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Get Ready to Apply
At any stage when applying for graduate roles it is essential to have a career plan and to understand all the steps involved in the recruitment and selection process in order to have the highest chance of securing the role you want. This becomes even more important in the competitive job market in which we now find ourselves, with many employers continuing to run their recruitment and selection processes online. As such, thorough preparation is key for graduates to understanding the steps involved in applying for jobs, including the virtual hiring process of online applications and online selection processes.
What you need to know
Firstly, it’s important to understand the process of how employers recruit and select graduates. Different employers will have a different recruitment process with one employer wanting CVs and another employer wanting an Application Form. One employer using Telephone Interviews and another employer using Live Skype or Video Interviews. Employers take a lot of effort of identifying a new role to meet business needs and draw up a job description which outlines the candidate’s qualifications, experience and skills required to do this role effectively. Sending out an unprofessional, untargeted CV will not meet the job description and block you from getting any further in the selection process. So, it’s important that graduates understand the recruitment and selection process and are prepared for each of the steps involved.
Perfecting your Pitch:
Your CV and Covering Letter must be targeted for the sector you are interested in and are applying for. This helps the employer to see that you are driving your career in a particular direction into a particular industry sector and so if they bring you into this company for this role, they believe there is a high chance you will fit in with the existing culture/teams, commit, work hard and be happy because it is a role you are fundamentally interested in yourself. Once you have a professional and targeted CV ready it can then be used to complete Application Forms if required. Application Forms are used by companies who want to see very quickly which candidate is meeting the requirements for the role. They do this by asking all candidates the same questions outlined in the application. Visit our dedicated CV and Covering Letter webpage to update your CV and Covering Letter to a graduate level.
Virtual Hiring– As a result of Covid-19, more and more employers are engaging in Virtual Hiring Strategies which involves conducting the recruitment and selection process, hiring and inducting a candidate without meeting. Here is an infographic illustrating the Recruitment Cycle:
Online Psychometric Tests– Psychometric Tests have been used by graduate employers for many years to help them find the best candidates for their organisation. Many of these tests would have been completed by graduates online as part of the interview and selection process. There are different types of tests depending on what the employer is trying to measure e.g. abilities tests and personality tests. While all graduates would have a very high chance of scoring well in these tests, the main difficultly is completing a timed test you haven’t seen before. Therefore, understanding the tests that you will be completing and practising some of these tests will be important to secure a high score.
You will need to understand and get practice in interview techniques and strategies. While the process of preparing for interviews is the same whether face to face or virtual (e.g. an employer uses competency based interviews and so they will continue to use this face to face or through virtual interviews) it will be important to understand the different virtual interviews especially if you have never completed one before. It is now likely that more and more employers will be using virtual interviews, this process started prior to Covid-19, but we imagine it will become the norm now as part of the selection process. Important that you understand how to prepare for the different types of virtual interviews including telephone interviews.
VIRTUAL INTERVIEWS
IN-PERSON INTERVIEWS
A high percentage of graduate employers have always used Assessment Centres as part of their selection process but again as a result of Covid-19, more and more employers are using online tests and assessments including virtual assessment centres. A virtual Assessment Centre (like a face to face Assessment Centre) could include any of the following – psychometric tests, e-tray exercises, group exercises, presentation and interview.
