Category Archives: For Universities
The growing interest in the Peers in Careers space was evident at the student-led conference, Peers in Careers, delivered by Gradconsult in partnership with Group GTI in May earlier this year. The conference demonstrated the intrigue in this area, where 24 universities were represented, and 65 students attended. This success has paved the way for a second conference, scheduled for November 2023. In addition, At Gradconsult we are working with a growing number of universities to develop a peers in careers offer and deliver training to their student team. However, despite the interest, what we often hear from careers professionals ... read more
Careers and Employability Teams are growing, and the recruitment of senior staff has become more challenging. This has led to more University Careers Services taking the decision to create their own talent pipeline to grow their own new leaders. When the best practitioners are promoted to management positions, it can be difficult to juggle the required change in mindset from operational to strategic with the additional responsibilities of managing people. Even the best practitioners need some help to stop being so hands on and start consulting, negotiating, managing, and leading. We are excited to launch the Gradconsult Emerging Leaders Development ... read more
by George Theodorou Coaching. Something I’ve believed I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Hearing about people’s experiences. Hearing about their thoughts and feelings. Hearing about their goals and aspirations. I’ve always wanted to help people to deal with whatever they are facing, and to help them get ‘there’. My passion for helping people has been a part of me for as long as I can remember. I’ve always been fascinated by human behaviour and have naturally been inquisitive about people’s thoughts and experiences. I felt like I could help people by hearing about their experiences and offering my ... read more
By Rebecca Fielding The transition from education into employment is, and always has been, a rough one for most students. Working full time, with typically 20 days holiday per year, with colleagues from a wide variety of backgrounds, doing work we perhaps weren’t expecting, comes as a shock to most graduates – one that I’m sure many of us later in our career can still vividly remember! Even for those lucky few who secure a role on a structured graduate development programme, the mindset shift required is significant and the changes in personal circumstances can also be huge. Here, I ... read more
By Rhea Chokshi Over the summer, I was lucky enough to work as a Digital Marketing Intern at Gradconsult. As I neared the end of my second year at the University of Nottingham studying Chemistry, I thought about how I could use the skills I’d obtained from my degree and bring my experiences into the working world and within a sector I was interested in. This brought me to Gradconsult, a place where I could gain hands-on experience, work within a team of consultants and develop my marketing skills. The application process While studying, it can be really useful to ... read more
By Mike Grey There’s no doubt that students are brilliant. You are brimming with skills, ideas and potential. So why is this not always fully reflected in graduate recruitment processes? I often talk with students about the Dunning-Kruger effect in relation to their performance in graduate recruitment processes. It has prompted powerful reflective discussions, supported them to develop their self-awareness and often encouraged them seek help from careers professionals to develop their competence in making graduate job applications. What is the Dunning–Kruger effect? The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias stating that people with low competence at a task often ... read more
By George Theodorou This post was originally posted on George’s LinkedIn, on the 18th August 2021. You can find the original link, here. Here is a rough blueprint for students to follow in terms of planning their career at university. It’s important to realise these ideas are flexible and you must add context to your situation to work out what’s best for you. These are simply pointers for you to consider. So, here we go – BEFORE UNIVERSITY – SELF REFLECTION – be honest with yourself before you start university. Why have you chosen the course? Will the course lead ... read more
By George Theodorou What a start to life it has been for me at Gradconsult! From helping Amber to deliver two sessions on my first day, including ‘Think Like a Recruiter’ and a digital assessment centre simulation, to starting in the middle of RISE6 cohort’s recruitment process, things have moved quickly during my short time here! Being fully involved, right from the off, has enabled me to settle quickly and to enjoy my work – making me feel like I’m actively contributing to the fantastic work being done here. It has been a fantastic start, which has been made possible ... read more
If you have any interest in the tech industry, you’ve probably heard of the ‘design thinking’ concept. Harnessed by the likes of IBM and Apple, the Stanford-designed methodology for creative problem solving has taken the business world by storm. But while it’s undoubtedly been transformative in influencing the way tech products are developed, and for wider FMCGs too (PepsiCo is a big proponent), the process has the potential to be beneficial to every industry – and indeed, it’s particularly suited to the world of education. We know that Higher Education institutions face a multitude of challenges today. In addition to ... read more
By Rebecca Fielding The Autumn semester has always been the period that graduate recruiters across the land pack up their stands, laptops and goodies to head out on a grand tour of the UK’s premier inns (other chains are available), bouncing from one careers fair, networking dinner or presentation to another. It can be great fun and exciting to chat to potential new hires, but also exhausting, inefficient, costly and bad for the environment. This year offers us the opportunity to break with tradition and do things differently. And I expect things are going to look and feel very different ... read more
