L’uomo che ha fatto domanda per 270 posti di lavoro e continua a contare dice che il sostegno della LBC ai laureati è “quasi nulla”
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/graduate-jobs-applied-270-roles-ai-5HjdZP5_2/
di tylerthe-theatre
L’uomo che ha fatto domanda per 270 posti di lavoro e continua a contare dice che il sostegno della LBC ai laureati è “quasi nulla”
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/graduate-jobs-applied-270-roles-ai-5HjdZP5_2/
di tylerthe-theatre
25 commenti
As a recruiter I always feel two ways about these stories.
Firstly, yes the numbers are massively stacked against you. 300-400 applications a role and I deal regularly with people where the feedback is just… yes you could have done the job. And yet they probably weren’t even in the top ten.
That being said, if you take that 300-400 and narrow it down to the number of people who actually read the spec, tailored their CV to it, and included some kind of letter or paragraph outlining their specific suitability, you are soon amongst dozens, rather than hundreds, of candidates.
These days you can very easily shoot off the same CV for 50 jobs in an afternoon. So pure numbers say nothing about your job search.
That being said it sounds like this guy has been very proactive, attending events and trying to network. It’s a sad situation for many graduates.
He’s got to pump those numbers up. 270 since October 2024, thats rookie numbers. Im at 250 since Febuary and im being deliberatley gentle and thoughtful about it to try and keep my medication doses down.
I personally believe a major issue for anyone looking for a job, whether a “skilled” or “unskilled” position (terms I hate as all jobs require a skill of some kind), is simply the amount of people applying for the role. The article touches on this and also the subject of the article does mention that employers in the field he is looking to gain employment in, are preferring people with industry experience as well as the necessary qualifications.
This person has seemingly been in education up until 2024 when the applications commenced and if I were to play [devil’s advocate](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xm8kW1sXWs) I would gleam from the article that he has not sought employment outside his preferred field during this time with the exception of being an Army reservist.
This could potentially be holding him back too as as much as employers will be looking for industry experience, they will also be looking at general work experience. If a person has gone school to college to university and then nowhere else then it may be an advantage to seek work *anywhere* in the mean time.
Personally if I’d applied to lots of jobs and failed at the competency test stage, I’m not sure I’d be running to the press about it.
It’s one thing if you’ve got well qualified candidates not being able to get hired, but if you’re failing screening tests that’s almost certainly a you problem.
Yes we need more high skilled jobs, but we also need high skilled individuals to fill them.
Number never reveal the full picture. I could be applying 270 jobs to only at top investment or tech firm to be management trainee and obviously I will get rejected becuase I am not from wealthy family or didn’t get a 1st from oxbridge.
Need to take some responsibility. 0 out of 270 looks like mindless spamming.
I feel like we need to develop stronger school > trades pipelines, rather than just sending everyone off to uni and letting them compete for the same jobs.
A lot of schools only focus on preparing students for uni. But the trades – builders, plumbers, electricians – are in constant short supply with an ageing workforce.
I also think employers using AI to screen job applications should be banned. Like wth? AI can be faulty and it feels disrespectful when the applicant has made a real effort into their application, it deserves to be seen by a human.
the support for everyone in the job market is next to nothing,
The problem I’m facing in my industry is that graduates are struggling with fundamentals and thinking for themselves. If ChatGPT can’t answer it they just stand there and wait for someone else to answer.
We don’t want AI to replace your job but if you rely on it so heavily then why wouldn’t we?
I’m not struggling with someone with a degree, I’m struggling to find someone with competence that can adapt.
Had the same experience. But soon learned there is sadly no god-given right to being given a grad job just for having a degree, there are too many of us around now. Took a minimum wage retail job for a bit but within a year a really fulfilling career role came up. It just didn’t happen at the point of graduating.
If you can’t find a job, lower your expectations. I went from day rate of £330 in financial services to working in a milk factory (agency) on minimum wage. Throw ego out the door and keep earning – it ain’t permanent and continuity of employment displays a better attitude, IMO. Edit: graduates need to assess the economy and job prospects before they commit to years of qualifications. The amount of masters qualified individuals I worked alongside in entry level call centre jobs when I was a young person was ridiculous – I earned more than them, despite leaving school at 16 because I had no student debt. Still made it to £330 a day in financial services; why? Cause attitude counts. And from the ashes of COVID and working in a milk factory, I’m now in a permanent role earning £45k per year. Keep going and don’t stop – it’s your livelihood, fight for it.
Info needed: What degree? What classification? What university?
My first post-grad job was working in a minimum wage job on a call centre where no one else had a degree. It was very humbling. The reality is that they need to start a job somewhere and then keep applying potentially over the months and years to get what they want. Just having a call centre job on my CV for over a year was enough to get me job interviews for my desired career direction. It’s definitely rough out there don’t get me wrong, but to some extent graduates need to understand the market is terrible right now with the AI focus, and retail / call centres still need humans to speak to humans.
Because I was a maths grad I only applied for 2 jobs before I got one.
