GRADUATE JOBS: ADVICE FROM AN EXPERT

You are going to read an article for graduates joining the job market. For questions 1-10, choose the sections (A- D). The sections may be chosen more than once.

A. You should be very conscious of your digital footprint and remember that nothing can ever really be deleted and this includes social media profiles as well as forums and websites. Although it helps if you activate the privacy settings on your social media accounts and control who you allow to see your account, the most foolproof solution is to behave well and treat these networks with a healthy respect. You might not be able to fully prevent some things from showing on search engines, but you can make the most of what shows up first by using public professional networking sites to build a much more professional footprint which you can then add to by getting mentioned for extra-curricular activity. In the job market this can be gold dust, so find opportunities to comment on blogs and articles, provide quotes for journalists and guest blog on things you’re interested in or know a lot about.

B. By all means apply for vacancies on big job boards, but the major drawback is that if you’ve seen a vacancy, so has everybody else. If you've had no joy applying for positions this way, it may well be more productive to start hunting for less visible vacancies instead, because when you do find one, the competition will be a fraction of what you’re up against for widely advertised positions. It’s important to realise that different job-hunting methods work for different industries. If you’re answering ads for junior jobs in media, applying blind is unlikely to reap rewards, but building a network of contacts will. On the other hand, for public-sector jobs all the talking in the world won’t get you through the door: you’ll have to apply through official channels like everybody else. If you’ve only targeted big companies, broaden your search to smaller outfits. They’ll have tighter recruitment budgets and won’t be advertising vacancies or hiring stands at recruitment fairs, so find out how they do recruit and see which small companies are thriving.

C. Strictly speaking, in some countries unpaid internships are illegal which means it's illegal for your employer not to pay you and for you to work for free, as you’re both undermining the national minimum wage law. The problem is that in some countries this law isn’t being enforced, so employers are free to exploit graduates who can afford to work for less than the minimum wage and exclude those who can’t. Because many graduates are desperate for experience, the result is that most internships now pay nothing, even when interns are effectively doing a proper job and working long hours with a wide range of activities for months at a time. Until things change, you’ll have to decide for yourself whether an unpaid internship is a good investment. This will depend on the calibre of the company and what you’ll be doing while you’re there. As there is no guarantee of a paid job at the end of it, you must keep applying for roles elsewhere before your internship ends.

D. It’s normal to feel low just after graduation. For some graduates, it’s because the energy they needed is still flowing but now has no outlet, so they feel anxious. For others, it’s because they’ve realised how much effort they’ve expended, and they feel exhausted. Whatever the reason, pay attention to the words you use. Graduation represents an ending, it’s true, but it also represents new beginnings and it’s more energising to think in those terms. Instead of saying, "I need to start my career,” you should break the task ahead into smaller steps and frame each step in a way that allows you to measure progress. So, for example, instead of expecting to "sort myself out”, ask yourself to “prepare my CV”, “find two referees", and “register with an employment agency”. Put these goals in chronological order and focus on each one in turn until you have achieved it. In the long run you might easily conclude that the most treasured aspect of your university experience wasn’t your academic education or any careers advice, but rather the friends you made, so you should make it a priority to stay in touch with those who mattered most to you during your university career.

In which section does the writer

 1   advise graduates to continue job-hunting while already working?

 2   explain why some graduates accept a certain type of employment opportunity?

 3   make a suggestion for graduates whose job hunting has so far been unsuccessful?

 4   mention a variety of ways of obtaining employment?

 5   suggest how graduates can create a good impression?

 6   mention the need to maintain relationships?

 7   recommend a way of thinking positively?

 8   explain why some jobs may have fewer applicants?

 9   warn graduates that some information may be difficult to hide?

10  describe an employment opportunity he disapproves of?

Cambridge University Press, 2015