Episode 101: A sneak peek inside the ‘How to Get a Graduate Job’ course

July 11, 2020 Podcast

Hello and welcome to the 101st episode of the Graduate Job Podcast, the UK’s number 1 careers podcast. And I have a special episode for you today, with 2 big announcements. 1 relating to my upcoming course ‘How to Get a Graduate Job’, and one brilliant giveaway for you which I reveal at the end of the episode. In the show today I give you a sneak peek inside my upcoming course and give you a taste of what you can expect in each of the 8 modules. We cover why I’m releasing a course in the first place, and what the course involves. We explore each of the 8 modules in turn and why they will transform your job search and your life and will save you years of wasted applications. No matter where you are in your job search, if you have ever thought about getting help with your applications or not, this is an episode which you are not going to want to miss. Before we get started links and a full transcript from today can be found in the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/episode101.

MORE SPECIFICALLY IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

  • What you can expect from the ‘How to Get a Graduate Job’ course
  • Details of the 8 modules and what is included at each stage
  • The goodies, bonuses and handouts, and why you need to sign up so that you can be one of the first to get the course
  • Why I am developing the course and the years of work which have gone into it
  • When the course will go live

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Transcript – Episode 101: A sneak peek inside the ‘How to get a graduate job’ course

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 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.

Hello and welcome to the 101st episode of the Graduate Job Podcast, the UK’s number 1 careers podcast. And I have a special episode for you today, with 2 big announcements. 1 relating to my upcoming course ‘How to Get a Graduate Job’, and one brilliant giveaway for you which I reveal at the end of the episode. In the show today I give you a sneak peek inside the soon to be released ‘How to Get a Graduate Job’ course and give you a taste of what you can expect in each of the 8 modules. We cover why I’m releasing a course in the first place, and what the course involves. We explore each of the 8 modules in turn and why they will transform your job search and your life and will save you years of wasted applications. No matter where you are in your job search, if you have ever thought about getting help with your applications or not, this is an episode which you are not going to want to miss. Before we get started links and a full transcript from today can be found in the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/episode101.

Now if you are a long time listener to the show you will know that I’ve been working hard in the background for several years now on an online course which is cunningly called ‘How to Get a Graduate Job’. The course is a labour of love and its whole and singular premise is to help you get a graduate job.

Quite a few of you have been in touch to find out more about the course and exactly what it includes, so today I’m going to peel back the curtain on what exactly that you can expect from it, and what it will include. Now as well as running the podcast, I’ve been coaching people for the last 6 years in how to get that first graduate job after university, and its something I absolutely love! I love meeting new people, and being able to give them help and guidance which allows them to fulfil their potential, and get that job which ultimately changes their lives.

I started the podcast nearly 6 years ago. At the time I was working as a management consultant, and as part of the ‘internal work’ that you had to do, I was actively involved in a lot of the graduate recruitment. Assessing in assessment centres, interviewing applicants and being the graduate on display at careers events, and I was constantly surprised at the gap between what I and the company expected, and where candidates were. I was shocked at the basic mistakes that candidates kept making and the basic ways that they were letting themselves down. It wasn’t that they were bad candidates or that they wouldn’t have been brilliant employees, it was just that they didn’t know and weren’t aware of what they needed to do. This is the exact reason I started the podcast to try to bridge this gap, to provide advice, hints, and guidance of what you need to do to impress throughout the application process and to get the graduate job.