The maths bit is important because it meant didn’t apply for jobs where:
• They were advertised on linked in (too popular)
• They listed any amount of experience I didn’t have (too easy to filter me out)
• They were a well known company (again popular)
Apply through a recruiter for a grad job and you’ll get one quick because they have a huge vested interest in matching you up with a job that actually wants to hire people like you.
TLDR : stop applying for so many jobs and start applying for jobs with a smaller pool of applicants and a much higher chance of getting it.
I’m glad I did a sandwich year/industry placement, it massively helped with skills and experience. All my friends on the course who did one got a guaranteed job waiting for them after graduating.
Other friends who opted not to really struggled after graduating and some ended up doing low level support roles.
It feels like someone sold him a dream that was just that, a dream. Having a degree does not put you ahead anymore when everyone has a degree as well.
Welcome to adult world I guess.
This isn’t a graduate problem. I was fired from two jobs in the last two years. It took me 200 applications the first time and 300 applications the second to find another job. I’m 35 and in senior management. I ended up being referred for the job I have now by somebody who didn’t even know I was out of work. It was frustrating that pure luck and not effort on my part got my career back on track. It really is about who you know.
Hot take, we scrap CVs in their current form and everyone gets the same layout much like a passport. Name, accreditations, primary skills, operating location, last 3 previous jobs.
You apply for a job, companies can immediately sort by degree level and skill requirements. Any irrelevant applications are never seen, even if they are the first to apply.
Jobs listed should have controlled opening and closing times. Kind of like an eBay bidding time limit. That way youre not accidentally applying to a job where the role was filled months ago and the listing is still live.
Who actually has support in getting a job?
This isn’t exclusive to graduates, and they shouldn’t be seen as an edge case when they are now ten a penny.
Degrees aren’t a meal ticket, this expectation only serves as a hindrance. They’ve been sold down the river.
I know a lot of people hate this concept but I wrote my overall CV myself with every qualification, experience, and skill that I have along with a bunch of ‘scenarios’ that I’ve been in for it to add based on the specific job (most jobs in the same field ask similar questions so it’s pretty easy). I then uploaded the job applications I wanted to apply to and got it to cut, alter, and add things to the overall CV specifically tailored for each job. It outputed multiple unique CV’s for me to send to each potential employer. It worked remarkably well and is the method I used to get my current job in IT.
I have 17 years experience in my field. I’ve applied to over 150 jobs over the past year and the only thing I’ve managed to get is massively underpaid grunt work significantly below my level of experience.
Companies are not going to create additional grad roles just because there are more grads.
It’s rough out there, and the recruiter’s point about tailored apps vs. spray-and-pray is spot on, but even when you do everything right, you’re still fighting an algorithm and a stack of 400 other desperate grads. The system is fundamentally broken when “network and attend events” is the advice, yet those events are just more unpaid labour for people already running on fumes. And let’s be real, measuring your worth by application count is a race to the bottom that just burns you out faster. We need actual structural support, not just tips on how to play a rigged game better.
The government needs to do something for fresh workers. Employers do not want to hire them because they are a burden who will flee as soon as they get experience. Which means not enough time to capitalise on an investment. You may as well hire an experienced worker in the first place. Without tax incentives this will always be the case.
Reduce employers NI for employees with less than £100k lifetime earnings for example (tapered up to £150k). That means employers can get a return on fresh workers without needing to underpay them once they get the experience. Fresh workers will naturally get priority in many cases under those circumstances.
As I’m in sales I struggle with these sorts of debates as there are SO many ways you can cut through the noise but I also understand that unless you’re in sales, this is all a bit alien and us Brit’s never want to be seen as too ‘pushy’.
But if you’ve sent out THAT many applications and got nada?
Start with 30 job postings that your experience aligns with most and:
-cold call and LinkedIn message the hiring manager
-cold call and LinkedIn message potential team members (as they might get a referral bonus if they put your CV forward and you get hired)
– cold call and LinkedIn message your potential manager
No response? Call the main line, try and get past the GK ie ‘calling about x position’
Reach out to (e.g graduate specific) recruitment agencies and connect with them
If the role has an office or a shop- literally GO THERE with a CV and try and speak to the HM.
Yes it’s old school but I’m not even 30 and did this for my first job at 21 (got the interview booked then and there after they read through my cv and we had a quick chat- job offer within 2 weeks) so it DOES still land and I can guarantee you hardly anyone else is doing this.
Worst case scenario they still say no.
Best case you cut through the noise and actually score an interview
those that recognise a bit of grit, taking the initiative and thinking outside the box will love that you’ve done just that
those sort of skills are sought after by almost any hiring manager for any job but are super hard to prove on a simple interview
so by showing them you have that, you will be viewed favourably as a candidate right from the very start.
Also- you might need to accept that your first job isn’t in the field you want.
You just need a year or so in a job with relevant enough responsibilities- doesn’t have to be your dream job lol as you’ll be surprised how many people will only apply to what they want vs what they can realistically get