The survey found that just 3% of the thirty recruitment consultancies asked believed that graduates preferred smaller companies over larger ones.

Graduate job seekers are attracted to the major multinational organisations and discount the experience they can gain at smaller companies. SMEs are a practical option for university leavers struggling to compete for the popular graduate schemes at large global companies. In fact, it may be the big, household-name companies that first to come to mind when thinking about graduate recruitment but in reality only 14% of graduates actually get places on these companies’ graduate training schemes. The schemes are highly demanding, often requiring a 2:1 degree and sometimes a willingness to relocate. Some findings from ‘Employing Graduates in SMEs: Towards a Research Agenda’ reveal that approximately 50% of SMEs have no preference for the discipline of the graduate’s degree and over 90% of SMEs showed little interested in the class or type of degree.

Some advantages of working for an SME include:

• SMEs can offer personal on-the-job training and invaluable hands-on experience.
• You will have the flexibility to get involved in a wider range of tasks and will gain a variety of experiences and skills as job roles are often less firmly defined in small companies.
• You would be encouraged to voice your own ideas and feel like you are making a real contribution to the business.  You will see ideas implemented and observe projects through from start to finish.
• Small businesses offer good prospects for graduates who do join them and there are more likely to be opportunities to develop roles and further careers.
• The working environment may be less bureaucratic and more relaxed than in larger organisations. Small business owners understand that their staff is their greatest asset and are therefore more likely to identify their needs and treat them as individuals.
• You may be able to get a job near where you live rather than having to move like you would be required to do if accepted onto some graduate schemes.
• SMEs offer the opportunity to work closely with people on all levels of the business including senior management and to have your work noticed.

SMEs can offer university leavers what they often seek from their first graduate internship or job. However, some graduates are unaware of the benefits SMEs can offer and have no idea how to take advantage of them. So don’t always think big…

If you have been able to bag yourself a job, congratulations. 28% of graduates are still unable to find full time work even three years after they finished their degree.

Once you have made the leap into full time employment from university your priorities change and one of the next things on your list is likely to be moving away from home (if you haven’t already) and taking on fresh responsibilities. Something which is unlikely to be high on your list of concerns when starting a new job is what happens if you loose it.

No-one likes to think they will be unable to work, whether it’s redundancy, ill health or other reasons. If you are unable to continue working due to ill health, it’s unlikely you will be able to work else where either.

If you had to leave your job due to a serious illness or injury would you be able to support yourself financially? Many people will turn to savings to keep them afloat for a while. As a graduate it’s unlikely you would have amassed a great deal. Perhaps you could turn to family or friends. Would you move back home to live with your parents and face loosing your hard earned independence?

You might not be able to work from stress or even a broken leg but that doesn’t mean you need to be looked after by Mum and Dad. It might just mean you can’t afford to support yourself financially. It is always worth having a plan in place so you know what your options are should you be unable to work for whatever reason.

There are insurance policies available, such as income protection which is designed to offer you that much needed financial support should you fall ill or injure yourself. An income protection policy will pay you a percentage of your current earnings to help you meet your monthly bills and avoiding having to move back to live with Mum and Dad.

It’s always best to speak to an independent financial adviser who can search the market on your behalf. They look for the most competitive policy for your circumstances.

Endsleigh Independent Financial Services is a subsidiary of student insurers Endsleigh who more than likely provided your student possessions insurance when you were at university.

Endsleigh’s Financial Advice Team are not tied to any one provider and advise their clients based on their individual circumstances. They offer all the financial products you are likely to need at some point or another during your changing lifestyle after university. Whether you are saving for a mortgage, buying your first house, protecting your income or planning your retirement, their financial advisers can give you advice, over the telephone at a time to suit you.

Recent graduates are often faced with this problem: you need experience to get a job, but you need a job to get experience. Getting your CV to stand out from the hundreds of other graduates is challenging with little to no work experience under your belt. To compete, you’ll need to show a future employer what you have that the others don’t.

You may have more experience than you think. Making a list of everything you have done and what you learnt from each activity is an excellent way to remind yourself about the amount of transferable skills you have. Your CV needs to be professional as a graduate, but coursework, volunteer opportunities, summer jobs and even involvement in extra-curricular activities can show what skills you already hold; even singing in your university choir can give you some great transferable skills. Here are four ways to identify your transferable skills and build out your CV!

1. Coursework

If you took part in research as part of your degree at university and it‘s relevant to the job you’re looking for, include this on your CV. You may not have hands on experience, but your research will show that you have background knowledge that other applicants may not.

