✦Job search · 11 recordsFirst job after graduating

Graduate schemes open and close months before anyone feels ready, and a first CV has to be built out of coursework, part-time jobs and societies rather than a career. This handles both, and treats the deadline calendar as the thing that decides the order.

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Goal

Have an offer before graduating Month 5

One offer worth taking. Applications are the means, not the measure.

The deadline calendar Week 4

Schemes close when they are full, not on the advertised date.

  • List every scheme worth applying to and when it opensDo firstDay 5
  • Put the first ten deadlines in the calendarDo firstDay 10
  • Apply to the three that close soonestWeek 4

A CV without a career Week 6

Built from coursework, part-time work and anything I ran.

  • Write down everything I have done, then describe outcomes not dutiesDo firstDay 7
  • Get one person who hires to read itWeek 3

Routines

  • Send one applicationweekly
  • Practise one interview answerweekly
✦ It comes with a note

The calendar decides the order

Graduate schemes often open a full year before the job starts and close as soon as they are full. That makes the deadline calendar the first job, because everything else follows from it.\n\nApply broadly at first. Early interviews teach you more about what you want than more research will, and the first few are partly for calibration.

✦ Questions

First job after graduating, answered.

Many open in the autumn a full year before the job starts, and close as soon as they are full rather than on the advertised date. That is why the first task here is building the deadline calendar — the order of everything else follows from it.
Coursework with an outcome, part-time jobs, society roles and anything you built or ran. The trick is describing them the way work is described — what you did, what changed, what it took — rather than listing them as activities.
Broadly at first, then narrow once you have interviewed a few times. Early interviews teach you more about what you want than more research will, and the plan assumes the first few are partly for calibration.
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