Getting a graduate position is hard.
It's even harder during a recession
I personally graduated in the aftermath
of 2008 financial crisis. I managed to
secure a graduate position at Deutsche
Bank where I saw my first applications
of how data and statistics can be
applied in a business setting, and was able
to use those skills I learned there to
ultimately start my own business -
consulting to corporates on how to make
the enterprise reporting better but
getting that first role was incredibly
challenging for me. Three things that I
learnt from my experience was; The first
was persistence. I submitted 150 to 300
applications for graduate roles and I
got about 10 interviews and one offer
from Deutsche Bank.
It was incredibly disheartening, but I
persisted and ultimately it paid off.
Second is very closely related
persistence, and that's resilience. I knew
I didn't have the most employable degree.
Like many of you I followed my passions
University, so I did
theoretical statistics and policy
economics, which is not immediately
applicable at the time to many roles.
I was literally rejected hundreds of
times I'd worked extremely hard in
University, I was top of my class in
economics and about top 10% in my class in statistics, but having all those
rejections come through and realizing
that your education valuable as you thought
it was extremely difficult, but it just
taught you that there was nothing you
could do about the past that only thing
you could do is try to make the future
better
and to work through the challenges that
you face. The third is definitely
personal branding and being creative
about how you market yourself in the
labour market place. So I remember one of
my first interviews I got called from a
lady
from HR as the blue and my dormitory in
the morning and she did the standard
question about rummy through your CV I
remember like I was in Hong Kong on
exchange and it was probably 7 a.m. or 8
a.m. at the time and she was in New
Zealand so it was a reasonable hour back
then, and I didn't have my CV memorized
and ready to go, so I didn't do very well
and about 20 to 30 seconds into the
interview she said something like thank
you very much that's all for now
hung up the phone, and that was that opportunity gone, So I learnt from that and that
you should always have your elevator
pitch ready to go and that nothing is
taken for granted. I also did a lot of
networking, creative ways of learning
more about the corporate world and
making myself more employable and back
then we didn't have LinkedIn or any of
these tools that we currently have so I
think graduates today can really
leverage those tools and just get
yourself out there and market yourself. I
think the number one thing to remember
is that recessions come and go, but you, your skill set, your ability to
do a job and help people will always
persist, and having the tools to work
through issues and solve problems will
really help in the long run.
