Hi, I’m Patrick, the person whose job it is to run this blog as well as the social media channels, rotas and assorted tasks of the day to day running of both Careers Zones.

Usually these blog posts have been written by current students highlighting issues of employability peer to peer helping you to understand the issues other students face in hope of you avoiding the same issues, this post is slightly different.

With this post being slightly different it does come with a health warning, this blog comes from personal experience and your experience will differ.

I am an LJMU Graduate, Class of 2014 Journalism, I’m also an Information Officer for the World of Work as a Graduate Intern so I speak from quite recent experience of graduating university and being in the job market many of you will be entering soon as well as from the professional side of my role in which I see dozens of students a day at the Careers Zones.

Exams end soon and I’m certain a lot of you are looking forward to a well earned break (and boy will it feel well earned!) I was exactly the same, I enjoyed that break between my final project deadline and graduation so thoroughly that I took my eye off the ball entirely and found myself in employment no-mans land.

The time to be applying for jobs is now and over the next few months, there are opportunities out there after graduation, I got one, but they are few and far between and in my opinion more competitive than those advertised currently.

In my case I applied for around 10 graduate jobs after my project deadline and got to interview four times only to be denied at the final hurdle, I took a break to work over the summer in a temporary position I managed to secure until graduation and began to apply again at which stage I applied for at least 50-60 graduate and retail jobs and got one interview, the standard of applicant evidently stepped up and I was, temporarily, left behind.

You may be thinking ‘I’m nowhere near being ready to apply for jobs, I don’t even know my degree classification’ that is no barrier, many employers accept provisional degree classifications (and will make offers of employment based on satisfying your expected classification) but that isn’t the point of this blog post.

The point of this blog post is to highlight a series of 3-day Rocky training montage style events the World of Work will be hosting, particularly aimed at final year students, to get you ready for the ever challenging and competitive realm of getting your first graduate role before graduation.

Career Kickstart will run 20-22 May, 3-5 June, 15-17 June and 8-10 July and is free to all LJMU students and alumni, but of course, spaces are limited.

These have ran in the past and were extraordinarily helpful to students who attended them in either improving their methods of finding work or just confirming they are going about things the right way.

Every aspect of your job hunt will be covered from writing your CV, finding the jobs no-one else knows about to a full mock assessment centre, I only wish I was blogging from the position of having attended one myself (although I’m intending to get involved in all four this time at different points.)

More importantly, the sessions are lead by accredited professionals and feedback is given throughout so you will constantly be improving as the course progresses and whilst you’re around the World of Work Careers Centre there is nothing to stop you taking advantage of other services on offer such as having applications you are currently working on checked before you send them.

This is a great opportunity to get yourself in gear and thinking about where you want to be after graduation, how you are going to get there and the steps you need to take to get there.

To get booked on to a Career Kickstart visit: https://worldofwork.ljmu.ac.uk/events and select the dates that are most suitable for you, you must be able to attend all three days of an event.

For further information pop in to a Careers Zone to ask me or an Information Assistant about the Career Kickstart programme or go to www2.ljmu.ac.uk/wow/kickstart

Thanks for reading, P.