Is there a time limit to applying for graduate roles?

[ASDnocareer]

I graduated in 2021 so almost 4 years ago and still never landed a professional job. I don’t have any CV gaps but I do believe there is a stigma being stuck in low skilled work, and seems most employers are probably choosing fresh graduates over me? Can any Recruiters / Hiring Managers please advice - would you overlook a stale candidate who graduated 4 years ago (no CV gaps but ‘bad’ jobs) for a fresh graduate?

Recruitment agencies have all blanked me too (signed up for big and small ones, including graduate recruitment agencies)

Always wanted a grad job so badly, I remember doing everything ‘right’ whilst a student at uni to increase my chances of getting a grad job (got a 2.1, used careers service for personalised advice, attended few grad networking events, did an Industrial Placement, then performed well at said industrial placement so I was the only intern offered a part time role in my final year during the pandemic)

Despite this I still landed nothing meanwhile my friends who messed around at uni are on 45 - 60k+, and stable/senior in their career paths. I live in a huge city too, no dependents, native English speaker and willing to work full time in office if it means I can actually land a grad job with prospects.

I’m still continuing to apply for graduate entry level jobs because genuinely what else is there to do? As much as my current strategy is proving unsuccessful I still would rather take my 99% chance of rejection when applying for grad roles vs 100% chance of not getting job by not applying.

All performance reviews are good, and have tried applying internally at my own company in meantime but that hasn’t worked yet either. Last internal role I applied for I didn’t get despite receiving excellent feedback on how I interviewed. It was a job grade equivalent to entry level grad roles but they gave it to someone with more relevant experience (fine), but the audacity for them to then offer me another role at a lower scale so equivalent to admin despite knowing I’m a graduate and internal candidate who has 2 years experience working at the company with only good performance reviews.
If my own company who can see my positive performance reviews don’t want to offer me a chance at working a grad job, what are the chances of an external company hiring a stale graduate

Thank you, I will try this

I relate to this so much. I got a first class honours degree, but could never get a graduate position despite graduating at the top of my class. Many of my peers who got 2.1s, didn't complete the final year and the like are now thriving in their careers. They have something that I clearly lack, I've never been able to put my finger on it. It's been a decade since I graduated and honestly, I think after the pandemic I just gave up. I was just so tired of the constant rejections. I've worked since I was eighteen years old, have a solid work ethic, and have always been valued by my employers so I know I'm not useless, but it is so disheartening.

I’m not sure how specific to go as I worry if I’m too specific it will only relate to my own company rather than external opportunities. It’s rare an external company will do things the exact same way my company does. Also, I worry I lack detailed specific varied experiences because I’m working below graduate job level, and not given much autonomy. Yes I volunteer for extra stuff but as said in pp I’m begging for scraps of ‘experience’ to improve my CV, and I can’t exaggerate my existing experience that much in meantime.

An example of a bullet point from my CV under one of my jobs:

• Responsible for launching (xyz) products online via Sitecore CMS for the UK’s third largest (type of financial services company worked for).

Is that bullet point specific enough? Obviously it’s only relevant when applying to marketing roles which also require you to launch products via a CMS.

& thanks, I have always used the STAR method.

In being specific you're looking to showcase what outcomes and results you've achieved or a specific skills you've gained. You should be tailoring for each opportunity, it's time consuming but it will pay off.

Your example is good, but it could be more precise about your role and the outcomes you achieved or contributed to. You have space on your CV (2 pages is ideal) so you could add details. For your example, I'm not sure exactly what you did so I've made it up but you can fill the gaps and make it relevant:

"I led the successful launch of [new financial product] which aimed to XYZ.

I was responsible for conducting market research and collaborating with cross-functional teams, aligning with company objectives and meeting regulatory standards.

I worked on devising a new marketing strategy for the product which resulted in a 30% increase in new clients within the first quarter."

