Youth Employment UK- monthly magazine

Full of helpful tips for graduates and students.

How to make any university experience attractive to employers?

The primary reason the majority of students attend university is to enhance their job prospects. This is becoming a little easier as the graduate job market is showing a slow (well snail-paced) recovery; however, the growth in the number of graduate job applications received by Britain's top employers is still outpacing the growth in vacancies. Statistics like this fill me with sheer panic! How do you improve your chances of being one of the ‘chosen ones,’ and not joining the benefits queue? Make yourself EMPLOYABLE. Some students believe that to make themselves stand-out, to employers, that they have to do amazing things while at university such as climbing mountains and sailing around the world. While I praise these people for their efforts, employers want to see that you have transferable skills. This can be shown through any university experience using the STARR method.

I am going to show you how you can take any university experience and make it ‘attractive’ to employers using the method below.

Experience: Working part-time in a supermarket

Usually the majority of students will write something along the lines of this in their C.V.

Candidate A

‘2010-Present Checkout Operative at Valco Ltd

Duties:

·         Stacking the shelves

·         Facing the shelves

·         Processing stock

·         Serving customers’

Yawn! First of all this is extremely dull and you are just listing the tasks you have done. The employer must read hundreds/thousands of applications like this. What SKILLS do you have to offer?

Using the STARR method, I would write it like this:

Candidate B

‘2010-Present Checkout Operative at Valco Ltd

I worked as a sales assistant to help me fund my way through university. I am a very enthusiastic and positive person, who worked well with the public and other members of the Valco team. It was my job to be commercially aware of what customers wanted, at different times of year, to make sure their needs were met. This can be shown through the example below.

S- A customer came in looking for a specific washing powder as she has sensitive skin.

T- There was none on the shelf so I had the task of finding her the product.

A-I asked the customer to wait while I looked out the back for more stock. There was none available so I looked for a suitable alternative and searched the database for the next delivery.

R-I explained to the customer the next delivery would be in on Monday. As she needed the product then, she accepted the alternative and went away happy.

R-If I was doing this again, I would do it quicker as she has to wait a long time.

I also worked in all departments, showing my flexibility and willingness to take a 'hands-on' approach. I worked in a busy environment, managing staff breaks and queue times effectively through excellent time-management skills.’

This is much more ‘attractive’ to an employer as it shows you have transferable skills which are:

·         Interpersonal skills:

·         Communication

·         Teamwork

·         Commercial awareness

·         Proactive

·         Initiative

·         Flexibility

·         Time-management skills

It is a very simple technique that can improve your C.V. drastically. I always put myself in the employers shoes ‘would I hire me, reading my C.V.? If your answer to this question is a big fat NO, then you need to do something about it. It is not what you have done at university that will get you that job; it is how you put it across to employers. 

Should you work part-time at university?

Natalie Gil was told she couldn't work part-time while at university, Alexa-Jane Moore says working alongside her studies is a boost to heremployability. Here they share their viewpoints. Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

'My university is right to ban part-time work'

There's no way I could have held down a part-time job as an undergraduate. With relatively short eight-week terms, at least three essays constantly on the go, and a never-ending reading list, on top of the extra-curricular commitments so crucial for one's CV, I would have burned out.

When sleep is considered a luxury and there's never a day when you couldn't be working, faking a smile behind a supermarket counter is the last thing you want to be doing.

It's often said at Cambridge that students have to sacrifice one of three aspects of their lives to survive: work, sleep or their social life. I found this to be true. Sometimes even maintaining good quality in one of these areas was a challenge.

Oxbridge students are advised against undertaking part-time work and, I believe it's for good reason. A Cambridge University spokesperson says this is because "terms are short and intense".

You may wonder what the difference is between part-time jobs and the hours many students spend involved in sport, arts or student media during term. The Cambridge spokesperson says "these activities are part of the student experience" so the university has a duty to encourage students to participate in them.

Andy Jefferies, from the senior tutors committee at Cambridge, says there isn't necessarily a difference between such commitments and part-time work. He says: "We try to discourage students from doing part-time work if they're struggling to keep up and meet deadlines.

"Obviously extracurricular activities can be overdone to the extent that they interfere with academic work, but they're fine if they're balanced with it."

Universities like Oxford and Cambridge provide generous bursaries. They prevent students from being forced into jobs that would compromise their academic achievement, which is, after all, the main point of university.

It is true though that university is expensive, so students might feel the need to take on part-time work to meet living costs. I was lucky enough to qualify for a bursary and would have struggled to maintain a decent quality of life without it.

Bursaries might not be enough to sustain some students, so there is always the option of a holiday job. With three months off over the summer, many take up paid internships or retail work to tide themselves over for the following academic year.

If you're still struggling financially, there may well be help available. Jeffries says: "Don't suffer in silence or feel forced to go and work. Talk to the college first and you may be surprised about how generous it can be, but it depends on the circumstances."

Natalie Gil, Cambridge University, now City University

'Part-time work helps students improve their employability'

While the argument that university years are for studying is a valid one, it is not the whole picture. For myself and many other students, there are lots of reasons for taking on part-time work.

Financial issues is perhaps the most pressing reason to work, but a part-time job is also an opportunity to gain experience in your chosen field, put study into practice, gain relevant skills and make networks that will help you get a job after uni.

With university fees currently at £9000 and hefty living costs on top, life as a student is expensive I need to work.

I work 18.5 hours each week at The University of Worcester, where I am a student, earning around £375 per month. I use this money to pay for the living costs not covered by my loan.

Some people argue that part-time work can have a negative impact on your studies, but I've found that by being organised you can manage both. It helps that my job is at the university where I am studying – they are extremely flexible and say that students should always prioritise their studies.

Christina Weaver, working with children and families student, works 17.5 hours per week in a school.

She says: "It is tough finding the right balance but the experience is a fundamental element of my course. Experience is the key that students are using to distinguish themselves from other applicants."

Most employers ask for experience alongside a degree, and working while at uni puts you in a much better position when it comes to finding a graduate job.

Emily Coppen, a first-year marketing, advertising and PR students works at Waitrose. She argues that working "allows you to practice for the 'real world' where you may have numerous commitments".

What is the point of studying a subject just in theory? After all, will you not be putting theory into practice after university with a job? Part-time work is a good way for students to develop practical skills.

Alina Tatar, a third-year illustration student, works 15-20 hours every week. She says: "Working allows me to develop skills for future employment."

For students, part-time employment is a good way to make relationships in the workplace that you might not have the chance to develop otherwise.

Olivia Bullough, a first-year business information technology student says: "Part-time employment is a good way to make contacts to secure full-time employment upon graduation"

Why else do you go to university? Personally, I went to uni to improve my chance of getting a job.

Alexa-Jane Moore, University of Worceste

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