2. Summer Jobs

Summer jobs of any sort will have transferable skills. You may not think that your brief summer job at the local restaurant will help you when you start your job search.  However, when you work in a restaurant you will learn great customer service skills; working as waiting or bar staff is all about making the customer happy. Many roles involve you dealing with clients who will want the same treatment as someone eating at a restaurant – great service and meeting their demands!

3. Volunteering

It is very attractive to potential employers to see that you’re the type of person who is interested in contributing to the greater good. Volunteering will teach you skills such as team work and allow you to get a sense of work place environments. Having different volunteering initiatives on your CV also shows that you are proactive and aren’t treating graduation as a long-term holiday.

4. Extra-Curriculars

Extra-curricular activities are a confusing area when it comes to your CV. Graduates may not think it, but even being in a choir or a member of a sports team are great activities to include when job hunting for the first time. They show you have commitment; creativity and that you can work well with a team. These are great transferable skills and including these experiences on your CV will show a prospective employer that you have great background knowledge and specific skills, even if you’ve never spent time working in an office.

For more job search tips and advice, visit blog.SimplyHired.co.uk and begin your job search on www.SimplyHired.co.uk.

It is an impressive success story against a backdrop of rising youth unemployment and a suspicion among employers that hiring inexperienced workers in the current climate is too big a risk. With graduates trapped in the ‘need experience to get a job, need a job to get experience’ vicious circle, Inspiring Interns CEO and founder Ben Rosen believes that internships are the perfect model to get graduates into meaningful work.

“The employment market is currently saturated, not just with those immediately out of university but by people with over a year’s experience under their belt. Graduates are finding that they simply cannot compete in these conditions and as such remain unemployed or find menial work that does not make best use of their education.

“An internship gives them the chance to learn practical skills which will impress potential employers, as well as make useful industry contacts and even earn themselves a full-time job.”

Interestingly, Inspiring Interns have found most success in newer industries which often complement many graduates’ personal interests. Areas such as mobile technology and digital marketing offer potential for swift progression when compared to more traditional professions and also allow university leavers to draw on familiar skills, such as knowledge of social media.

Having reached the 1000 intern mark independently, Inspiring Interns are now calling on the Government to do more to support internships and help create jobs for graduates. Commenting on the recent launch of BIS’s Common Best Practice Code for High Quality Internships, Ben Rosen said,

“It is encouraging to see the Coalition engaging with internships and attempting to offer some guidance to business. However we would like to see them create some genuine measures, such as allowing companies to redirect National Insurance payments to internship programmes, in order to support what is now a proven model for combating graduate unemployment.”

Having reached the 1000 mark, Rosen is unequivocal in his vision for Inspiring Interns. “2000 is next! There are still tens of thousands of graduates looking for work and thousands of companies who are unaware of the benefit hungry young talent can bring to their organisation. Inspiring Interns is committed to bringing the two together, creating jobs and boosting business.”

First things first, set up a profile and take the time to complete it 100%. If, like all unemployed graduates should, you have an up to date CV you can import it into your profile to save time.  Write a killer headline (avoid being generic), choose a relatively professional looking photo, sell yourself in your profile, emphasising what you can do, as opposed to what you cannot.  You can also personalise your URL, which will help when potential employers search for you on Google.

Once you have built your profile, connect with people.  If you are having difficulty finding contacts, import your email contacts and start there.  Investigate 2^nd and 3^rd level connections; will they be able to help you begin your career?  You can ask previous employers for recommendations which function as public endorsements of previous work and adds weight to your profile.  Search for people related to the type of work you are interested in, especially those that would be interested in your work experience and qualifications.  You can also follow companies that you would be interested in working for. Companies that update their pages regularly may provide information that would prove invaluable in an interview situation or even helping you get a foot in the door.

Take advantage of the status update function and let others know what you are looking to do.  People often use LinkedIn to post questions, which offers you the opportunity to share your knowledge and make further connections. So get involved, answer these questions if you can and ask your own.  In a market place becoming increasingly saturated with graduates, those who make the effort to get noticed inevitably will be.

The average number of graduates applying to each vacancy has risen to 83 – up from 31 just three years ago, it was reported yesterday.

The headline figure from the bi-annual Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) report makes grim reading for those poised to leave university. The number of CVs sent in for each vacancy is now the highest on record so job prospects look slim for the class of 2011. However, it’s not all doom and gloom for university leavers.

The AGR report gives a skewed picture of the graduate job market with too great an emphasis on big business. The statistics do not reflect the positive developments within SME recruitment and small firms which often have far less competition for positions and graduates are far more likely to succeed with speculative applications.  Although they may not provide a marquee name for your CV, often these roles provide far greater responsibility and better prospects for young jobseekers.

