The Christmas holidays is always a big time for graduate, placement and internship applications. There are lots of sensible reasons for this such as the avoidance of the assignment, the whiff of a New Year’s resolution, the nagging of parents, or the impending nature of lots of application closing dates. Not to mention the excuse to shut yourself away for a few hours in an otherwise claustrophobic house.

The temptation is to blitz as many applications as you can, but this leads to half-thought-through applications to jobs you don’t really want. Even if your applications are good, and the jobs are what you want, you’ll then be faced with a deluge of requests to complete online tests and video interviews. It can all get overwhelming really quickly.

So, resist the temptation of the blitz and try this (or something like it) instead:

1. Spend a couple of hours looking at what jobs are being advertised, list all the ones that look good, then prioritise them;
2. When you have a good two hours clear ahead of you, start your application for the job at the top of your list (or maybe the 5^th if you’ve never applied for anything before);
3. Complete and save your draft application, then go and do something different for the rest of the day;
4. Next day, review your application, tweak it as needed and submit it;
5. Choose the next job from the list, do your research, jot down some ideas about why you want the role & why you’d be good at it, then go and do something different for the rest of the day;
6. Next day, complete and save your draft application, then go and do something different for the rest of the day;
7. Next day, review your application, tweak it as needed and submit it. Check the jobs boards to see if any more jobs have gone live, and add any you like to your priority list;
8. And back to 5 again.

The key here is that you aren’t rushing anything, you’re building in some time to reflect, and you’re only applying for jobs that you really want. You also stand a good chance of being able to keep up with all the next-stage requests that come your way.

If you are wondering how to make a good application, have a watch of this recent webinar recording.

Graham
UoR Careers Team