GRADS: Guide on Recruitment, Applications, Development and Success.
It’s that time of year again – already! – where fresh graduates are starting to look for their first roles to kickstart their career. We have put together a bible for graduates going through the recruitment process but if you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at info@dwrecruitment.co.uk or call us on 0161 511 0655.
The CV
Contact details, Profile, Education, Extra-Curricular Courses, Work Experience, Achievements, Skills, Interests and References.
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Put your address on – ideally your full address but at least the first half of your postcode. If you’re willing to relocate also add this on here.
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Correct contact details! We see a lot of CV’s with incorrect/no contact numbers, your student email addresses rather than personal email addresses, or sometimes no contact details all together! Remember you will soon lose access to your student email address.
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The main informative, focus points on your CV will be your degree/education and industry placements so make sure to pack these sections, with what tasks you completed and what you learnt. Your course should lay out your modules clearly. Your placement details should detail what product you worked on, day-to-day responsibilities, achievements and, if it was in a supplier, customers.
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Include all work experience, whether it’s industry related or not. Clients still want to know about your retail or admin experience as it shows dedication, time management and other transferable skills.
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Portray your personality and passion through your CV. Don’t forget this is the first thing your potential employer is going to see from you. Some clients love seeing your interests – for example we have sportswear company clients that like seeing that you enjoy hiking, or a menswear company who want to see you’re constantly looking at streetstyle trends. You and the interviewer might have interests in common.
The Application
Know what it is you want, yet still be open-minded. We will have a chat with you about roles that you might not have thought of where your skills are transferrable.
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Be available for interviews. Our roles don’t tend to have a closing date and they are active roles so you will most likely be asked to attend an interview, with even sometimes just 1 days’ notice – that’s totally normal and don’t forget this will be a very busy client with a very busy schedule.
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Don’t be put off by ‘Admin’ or ‘Assistant’ jobs or be too precious about the job title. This is your foot in the door.
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The Interview
All interview experience is great experience, you have absolutely nothing to lose with it, but maybe a lot to gain! You will get to know the kind of questions asked or you might find a different kind of role or company that you love.
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Do your research into the company. Interviewers will be able to tell who has done the most research into their company and if it’s a close call between a few candidates, there’s no question who they will sway towards.
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Research into the interviewer on LinkedIn – have you got a course in common? A workplace in common? We will always tell you who you will be meeting when we send your interview confirmation.
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It’s very common that no matter what your job role is or what level you’re at (even Seniors), in this industry you will have to put extra hours in if you’re busy, or help out in the warehouse for an afternoon when it’s manic, or do a post office run if your colleagues caught up. We have had all too much post-interview feedback from clients that they feel the candidate won’t want to get stuck in.
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Go the extra mile. And then go a bit further. Design a couple of new range boards with the company in mind. Create a tech pack looking at their products. Do a SWOT analysis on the company. We recently had a role where a couple of candidates were neck and neck, one of them put together a range board after the first interview specific for them, we sent this over to the client and right away she was offered and accepted. Initiative.
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Please prepare questions to ask in the interview. Ask us for advice or the kind of questions if you get stuck.
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Personality!! We cannot stress enough that a positive, bubbly personality is equally as important, or sometimes more so, than your experience on paper. Culture fit is everything.
General Advice
Keep up to date with the market – fashion news, product launches, market trends. These might get brought up at interview and it shows you are proactive and have a passion for the industry.
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Continuously update your CV and portfolio
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Salary is not the be all and end all. A graduate who is realistic with salary and gets a job sooner will get a good few months more paid experience than a graduate who has unrealistic expectations. Get your foot in the door, work hard, prove yourself, pay review.
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Call us old-fashioned but the way you present yourself is still as important as ever. We love the memes that became popular last year with your Facebook photo vs Instagram vs LinkedIn vs Tinder, but some people still didn’t get the memo that LinkedIn is a professional platform and this should be reflected in your profile photo!