💐Thank you so much for sharing, and I’m sorry to hear about your struggles.
I don’t fully get it either as I know I spent more time/effort than all of my close friends did when it came to jobhunting. I remember in second year, I was already visiting the careers service on a regular basis before securing an internship. Meanwhile my close friend never bothered with the free uni careers service, missed lectures and didn’t do an internship. That same friend got a project assistant role after uni, and 10 months later landed a junior business analyst role with a large employer who paid for all her related qualifications where she continued to quickly thrive. She deserves it btw, I’m glad she is doing well. I regularly feel detatched from the conversation when my ‘normal’ friends who found careers after uni talk about work.

Also, sometimes other juniors who landed jobs leading to careers have their CV attached on linkedin which I have nosily looked at and they make the same ‘mistakes’ yet still thriving.

I’m not a civil servant, I work for a not for profit financial services company in public sector.
I appreciate it may sound farfetched and unrecognisable but just one example one colleague has been at the company for nearly 30 years and only two ‘grades’ above me. She did my current role for over 18 years. She is highly competent at her job.
Another woman in my team has done my role/grade for 10 years, also more than capable at her job.

One colleague at my company I’m friends with has been promoted multiple times but has been open about the fact each new role they secured at a grade above was because they applied, as there’s no natural progression to a promotion otherwise. Their advice to me was simply keep applying to any internal roles one grade above until you land something.
Also, people in my company who get new jobs a scale above regularly move to completely different areas of the business because of the lack of progression in your existing team if you simply ‘work hard’ you don’t get rewarded. Not much bonus either (not remotely comparable to private sector) and salary is capped for each grade.

You may still not believe me but there are financial services news articles which says staff satisfaction is very low at my company and they risk losing more talent to private sector.
I’d do anything to leave for another company, where I can work my way up but external companies don’t want me 🤷‍♀️

I work in a large multinational firm, and have done a ton of hiring in the last couple of years, and I've also been looking for new opportunities for myself.

I think it's probably a CV / auto screener issue. There may be nothing wrong with your content / CV but the way it's laid out can often cause issues, especially if you're applying to big firms who use screening

I recently used beam jobs (I'm not affiliated with them!) and signed up for a free trial. They will analyse your CV and tell you how it rates for screening tools, gives you feedback on language and grammar (i.e suggesting more active verbs etc. I'm old and been in employment for a while, but it was a real eye opener for me, including the layout which scored really poorly for auto screening (I had tables and columns in it) so I completely redid it

Most uni career departments continue to offer services to graduates. It might be worth making an appointment with them to see if they can offer any advice and have another look at your CV.

I am similar - I recognise the moving around but that’s about it!

@LittleMy77 Thank you! I will check them out

Also I wonder if anyone knows whether it’s acceptable to slightly rephrase my job title to match a job ad I’m applying for if it’s the same type of role anyway (just that my company uses a more niche title).

for example if seeing a ‘software tester’ ad whereas my official role title is ‘junior test analyst’ - would it be acceptable to rephrase my job title with even though my employer uses different wording? As maybe if companies use auto screeners they’ll prioritise people who match existing job title or maybe I’m clutching on to straws

The company you work for sounds rubbish. I would apply for jobs at your current level elsewhere to get a foot in the door of the private sector where it will be easier to work upwards.

I don’t know what to say, it sounds far fetched and I didn’t think it would be like this until joining my company and speaking with colleagues who’ve worked here longer. I don’t know anyone who has been promoted in the same area after a year of excelling without there being a vacancy they applied for.

There are also less vacancies that go up at the lower scales (I would know as I check internal job board daily), and HR even acknowledged this was something they were made aware of after the internal staff feedback survey.

If a new vacancy came up for a ‘Comms analyst’ in the xyz team of xyz department at my company - only people considered for this role would be people who applied for it. It doesn’t matter if someone who works one grade below as Comms assistant in that same team with closest experience had been working hard for 3 years, unless they formally apply they won’t get considered. Of course if they did apply they may have good chance of securing it, but they still have to score highest at interview first. If someone else happens to interview better and be better at ‘STAR’ even though they work in opposite side of company they may still land the job.