By Ollie Tarrant Picture the scene – a nervous, sweaty 18-year-old sitting in the front of a Vauxhall Astra, on the lean, mean streets of St. Albans, about to sit his driving test. It’s perhaps not surprising that, from this description, I failed my test first time around. Since then, I have moved from St Albans to Sheffield for university, and have stayed here since (nearly 5 years now!). I have been working at Gradconsult for nearly 2 of those years and during that time have not really felt the need to drive. I was able to get to the ... read more
By Mike Grey One of the recurring themes in our work with careers services across the UK is supporting them to identify how their employer engagement provision can evolve existing transactional relationships into strategic partnerships with target employers. As employability has moved higher up the agenda across UK HE, the appetite to deliver more meaningful activities with employers has increased. A recent government report revealed that students are just as likely to talk to academic staff about their future career plans as their university careers service: It is therefore vital that academics engage with employers and work in close partnership ... read more
By Rebecca Fielding Whether you are a graduate employer seeking to increase (nay double) your available candidate pool, or a university wanting to improve the number of your graduates entering highly skilled graduate employment post-graduation there seems to me to be one simple solution that no-one is really talking about. It’s simply learning to drive. A recent (January 2018) report commissioned by the Department for Transport, conducted by the University of Oxford and the University of the West of England, Young People’s Travel – What’s Changed and Why?, has demonstrated a significant and sustained decline in the number of young ... read more
This is the second blog from our 2018 Microgrant winners. Sebastian Cordoba, PhD student at De Montfort University, was awarded £440 for research into understanding the psychological, linguistic and social experiences of people who don’t identify as men or women in the UK. Read his story below. I am soon starting the third – and last – year of my PhD in social psychology at De Montfort University. My research focusses on the linguistic, social, and psychological experiences of those living in the UK who do not identify solely as men or women: non-binary and/or genderqueer people. I am particularly ... read more
This is the first blog from our 2018 Microgrant winners. Victoria Reay, of Lancaster University, was awarded £200 for working on a project to see how electronic patient records affect the way clinicians work together. Read her story below. My PhD is going to examine how using electronic records shape the way that hospital work is done in the NHS. This idea grew out of personal experience. I was working as a doctor on an inpatient unit in a hospice in Cumbria, when our record keeping system changed from paper to digital. Instead of writing a patient’s notes on paper, ... read more
We at Gradconsult are delighted to announce the six researchers who beat hundreds of other applicants to win our second year of microgrants to help further their good work. Initially established in 2017 to aid new researchers and early career academics by giving them a funding track record, Gradconsult’s microgrants have been formed to give some of the UK’s finest researchers extra help to make a case for larger funding bids. As a business that works hand-in-hand with many universities, clearly seeing the effect of research in higher education, we want to do our bit to start the momentum for ... read more
By Carlene McCalla So, you’ve come to the end of your studies and you’re just on the brink of your working career. You’ve jumped through various hoops and faced the most gruelling interview processes. After numerous setbacks and a few uncompromising rejections, there’s finally light at the end of the tunnel! That’s it, you’ve finally secured your first professional job! Now, there may be a range of things going through your mind on the morning of your first day, ranging from what to wear, to pondering about the atmosphere and culture of the organisation. It’s understandable that these things may ... read more
We’re delighted to share the third blog post in the series of updates being produced by our 2017 Microgrants beneficiaries. The following post is from Lina Brand Correa, University of Leeds, whose work concerns how energy is related to society and the economy, with a special focus on human well-being. It has been almost a year since I applied, and was lucky enough to receive, one of Gradconsult’s microgrants. A lot has happened in that time, both personally and academically. Although my personal experiences over the last year would certainly be more captivating –perhaps even good enough for a soap-opera-type ... read more
Is running on-campus events an art or a science? Actually, I’d argue it’s a martial art. It requires preparation, discipline and taught techniques but also mental agility, quick reactions and creativity. From careers fairs to panel presentations, alumni talks to pop-up coffee carts, university campuses are awash with events designed to inform, advise and attract students. Careers services, graduate recruiters, and marketing teams spend huge amounts of time, money and effort second guessing student behaviour. It’s big business and hard to master. So, ahead of our On-campus Events workshop on 8th March, here are the critical qualities you need to ... read more
