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As a student it’s always a good idea to do what you can in uni to make your life a little easier for when you graduate. One of the best things you can do as a student is set yourself up on LinkedIn and start building your personal portfolio.

Entering the job market as a new graduate is intimidating, especially when you don’t have relevant work experience to include on your CV. With such heavy competition for good entry-level positions, the pressure is on to make sure your CV is compelling enough to win over potential employers.

Rather than treat the notion of career planning as a serious endeavour, why not have some fun playing with some questionnaires to see whether what you find may help you contemplate alternatives?

Networking is about making connections with others, letting them know about your talents, your value, and your availability. More often than not, networking is not meant to yield immediate results. Rather, it is meant to increase your opportunities down the line.

Given the value of teamwork skills for virtually every organisation this has almost become an inevitable interview question. The era of remote working has also highlighted the importance of team work, both for employee well-being and the success of the company.

Choosing to work abroad after university can open you up to so many exciting opportunities. That said, different countries have different rules and expectations when it comes to applying for jobs so in order to succeed on your job search, you need to spend some time carefully crafting a CV that will appeal to international employers.

The graduate recruitment process can be challenging and competitive. Such is the focus on making successful applications that preparing for the reality of the workplace in your first graduate job can often be overlooked. How can you be successful and create a good impression?

Working or studying from home comes with a long list of benefits. It’s flexible, there’s no need to commute (other than from your bed to your desk) and you can wear comfy clothes all day if you want to! The only trouble is, when you are at home there are plenty of things to distract you — and there’s certainly plenty of room for procrastination.

What is commercial awareness, why do students need it and how can they develop it?

I’ve been chatting to a number of graduate recruiters, people whose job it is day in and day out to search for and select the graduates that will join their company and, hopefully, drive the future success of that organisation. I’m always asking what is it that separates the successful from the unsuccessful candidates at assessment centres.

Living with a disability or a long-term health condition can be challenging. Obstacles caused by this can feel overwhelming in the work environment and can prevent a person from thriving. This is why it’s important to think about whether to talk to the employer about it.

Greta Solomon shares what she wished she had known before taking the plunge into the lifestyle of freelance journalism.

Recruitment with the top graduate employers is really competitive, sometimes with 100’s of applications per position on offer. Do not take it personally, many other brilliant candidates may also have been rejected. There are only so many places available but just because you were not picked this time does not mean that you will not be next time.

Recruitment or online tests can strike fear into the most confident. Yet they are still part of some graduate schemes and so are a reality that has to be faced. Tests come in a number of formats and are referred to as psychometric or aptitude tests.

This is a common interview question and given the feedback we receive from students, considered to be quite a difficult one to answer. Start by understanding why the employer is asking it and talk about a topic that genuinely interests and excites you.

Publisher Malcolm Forbes (publisher of Forbes magazine) once said that ‘diversity is the art of thinking independently together.’ Diversity is more than just a buzz-word, it can hold the key to fostering new ways of thinking, broadening a customer base and growing a business. Organisations can’t thrive and grow if everyone in them thinks and behaves the same way. Valuing diversity is becoming increasingly important for businesses.

The majority of jobs are never advertised. The ‘hidden’ job market is reputed to be anything from 50-80% of the total number of opportunities available. But how can you find out about these jobs roles and make successful applications?

70% of all vacancies are never advertised, or so the story goes. By dedicating a small fraction of your time to unearthing unadvertised vacancies you may well find a wider range of opportunities than advertised vacancies alone.

Employers have many ways to screen applicants, from the standard CV or application form to video interviews and assessment centres. If you are applying for an insight week, internship or graduate job, the chances are that psychometric testing will form part of the selection process.

Mistakes are inevitable, we all make them. But what is the employer really assessing in your answer to this interview question?

‘When do I go to the top of the pay scale…can I leave early on a Friday afternoon…when can I expect to take over from you?’

On reflection, probably not the most appropriate questions to pose when the employer asks you if you have any questions at the end of an interview – but what should you ask?

Autumn is upon us and the large graduate recruitment fairs are in full-swing, signalling that the latest cycle in graduate recruitment has started! If you are new to the recruitment process used by graduate employers to recruit their interns, graduate recruits and industrial placements, what can you expect?

When you receive an interview invite, how quickly does your anticipation and enthusiasm turn into anxiety and negativity? Do you expect to fail before the interview has even taken place?

Have you ever wanted to answer the emergency call for a doctor on a plane? Aside from the allure of adding ‘Dr’ to your name, what impact could a PhD have on your career? What should you be aware of when considering an application for a PhD?

Do you want to teach? If so, it’s time to start your application planning. This used to be a simple process of finding the university that offered the best PGCE course for the appropriate age group and in the chosen subject specialism. Not any longer….

Strengths continue to be a hot topic for our readers and the number of employers choosing to move away from traditional competency based interview to look instead at Strengths is increasing.

So you’re interested in the world of investment banking and want to know how to get ahead of the game? How do you get your “foot in the door” of this competitive and high profile industry?

Although it’s impossible to quantify how many of the estimated 50-80% unadvertised jobs are at ‘graduate level’ there is no doubt that you should tap into this market if you want to increase your chance of job search success. Don’t artificially restrict your horizons by focussing on the graduate portals, fairs or company websites alone. There are a wealth of opportunities out there and a good speculative application can help you unlock the door to this seemingly hidden job market.

Group discussions are a really common assessment exercise as they allow the recruiter to see how you interact with others and work as part of a team – essential skills in pretty much any job. You are not in direct competition with your fellow candidates, so aim for a collaborative, not competitive, approach in group discussions.

Successful people don’t sidestep failure; they accommodate it, cope with it and move on. Resilience, not resignation, is the key to career success.