This is also the approach I take with my one on one coaching. I love coaching, there is nothing more satisfying than working with people to help them get their dream job. Sometimes they come to me after having spent a year applying for jobs, they’ve applied to sometimes 40 different graduate schemes and not got passed the online application stage and they don’t know why, or they’re failing at the interview or assessment centre stage. People don’t get rejected here because they are bad candidates, they get rejected because they aren’t properly prepared and because they don’t know what to expect. These are two key aspects I work on with my coaching clients. Coaching is great fun, but especially when I’m working full time, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to coach all the people who would like my help.  And this is why I’ve been working so hard to create a course. This way I will be able to help far more people with the course than I ever could do through one on one coaching.  I’ve been beavering away to condense down my years of knowledge from the podcast, from those 100 interviews with my guests, from my experience with my coaching clients and the trials and tribulations they have been through, and my own personal experience of both sides of the graduate recruitment fence. Condensing all this down into a course which I know is going to get results, and which is going to help you get a graduate job. It’s frustrating when I see people wasting years of their life, applying for graduates jobs in a scattergun way and wondering why they keep getting rejected, and having to wait another year to apply, or lowering their standards and instead accepting any job they can get and giving up their dream of a graduate scheme. This is all so avoidable if you know the secrets of what graduate recruiters are looking for, and this is what you will learn in my course which will transform you into a laser focussed job seeker who can be confident going into every stage of the process. So I’ve given you some background there, so let’s explore exactly what the course covers.

The course is made up of 8 modules which will take you step by step through each aspect of the graduate recruitment process, sharing insider hints and tips to ensure that you ready for everything that you will face, so you will sail through the process. The format of the course is a series of video presentations, where I take you through each of the 8 modules. The first module is on the mindset needed to get a graduate job. An absolutely crucial first step which 99% of people applying for graduate jobs haven’t ever thought about. This module ensures that you start your job search on the right foot, in the right frame of mind and focussing on exactly the right things and with the correct behaviours. Get some of these aspects wrong and you aren’t going to be successful through the process.

Module 2 covers the Pre-Application phase of the process, again, one which the vast majority of candidates completely overlook. Getting a graduate job is akin to running a marathon. The problem is that the majority of candidates who apply ignore the pre-application phase, which is like turning up at the start for the marathon having done 3 days training, and then wondering why it hasn’t gone well. Like a marathon, you need to start preparing months out from the big day to ensure you are ready. And that is what module 2 does, it gets you ready for the start line. Covering what you need to be working on and practising, what and how to do research and crucially who you need to be speaking to. Get these in place and you’re setting yourself up for success. More on this later.

Speaking of the start line, module 3 covers the initial application phase and is split into online applications, CVs, and cover letters. 70% of candidates fail at this stage, yep 70%, so we go deeeeep into exactly what you need to do to make sure that you are one of the 30% that sails through this stage unscathed. This module is a biggy, with individual videos on CVs, Cover Letters, and online applications. We cover how to create CVs and cover letters which are going to get you results, and included are templates that you can customise and use for yourself, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, or use a ropey CV format from a friend of a friend. I really go into detail on how to answer the questions that you will face with an online application, yes those answers that range between 50-500 words, of why you want to work for company X or the competency questions you will face. I share insider secrets of how to answer these and the crucial mistakes that most candidates make. We spend a lot of time in this module, but if you don’t get this right, then you won’t be progressing to the next stage.

Speaking of the next stage, module 4 is online tests. I cover what exactly you need to be doing to beat this stage of the process which is explicitly designed to whittle down the numbers. Between 50-70% of candidates fall at this stage, and after watching the video for module 4 you will make sure this isn’t you.

Module 5 is another chosty one as it covers the initial interview stage and has 6 separate videos. I cover how to answer competency questions, strength-based questions, and also the ‘Why’ questions such as ‘why this firm’ etc. There are also additional videos on video interviews, and one on telephone interviews. Lots to take in in this module, and by the end of it you will feel ready to rock and roll, with your STAR and STARE techniques, strengths-based questions, the how many marbles in a jam jar type question and the ‘if you were a biscuit what biscuit would you be’ type question. No matter what they ask you will be ready for a perfect answer.

Module 6 is also a biggy, as it encompasses the stage that strikes fear into many people….assessment centres. For this module, I’ve split it up into separate videos on getting ready for the assessment centre, and then ones on group exercises, presentations, role-plays and finally what is normally the very last stage in the process, the interview. Phew, lots to take in in this stage at what is your chance to shine and impress in person.

