Question about graduates and employment.

[bellropes]

Ds is 22, has adhd and coming to the end of his masters degree. He's hopefully going to receive adhd meds via the NHS later this month, it's been a battle. He greatly struggles with everyday things in spite of being very academic.

He's applied for a few internships, but to no avail. His applications seem very good when I'm reading them over. He applied for the civil service fast stream, but didn't get through the initial assessment.

My question is, how best to find a job when his studies are complete? His masters is in politics and IR and he got a First in his BA from a top uni, so not scientific or anything. Is it just a case of Google searching or can he write directly to firms asking them to consider him for an internship?

Please don't have a go at me for asking this. I have aspergers and adhd and we all support each other in the family so we can navigate the outside world. I don't know anything about job seeking because I was a nurse all my life and I don't have any friends or relatives to ask.

Does he have a LinkedIn account? It's good for putting your experience/education on a profile and building up connections. Companies have pages on there and there are lots of jobs listed. When I was searching, I mainly used LinkedIn's job search feature. They also make job suggestions.

I was looking in a different sector/area so won't have any specific examples for you, but try and find some other search sites that are specific to the area of work he wants to go in.

Have a look on the uni website and see what they do for students/alumni. Often, unis have a special login where jobs are listed.

Similarly, look for the uni career/employability service. These offer support in finding jobs, and building applications and CVs.

There's no harm in contacting firms directly and many places like this as it shows proactivity.

It's great that he's applying already. Don't be disheartened by rejections. Covid has made it especially hard to find work, especially for graduates. He's doing great to have gotten started already. Remember, each application is experience. Even if he doesn't get feedback, he gets used to the process.

Good luck to your DS!

I would recommend applying direct for entry level roles and coaching on interview techniques that includes a practise interview for the real interview when it comes up. I have adhd and interview coaching helped me enormously.

Internships and apprenticeships are generally quite competitive and this year are likely to be even more so. People who lost jobs during lockdown plus last summers graduates who struggled to get roles are competing with this years graduates too.

He needs to apply to many roles and assume only a very few will go to the next stage.

As a recruiter in the past I would have disliked receiving on spec applications that I would need to deal with. I would never recruit outside of a formal application process, I have to jump through lots of hoops to have funds for roles and will want to consider multiple candidates to get the best person for a role. However small companies may be different.

Put a lot of effort into applications, focussing on making life easier for the person reviewing. Don't just send cv's unless that is the request from the recruiter. Reviewing application forms in a consistent format is that little bit easier and saves time.

When using a cv be concise, more than 3 sides is probably too long, optimum is 2 sides. Tailor for applications.

Good luck to him