Also, interviews at my company focus more on STAR situations and competencies which don’t always directly relate to the role. Whereas when I have interviewed at private sector companies I’ve found questions were more directly related to role so someone who is weaker at interviewing and fluffing experience but had more relatable role knowledge / experience still has a chance.

(There are exceptions for technical roles though where you need specific quals to do the job)

From what I’ve heard from my friends who work in typical private sector companies. Generally it seems if you perform well and prove your worth you can be promoted in a year sometimes even less without formal application. You can also negotiate pay rises and ask about progression. Even ‘average’ workers can expect to be promoted and will get bonuses. My friend got promoted to Senior Marketing Executive in her company after working as a Marketing Executive for a year and a half without formally interviewing, and she claims it’s easy work, she didn’t have to ‘push’ for it.

"My CV is..."

You lost it with just those three words. You shouldn't have a CV you regard as yours. Every application has it's own CV.

The best job-hunting advice I was ever given is to always remember that The First Person That Reads Your CV Does NOT Want To Give You The Job. Once you get your head around that (and its implications) it becomes a lot easier to see the faults in your applications.

Thanks, I have been trying to do this for a while now and still rarely get interviews. Recruitment agencies aren’t much help either, even when they mention offering free career advice as they’re seemingly too busy focusing on ‘good’ candidates. I am open to all industries but would prefer to stay in my own industry only as I have some knowledge here.

I’ve sent you a pm

thank you @thesandwich :)

Thanks @CantHoldMeDown, apologies I am clearly very naive. Not sure how my friends managed to progress in their companies without always having to interview for the next ‘step’ - but maybe were exaggerating to me, who knows.

I don’t consider myself great at interviews but I also can’t be that bad seeing as my most recent interviews had good feedback. I may seem entitled and have unreasonable standards, but with the current cost of living it’s hard to not feel frustrated at lack of enough sufficient opportunities to progress and earn more. It’s hard not saving for a future. At my current job level my company pays me a wage that barely covers living costs as a single person flatsharing without dependants. That includes me dialling down on my pension too

If there are limited junior vacancies at a company what is an internal candidate supposed to do (other than leave and pray the next company I work for will be more lenient with internal progression).

I’ve worked on interview techniques, applied for mentoring, joined network groups, always hit targets and performed well enough to get good performance reviews. Do I just continue to accept that’s life and I wasn’t good enough to beat competition for the opportunities a grade above. I never grew up thinking I was particularly smart but please forgive me for naively thinking it would be easier than this to find a job with prospects. It feels a bit like a race to the bottom and I feel embarrassed for even getting a degree now as seems it was wasted on me.

I regularly work alongside the people in ‘desirable’ roles. Sometimes they’re barely doing anything that much more intellectually challenging but given more autonomy or a chance to lead on xyz. I sometimes think I’d be great at having a go at their job if only I got a chance, and I can volunteer ideas but ultimately can’t step on their toes until I land a role with more responsibility.

I have a ds just about to finish his engineering degree. He is finding the computer rounds of job applications very frustrating. He keeps getting rejected. He is not sure how to get through these screening rounds. His only work experience is in a different area of engineering he now wants to pursue. Could that be the reason?? If so, how can he fix that?

If a new vacancy came up for a ‘Comms analyst’ in the xyz team of xyz department at my company - only people considered for this role would be people who applied for it. It doesn’t matter if someone who works one grade below as Comms assistant in that same team with closest experience had been working hard for 3 years, unless they formally apply they won’t get considered. Of course if they did apply they may have good chance of securing it, but they still have to score highest at interview first. If someone else happens to interview better and be better at ‘STAR’ even though they work in opposite side of company they may still land the job

Well yes, if you don't apply you won't get considered? And they have a transparent selection process. Again this is a good thing I don't know why you'd think otherwise

But yes 1.5 pages (why - surely than half page just looks odd?) needs to be two. And should be tailored to each individual application. In reality once you've applied for a few things you'll have enough versions and examples of bullet points that demonstrate your relevant experience it'll be fairly quick to cut and paste selected points.

Have you tried running job applications and your CV through chatGPT?