Christopher Wright, Consultant in Interim, Temporary & Contract at Core-Asset Consulting has three years experience in working with and recruiting graduates for employers across various sectors. He shares his in-depth insight on all things graduates when it comes to hiring.

Why hire a graduate?

Graduates bring a great deal of enthusiasm and passion to the company. They will be eager and open to learning new skills, gaining lots of knowledge, and may offer fresh perspectives and alternative approaches to your business’ operations and processes.

Hiring a graduate allows an employer to mould the candidate to suit the company and its values. Graduates offer a ‘clean-slate’ and the employer is able to train and develop their skills to suit the company’s work environment and future.

Due to the previous experience required, graduate roles are paid slightly less than junior positions, so there is an opportunity to hire graduates for roles that may have been traditionally desirable as a junior role, but without the added cost.

THE STEPS:

1. The CV: The Introduction

Graduates will have limited relevant experience for the sector they are applying for, so it is crucial they draw on their range of experience, from hospitality to temporary roles, to illustrate the core skills they have developed and can transfer to the role. This demonstrates their own understanding of their personal development and allows the recruiter to comprehend the candidate’s ability to self-evaluate, a highly valuable attribute in any work environment.

For certain sectors, such as law or engineering, previous grades are important in the recruiting process. However, for roles in other sectors, such as business or financial services, the CV can also highlight a wide range of personality traits, achievements and experience.

Although structured and concise, CVs should be used to paint a much wider picture of the candidate. For example, a sales-driven mentality, client relation skills, and logistical and organisational skills in a high-pressure environment can be adapted into an office-based environment - and the candidate should demonstrate how such skills are a result of their previous work experience.

For graduates who have spent their entire university career in a pandemic and post-pandemic environment, seeing relevant work experience on CVs really hits the jackpot for recruiters.

It is understandable that many undergraduates may have had internships lined up that were lost due to the pandemic, likewise, employers have halted or downscaled their summer internship programmes. This means that finding relevant work experience shows the tenacity and drive of the candidate.

Another CV plus which demonstrates the hard-working nature of a candidate, is term-time employment. This highlights the candidate’s commitment and dedication to developing their skills, as well as demonstrating their motivation to progress up the career ladder.

2. The Interview: The Showdown

The CV provides a lot of information about the candidate, but any employer needs to gain a proper understanding of the candidate and their personality.

For some sectors, personal attributes such as strong communication skills are fundamental for client-facing roles. For a more analytical role, it is crucial that a candidate suits the company and their values. An interview offers the first impression of a candidate and whether they would fit the organisational culture of your company.

The interview must draw out the fundamental reason for the candidate’s application. A dream role, a stepping-stone into the industry, or have they just applied in a last-minute panic? This will be shown by the candidate in a number of ways.

Asking about past experience and how this is relevant to the role will demonstrate the candidate’s self-reflection on their experience and how this has culminated into applying for a graduate role with your company.

For other candidates, it may demonstrate their well-targeted range of work experience with a certain aspirational career goal in mind. It is important to listen to the candidate’s reflection on their own personal development and how this suits the role, to evaluate their enthusiasm for, and interest in, the desired role.

To be able to evaluate a candidate’s critical thinking, employers should question the candidate on their weaknesses. This demonstrates the candidate’s self-awareness and capability of critically evaluating past mistakes. It can also be an incredibly difficult question to answer in an interview, therefore it will demonstrate the candidate’s response to pressure and stressful situations, allowing the recruiter to witness a more ‘off-the-cuff’ and natural interview response.

Throughout the interview, it is important to look out for red flags, including negative behaviour such as poor body language or the use of slang words. To assess a candidate’s ability to accept constructive criticism, ask them to outline a time where a mistake was made and what they did to rectify the situation. This will also show the candidate’s ability to think under pressure and be able to further evaluate their weaknesses.

3. Post-Interview: The Follow-Up

An employer can lose out on desirable candidates due to slow communication so it is important that communication channels are open from start to finish. This may play out favourably if a candidate has several opportunities to choose from, and prefers your company due to the open and positive communication experienced by the candidate throughout the recruitment process.

The trickier part is rejection - but it is important to be as transparent as possible. This may not benefit your company, but any feedback offered to the candidate on their CV and interview will provide invaluable advice for graduates, and could be the decisive advice that gets them their first job at another company. It’s just the right thing to do to help as many graduates as possible start their career journeys.

Finally…

Hiring a graduate provides businesses with the chance to train up a candidate to suit the dynamics and culture of the business at a relatively low-cost – and this guide should offer some hints on how to go about successfully hiring. Graduates will offer your company fresh perspectives, enthusiasm, and the capability to develop a workforce in line with the values of the company.

For any graduates who have read this far

Aside from graduate schemes, there are other options. Entry-level roles can be the ‘foot-in-the-door’ to an industry, especially in areas such as financial services where opportunities in the marketing or administration sector can be your way getting your foot in the door and then being able to progress into a role which better suits your career goals. It’s important to look at the bigger picture and understand that the dream role comes with experience and effort, and that this may not be a simple A to B journey.

To find out more about graduate job opportunities visit: https://core-asset.co.uk/vacancies/

Interested in starting a career in recruitment? Check out our Senior Consultant's Kamilla Mathias video where she shares all the ins and outs of her personal experience as a recruiter: