Graduate Careers Australiaergo - Number 93 December 2003Graduates’ Job Search: Adopt and AdaptA new report – the Graduate Destination Survey 2002, published by the Graduate Careers Council of Australia (GCCA) in 2003, is based on the survey responses of 95,000 recent university graduates about their employment and post-university experience. It suggests that recent graduates use a variety of job-search techniques, with media advertisements and personal contacts with family, friends and employers being the most likely to yield employment. Almost 26,000 graduates were asked to name all the methods they had used, and the resulting figures are potentially of use to new graduates looking for post-university employment, those advising them and employers looking to hire new graduates.
Most Common Job Search Methods
Adopt and Adapt For example, the greater frequency of the use of employment agencies by those without work and seeking full-time employment (47.5 per cent) than those who had found full-time employment (5.0 per cent) suggests that employment agencies are used by graduate job seekers once other avenues have been tried. Overall, these figures suggest that media advertisements and personal contacts and approaches to employers are the most useful method of finding employment for new graduates. However, most graduates should be willing to adopt a wide range of job search methods and to adapt their strategies when necessary. For more information about graduate outcomes, visit the gradlink website – www.gradlink.edu.au , and the searchable database at www.gradsonline.edu.au
Bruce Guthrie |