Students are often drawn to the ‘big boys’ on the milkround, who advertise heavily with university careers services and can offer eye-catching starting salaries. For many graduates, however, starting with a smaller company is often a more rewarding move. Better work-life balance, improved job satisfaction and swift progression up the career ladder are the sorts of benefits many employees find working within small business can bring.

So don’t let negative media dishearten you and stay positive about your job hunt. There are plenty of opportunities out there if you look in the right places, graduate schemes do not start and end with the big multi-nationals. Focusing on smaller companies and completing a graduate internship could be the key to unlocking your career.

Universities need to do more to prepare students for life as a graduate, it was reported today.

According to a survey conducted by the CBI and National Union of Students, more than half of students want their university to provide more help for them to understand employability skills.

The survey of 2,614 students showed that 57% want universities to better explain employability skills, including customer awareness, team working and self management. A further 66% would like to be provided with support from their university in developing these skills.

These findings follow last week’s publication of the 2011 CBI / EDI Education & Skills Survey which showed that 82% of businesses single out employability skills as the most important consideration when hiring graduates.  The survey found that 70% of employers believe that students need to do more to prepare themselves for the workplace and make the most of what is available to them at university through societies, internships and volunteering.

With the forthcoming rise in tuition fees the pressure will be on institutions to show how their course can help students achieve a return on their investment by securing graduate jobs. The CBI wants all universities to embed the teaching of employability skills into course structures.

Susan Anderson, CBI Director for Education & Skills, said “Employability skills are the most important attributes that businesses look for in new recruits but graduates are currently falling short of employers’ expectations.

“Competition for jobs is intense and graduate unemployment remains high, so students need to proactively develop relevant employability skills. But at the same time all universities need to explain these skills better and make sure they embed them in teaching.”

Another means to improve your job opportunities post-university is to undertake a graduate internship. This will provide valuable work experience and employability skills, boosting job prospects and industry contacts to enrich your CV.

The bleak figures revealed that employment levels have fallen, redundancies have increased and the number of people classed as economically inactive has reached 9.3 million.

Employment is falling at its fastest rate since the recession and analysts expect the unemployment total to continue on rising in 2011. They believe it is partly due to the public sector spending cuts designed to cut the budget deficit.

The demographic hit hardest by the tough jobs market is 16 to 24 year olds, with the unemployment rate in this age group hitting 20.3%.  One in five young people are now out of work, after a rise of 32,000 to 951,000 without jobs, the highest figure since records began in 1992.

Martina Milburn, chief executive of youth charity The Prince’s Trust, explains, Britain is now perilously close to seeing one million young people struggling to find work.

With this record number of youth unemployment in the UK, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber argues, With more than a fifth of young people out of work, we face a real danger of losing another generation of young people to unemployment and wasted ambition.

Experts agree the UK economy is not growing fast enough to bring down unemployment and that a radical approach by the government is needed.  Barber believes, With the worst of the cuts still to come, this government risks making high joblessness a permanent feature of our economy. It must change course before it too late.

His call for change is echoed by Inspiring Interns.  The job market remains competitive for graduates, as it does for everyone; graduates therefore need to equip themselves with valuable skills to boost their employment chances. At Inspiring Interns we feel internships are an important route for young people to get into the job market. A meaningful internship will not only boost the economy but create great opportunities for small businesses and most importantly get young people into work.

Inspiring Interns wholeheartedly support Milena in this endeavour, and we hope to provide her with any appropriate assistance.

You can also get involved by completing a survey to help Milena research the venture fully, and she is holding an open focus group at Friday December 10th at 3pm at the London School of Economics should you wish to offer your views in person.

Click here for more details

It is something that we know will come as no surprise: graduate salaries are on the decline.

XpertHRs annual graduate recruitment survey showed that starting salaries offered to graduate recruits are 6% lower than in 2009; indicating that they are not keeping up with pay rises across the economy.

Following the student riots over university tuition fee increases last week; this news – though not good – could act as some justification for the protesters. Part of the rationalisation for the substantial tuition fee increases was because it was alleged that graduate salaries were becoming more generous, something the XpertHRs survey disputes.

Half of the 190 employers surveyed offered graduates starting salaries of between £20,000 and £26,000. Overall however, the starting salaries varied greatly: with the lowest graduate earning £12,000, and the highest receiving £42,500.

As the cost of living continues to rise, it is feared that graduates will face further financial pressure in the future, particularly in the context of increased student fees to initially contend with.