I made the move into early careers from experienced hire recruitment almost ten years ago and quickly realised how differently I’d need to work. It was clear that my strongest allies would be my target university careers services, and that a long-term approach to the relationship would be my best bet. Over the years I’ve worked hard to build relationships with my target universities and I’ve been rewarded with strong pipelines to some of their best and brightest. I’ve also recently worked within a university Careers Service team and it was such an eye opener being on the other side ... read more
If SMEs were in the dating game they would be the ones we would take home to meet our mothers. Genuinely caring about their business and employees, and not ones to play the field with other universities, these organisations are the keepers we should want to get in bed with. Far from showy fly-by-night corporate behaviour we can sometimes see, SMEs can offer real opportunities in record time. Big corporates may turn our heads with their gifts and promises of large graduate intakes but, in the cold light of day, the conversion rates often make it clear that the same ... read more
The first few months of any graduate programme from September to December are busy. From induction to line manager briefings, the first placements and inevitable first bouncers working out they are in the wrong place. January is often the first chance to come up for air and do some thinking about the year ahead. The programme structure, budget and core topics will most likely have been set for some time, but there are a few key questions I’d encourage all graduate developers to ask as we all plan and prepare for 2018: • Has the business environment, leadership, strategy or ... read more
With year-end activities and lengthy to-do lists, Christmas parties and celebrations in full swing, you may have missed, or may not have had time to sit down and read, the DfE’s new 36-page report on Career Strategy, released on 4th December. It’s the government’s long-awaited plan for raising the quality of careers provision in England ‘Careers strategy – making the most of everyone’s skills and talents’. So here at Gradconsult we have compiled a summary for you of the key things you need to know. We’ve purposefully not made this a critique, political or opinion piece, just a summary of ... read more
We’re delighted to share the second blog post in the series of updates being produced by our 2017 Microgrants beneficiaries. The following post is from Nathan Case, Lancaster University, whose work aims to make the general public aware of possible sightings of the Northern Lights. Back in May this year, I visited the Gradconsult office (or GC Towers at it’s better known!) as one of five recipients of the innovative “microgrant” scheme. The scheme, which enables new researchers and early career academics to get experience of writing and managing funding bids, provides small but very welcomed pots of money to ... read more
By Kylie Cook Originally published on LinkedIn Every week, on movie night, my husband asks me what I want to watch, and every week I shout SHREK 2 at the top of my lungs. I don’t know how it started, but it always makes me chuckle on account of me being very easily pleased. My demands for the cinematic delight of everyone’s favourite CGI ogre are rarely indulged, but I know the film pretty well nonetheless. What’s the point? Well, there’s a bit where Donkey and Shrek are talking about people being like onions and having layers*, and I think ... read more
In May 2017, Gradconsult announced the five successful recipients of our microgrants for early-careers researchers, to support them in developing their research, pursuing publication and creating impact. We’re delighted to share the first of a series of updates from these individuals. The following piece is from Andy Fletcher, Durham University, who is making headway with his research looking at links between music and mental health. Music increases wellbeing. Some people have a fair idea of how and why this works for them but the reasons differ between individuals. My PhD sought to disentangle some of the connections between music activity ... read more
By Mike Grey Originally published on LinkedIn In many of the training courses that I deliver, I like to use an icebreaker where I ask participants: “What did you want to be when you grew up?” As you would expect, very few had dreams of working in careers, placements, employer engagement or graduate recruitment…… as it turns out our industry is home to dozens of squeamish people that abandoned dreams of a being a Vet and a fair few humanities graduates that never really mapped a career journey in their time at university. However, most go on to share that ... read more
Originally published in Issue 1 (Autumn 2017) of ‘The Student Employer’ Magazine by ISE. By Rebecca Fielding If you’re new to the world of student recruitment I’m here to give you a great big welcome. You have joined an innovative, collaborative and fun sector at an exciting time. And I can say that as someone who has worked in it for 17 years! Every year seems to bring new challenges (apprentice levy anyone?), exciting technological developments (AI and virtual reality – eek) and a deeper understanding of the important role our profession plays within people’s lives (candidate experience, fight for ... read more
Originally published in Issue 1 (Autumn 2017) of ‘The Student Employer’ Magazine by ISE. By Amy Collins and Rachel Seignot Bright Network research suggests graduates see a prestigious reputation and a fast-growing, innovative image as the most important criteria in an employer. But what other, more practical, aspects are they looking for? As recent graduates who have taken a wider look at the graduate recruitment market whilst working at Gradconsult, Amy Collins and Rachel Seignot explain their decision-making process behind applying for graduate jobs. When first considering graduate job applications, we both created a ‘checklist’ to narrow down the myriad ... read more