Depending on how you get on with the assessment centre will depend on if you jump to module 7 or 8 first. If all goes well you would go to Module 7 first, as that covers the offer and what you need to do next to get ready to start your graduate job. If it didn’t go to plan, then head to module 8 which covers rejection and how to learn from your mistakes and move on. Rejection is a fact of life in applying for jobs, so how you deal with it and learn from it is vitally important.

So, 8 broad modules walking you through every step of the process from getting ready to apply to dealing with the offer. In addition to the video modules there are also a plethora of handouts, cheat sheets and checklists to help you throughout, from the complete guide to power verbs that you need to be including in your application, to the insider guide to the recruitment questions you will face, to the example CV and cover letter that you can pick up and use. As a special bonus to the first people that sign up, I’m also going to offer 3, one-on-one checkpoint coaching sessions to make sure you are on track. For the first, we will review your initial online application before it goes in, so I can offer feedback and advice so you aren’t one of the 70% who fail here. For the second checkpoint, we will do a mock recorded video interview, where you will do a recorded interview and then we can watch it back together and review it, so you know what to expect at this difficult stage. And finally, for the 3rd session, we will prepare you for your assessment centre when you get to the final stage. So you can walk in there with confidence. These one-on-one coaching bonuses are worth hundreds of pounds, but they are going to be limited to the first people that sign up, so you need to make sure you sign up to hear about the course as soon as it goes live….more on that shortly.

So, I’ve told you all about the course, so now its time for the first big reveal of the show. I’m pleased to say that the course will be going live……..on Thursday the 27th of August! So mark that date in your diary. Thursday the 27th of August for the launch of ‘How to Get a Graduate Job’. And if this is something which you are interested in, then as I said, make sure you take advantage of the limited bonus offers I’ll be including at the beginning such as the free one-on-one checkpoint coaching sessions.

Now I mentioned earlier when discussing module 2 about the pre-application phase just how important this stage is to getting yourself ready for when you apply for a graduate job. I used the analogy of getting ready to run a marathon, and after having run 7 marathons, (not all at once I might add), I know how crucial it is to prepare early, which is why I want to help you out today and which takes us to the second big reveal of the episode. Getting this stage right makes such a massive difference to your chances of getting a graduate job. Which is why I’ve created my free guide on the topic, ‘The 5 steps you must take before applying for graduate jobs’. As this episode goes live in July, it gives you 3 months before the majority of the graduate schemes open, plenty of time to apply these golden steps and to set yourself up for success. The early stage of the graduate recruitment process is horribly competitive, as I said earlier….70% of people don’t get through the initial online application, and that is because they don’t know and won’t follow my 5 crucial steps. Get my free guide, digest it and implement it. I’m not talking lightly when I say it will change your entire approach for getting ready to apply to graduate jobs. The LinkedIn tip alone in step number 4 has completed revolutionised the way that my coaching client’s network on LinkedIn. By following these steps you will be on the front foot from the beginning and will be setting yourself up for success. If you know getting a graduate job isn’t going to be easy, and you want to do something different to give yourself a head start, head on over to http://howtogetagraduatejob.com/5steps/. That’s http://howtogetagraduatejob.com/5steps/ to get a free copy of ‘The 5 steps you must take before applying for graduate jobs’. You won’t be disappointed that you did. 

So two takeaways for you, the first is get the 27th of August in your diary, put it in your phone, set a reminder. It’s the day that ‘How to Get a Graduate Job’ goes live! The second thing to do it head straight to http://howtogetagraduatejob.com/5steps/ and download my 5 insider secret Jedi steps that you must take before applying for graduate jobs. It’s there and waiting for you right now.

So that is everything from today, you’ve got your 2 actions for the day, let me know how you get one. Next week, I’m joined on the show by Capgemini who are discussing their brilliant graduate schemes. I hope you enjoyed the episode today, but importantly; I hope you use it and apply it. See you next week.