The last few posts have all been aimed at aspirants to PhD-hood, in no small part because of our personal ambitions in that direction. However, we are aware that there are those among you that have had your lust for academia thoroughly sated by the undergraduate years and are looking to join the adult world of work.
In the current economy finding a job you like, are qualified to do, can reasonably commute to and that pays adequately can seem like an impossible dream.
However, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and when searching for a job that step is frequently the internet.
Job searching websites have become much more prevalent and significant in recent years and while their purpose may be clear, their relative merits in terms of helping you successfully find a job or career are often not.
So this week to get the ball rolling I am reviewing five of the biggest job search websites and discovering their pros and cons for you lucky readers to help you get the most out of your job searches.
Your University Careers Service
Obviously the quality of the individual site will differ from institution to institution but the main advantages of using the university careers website is that the jobs being advertised will be geared much more towards graduate applicants, cutting out the disappointment that arises from finding an ‘ideal’ job that requires several years prior experience. There are also a lot of internships, holiday jobs and non-profit opportunities advertised on university sites that can help you get that crucial experience needed for your dream job.
Good for: Graduate training schemes, internships, non-profit organisations
Bad for: vocational job opportunities, government and civil positions, arts and heritage work
Jobs found to apply for: 6
Monster.co.uk
This is one of the major players in the job search market and is a much used avenue for graduates seeking jobs. The search function is highly customisable and easy to use, allowing you to be as specific as you like with search criteria. Each search also generates a huge quantity of results, giving you lots of options and has a good range of graduate schemes.
However, the interface is not particularly engaging and the search results are hard to read as well as being interspersed with irrelevant sponsored advertisements. Much of the recruitment done of the site is through a third party agency, meaning you often get little upfront information about the company or the position itself. There is a highly corporate focus on this site which can be good or bad depending on what you’re looking for.
Good for: Corporate training schemes, graduate positions
Bad for: non-profit, arts and heritage, media and advertising
Jobs found to apply for: 1
Milkround.com
Milkround is another juggernaut of the job searching world, especially for recent graduates. The website is nicely formatted but the search options are unintuitive and restrictive, making it difficult to locate jobs that are relevant.
Search results are again nicely presented in tabular form allowing easy assessment of the basic particulars before selecting a position to read more about, however the content seemed to be sparse, providing me with only a couple of results for many searches even with extremely broad criteria.
Again this is a site that is better for corporate job seekers- there is not even a search option for government or arts and heritage jobs.
Good for: recruitment to big companies, searching for available positions at well known companies
Bad for: Pretty much anything else
Jobs found to apply for: 3 (ever)
Guardian Jobs
The guardian website is one I use quite a lot, partly because various members of my familt are frequently spotting ads in the paper itself for me to look up and partly because its such an efficient and comprehensive site. The search layout is very clear and lists the number of jobs available in each category which can be very helpful.
The range of fields and subfields is the most comprehensive I have seen on any of these sites and the job information is clear and detailed in the majority of adverts.
More negatively, there is little comparatively little focus on graduate recruitment and in many sectors the jobs are principally managerial, requiring significant experience.
Good for: Investigating jobs in a wide range of sectors
Bad for: graduate jobs, pinpointing programmes recruiting multiple individuals
Jobs found to apply for: 4
Reed.co.uk
This website is less well known at least in oral tradition at my university- it is the third link on google when you search for ‘jobs’. The format of the website is pleasant and the search function is extremely detailed, allowing you to narrow the type of job alongside its location and salary. There are a range of sectors represented, plenty of results and a range of experience levels being advertised for. However instinctively, and possibly irrationally, I did not like this site. It did not encourage me to keep using it to look for a job and there was, once again, no section for government or arts and heritage jobs.
Good for: searching for jobs locally, searching for a wide variety of jobs
Bad for: arts and heritage jobs, government jobs
Jobs found to apply for: 0
I hope this is some use to people, even if it just gives an indication of some of the sites that are out there for you to use. I would recommend the guardian site, but then I was deliberately not looking for graduate employment schemes.
Let us know about your experiences on these and other sites, especially if you have any recommendations!
I'm not sure how helpful this comment will be to you but I actually only used the internet as a secondary stage in my job search. I found the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers book (usually readily available from most university careers services) a really great starting point as it gave summaries of each employer's geographical locations, average salaries, application deadlines, number of positions available etc. in a side column of each page, and it categorised them by sector (e.g. accountancy, management, marketing etc). I found this was great as from looking through this book, I was able to draw up a shortlist of 8 or so employers I wanted to investigate further and THEN go to their websites (also listed in the book). Of course, this book is aimed at large scale employers, many of whom have graduate recruitment schemes, and so if you're looking for a smaller, local company then this method won't work so well.
ReplyDeleteI also used other magazine-style publications from the university careers service which were of varying usefulness - but I can recommend TargetJobs as they were quite good, and not too much crossover with the Times 100. The targetjobs website is also pretty good, but I have to admit I didn't use it that extensively. They do have lots of career sectors listed, including non-profit, media, government, "art and design" etc, but I suspect that if you already know specifically that you're interested in arts and heritage, for example, then you might do better looking up www.museumjobs.com or something similar.
Yaay a comment- and a very useful comment at that :) I am a big fan of museumjobs as it happens but I thought including it might not be helpful to the vast number of people not interested in that sector. I omitted the New Scientist job website for similar reasons. I will definitely check out targetjobs thanks x
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