Students: the job hunt starts now
Lauren and recruiters from Sun Life Financial and KPMG answered questions about the September recruitment drive in an online discussion.
From my fourth year at Queen's, I have memories of my friends in the Commerce program reporting in November that they had already signed contracts with employers for the following September.
It only occurred to me several months later to even begin thinking about my job hunt and my career progression after university. But then, that's the TalentEgg story - after finding the whole graduation situation very confusing, I went on to Britain to complete a master's program and eventually stumbled upon the idea for TalentEgg.
It was only when I started heavily researching campus recruitment in Canada that I learned about "The September Rush," also known as the biggest misconception in university and college life.
The September Recruitment Rush
While it may seem illogical for employers to recruit and hire students in the first month of university, when students are generally more concerned with their academics and extracurricular activities than landing their first career-launching job an entire year later, employers see September as the best time to attract Canada's top graduating talent.
From the employers' perspective, it's competitive: if one major accounting firm is on campuses wooing the top accounting students, then the others have to be there, too. This logic applies to most major grad employers in Canada.
Throw in the fact that most campus career centres organize their career fairs in September and you have a situation where many Canadian employers concentrate their graduate recruitment efforts at the start of the academic year.
If you're about to head into your final year this September, start preparing now. Even if your dream company doesn't participate in The Rush, you'll benefit by being prepared as roles for next September pop up throughout the year.
Here are a few ways you can start:
Prepare a template of your Career Launching Résumé: A strong template you can use, tweak and customize when opportunities arise or when your experience history changes is a must-have. Because a lot of grad employers request online applications, preparing your template is a great exercise to get you into the right mindframe for answering questions about your academic history, work history and achievements.
Do your career homework: Do you know what you want to do yet? And if you do know, do you know which companies are the best fit for you? Do your homework and take the time to identify your qualifying criteria, including your target industries, roles you might be interested in, etc.
Once you've done that, identify target employers. Websites like Eluta.ca offer a directory of employers who hire new grads, and TalentEgg profiles top Canadian employers by category as well.
Make yourself aware of the resources available to you: We publish tons of resources on TalentEgg all the time, but if you're looking for some in-person guidance, every campus has a career centre. Take advantage of the opportunity to speak with someone whose job it is to listen and point you in the right direction.
Also, find out when activities and info sessions are occurring on your campus. You can do this through your career centre, and also find this information online.
Get organized: Finally, once you've done all this, you'll probably need a detailed calendar. Between starting your classes, applying to clubs, jobs and other extra-curriculars, and re-acquainting with your friends, as well as all the info sessions, career fairs, and other activities happening on campus, September can be a very busy month!
For those of you not graduating this year, you can look forward to internship and summer recruiting in January.
The Globe and Mail's Back To School page
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