Getting a Job

[Trigger1]

Hi guys,

Here's an interesting article I came across on BI:

When I was 17, if you asked me how I planned on getting a job in the future, I think I would have said: Get into the right college. When I was 18, if you asked me the same question, I would have said: Get into the right classes. When I was 19: Get good grades.

But when employers recently named the most important elements in hiring a recent graduate, college reputation, GPA, and courses finished at the bottom of the list. At the top, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, were experiences outside of academics: Internships, jobs, volunteering, and extracurriculars.

Full article: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-employers-look-for-in-recent-college-graduates-2014-8

Although it's the US so the # of colleges don't compare and networking is much more heavier there, I think what's been written would still hold generally true here in the UK.

IMO the takeaway from this article is that if you don't go to a really crappy school you still have every chance to break into your desired career - would probably require hell of a lot more work. Show initiative and use your time/resources to build up your profile instead of accepting you can't make it because you "didn't go to a target".

Would be interested in hearing others opinion on this.

 

[CTRL ES1]

I would echo a similar message with a slight twist

At 16, it would be choosing the right A levels as that can dictate what you study at university.
At 17, chose the right course at the right university. So you want to do banking and think Economics at LSE is the only way but Natural Sciences at UCL is something you'd enjoy more. Go with the latter, trust me. The difference, if you tick the other recruitment boxes well, is negligible.
At 18, take a damn gap year. The maturity and experience value added factor is unquantifiable.
At 19, enjoy your first year (also the same if you start at 18) and let spring weeks be the last thing that stress you out. Overdraft, the number of girls you pissed off, the essays you couldn't be bothered to write but now need to, should be a bigger worry. Spend the summer after your first year doing something that improves your application profile and you as a person. 10/10, I'll take a guy who was a tour guide in Europe over someone who did 'work experience' at a MM advisory firm or hedge fund. I know the former job did more for your people skills than the latter did for anything else, except how to be really good at looking busy and nodding your head.

Now target vs non target. I would argue the only difference is that a non target needs to bust a an extra gut in the networking department. Some target students feel a sense of entitlement that they deserve to get a certain job. Your school gets you in the door, it doesn't speak for you at the interview table. The key to this job is networking and sociability. It starts with the moment you meet someone at a careers fair to when you go to an assessment centre to when you're on the desk itself.

 

[Trigger1]

Hit the nail on the head, one brownie point for you.

 

[Trigger1]

Oh and here's a vid, all of you should take the time and watch some of it:

"I think you also have to be, and maybe this is even more important at the end of the day, a complete person. You have to be interesting. You have to have interests away from the narrow things of what you do. You have to be somebody who is interesting to yourself, but you have to be somebody who somebody else wants to talk to. You don't want to start out, focus now, and get narrow from there." (from 14:50)