, as I was saying, about the listing, and managing your priorities in that sense as well.

James: Brilliant advice. No matter how good your application, if it’s late, you’re going to go in the bin, so make sure that you’re getting them in time, and the sooner, the better just so that you can make sure that you’re not on the waiting list for different graduate jobs. Brilliant advice there, Sibrah. All that remains to say for me is just congratulations. Sibrah, five jobs, unbelievable. As I said earlier, you can just be so, so proud of all the work you’ve done, and the last year, I’ve really, really, really enjoyed working with you. We’ve had a lot of fun, and I wish you every success with your future career.

Sibrah: Thank you so much, James. It’s been really great to have you along in this way, and being such a great support for all of us and within the group as well, and thank you for having me on.

James: Thank you for joining me on the Graduate Job Podcast.

So well done again to Sibrah, hard work pays off, and it certainly did for her. She invested in herself and got the results with 5 graduate job offers. Brilliant work. Yes, she worked hard, but don’t come away from this thinking that Sibrah did anything that you can’t do. She followed my advice from our coaching sessions, she followed the steps from the How to Get a Graduate Job course, she followed the process which I know works and she got the results, and you cant argue with getting 5 graduate job offers from some of the most competitive schemes in the UK. It worked for Sibrah, it worked for Jack in episode 115 with getting 2 jobs in audit, it worked for Callum in episode 116 getting his job in FMCG and also consulting, it worked for Athavan in episode 117 getting his graduate job in audit, it worked for Saffy in episode 118 getting 2 training contracts with legal firms. Just like Sibrah, they invested in themselves, enrolled in the course followed the process, and got the results. Now if you want to get a graduate job then the How to Get a Graduate Job course is just for you, you’ve heard first hand how it works. It takes you through all the stages of getting ready to apply for graduate schemes, from the CV, online applications, recorded video interviews, it’s got 14 hours of video content where I take you through everything you need to know and to do. It’s got handouts galore, cheatsheets, example CVs and cover letters, it comes with a private Facebook group for just you, me and the other course members and also weekly webinars where we go different topics every week. If you want to get a graduate job, this is the course you need! And for the month of August I’m offering a special offer, buy before the 31st of August and get 5 hours of one on one coaching with me worth £375. 5 hours to spend how you want, we could do 5 hours of recorded video practice, or spend it on your CV, getting you ready for the assessment centre, it’s entirely up to you. But this special offer is only good till midnight on the 31st of August so don’t delay. Go to howtogetagraduatejob.com and sign up now. You wont regret it. So episode 119 done, follow in Sibrah’s footsteps go to howtogetagraduatejob.com and you too this time next year could 5 offers for top graduate schemes. Have a good week.