University of Manchester Careers Blog

The other day I was talking to a graduate and he said ‘there are not many jobs at this time of year are there?’ Actually May and June are the months when the Careers Service gets the most ads.

Today we have 637 full-time vacancies live on CareersLink. That’s more than any of the major national graduate recruitment websites!

• Milkround – 394
• TargetJobs – 280
• Prospects – 232

How can we have more jobs than the national sites? Major companies advertise everywhere – you’ll see the same names on all these sites.  But smaller or local companies only tend to advertise locally so we have lots of opportunities in the north-west that will not be promoted nationally.  Plus we are targeted by organisations that are looking for Manchester graduates in particular.  We also work hard to source and create additional jobs that would not have existed otherwise, such as those on MGIP.

Some points to bear in mind…

• Final years – It often takes a month or two for companies to process applications, conduct interviews and check references. If you apply now you might start work late summer or even September, which means you can still get time to relax after the end of exams. If you put off applying until you have had a break you will find less to choose from. Don’t sacrifice your revision to apply for dozens of jobs, but try and make time to put in a couple of applications. See also this Guardian article: Exams vs job hunting: Is it too late to apply for graduate jobs?
  Already graduated – thousands of new graduates will be flooding onto the job market in a few weeks. Apply for as many jobs as you can now to get ahead.
• Don’t be put off by a company name you have not heard of. Many small and medium sized companies (SMEs) offer great jobs to graduates. SMEs can offer you the chance to be a big cog in a small machine, to make a difference and to have your ideas listened to right from day one!
• If you cannot see any opportunities that interest you it may be that the types of careers which appeal to you either advertise at a particular time of year (e.g. investment banking) or don’t advertise vacancies very often (e.g. creative and media sectors). Book a careers guidance appointment to discuss your options.
• Don’t forget to check out the Graduate fair – there are loads of top companies attending.