If I were looking for a graduate job today, I wouldn't start on a job board
If I graduated this summer and needed to find a job, the first thing I'd do tomorrow morning wouldn't be open a job board.
I'd make a list.
50 employers I might want to work for.
Not 50 vacancies.
50 employers.
Because there's an important difference between looking for jobs and looking for employers who might need you.
And I think too many graduates are doing almost all of the first and nowhere near enough of the second.
The problem with starting with vacancies
Imagine you're interested in marketing.
You open a job board and search for graduate marketing jobs.
Immediately, you've narrowed your world to employers that have a vacancy right now, have decided to advertise it, have used a job title you're searching for and have put it somewhere you're looking.
Then you apply alongside everybody else who found exactly the same advert.
Job boards absolutely have a place in a graduate job search.
I just wouldn't make them my entire strategy.
After more than 30 years working in recruitment, I'd approach the market from the other direction.
I'd stop asking, “What graduate jobs are advertised today?”
And start asking, “Which employers might want someone like me?”
Start with employers, not vacancies
Let's say you're interested in data.
Don't begin by finding 50 Data Analyst vacancies. Find 50 organisations where data matters.
Banks. Retailers. Consultancies. Healthcare organisations. Technology businesses. Government departments. Charities. Universities. Manufacturers. Start-ups.
Then investigate them.
What do they do? Are they growing? What problems are they trying to solve? What sort of people do they employ? What job titles do those people have? Do they run graduate schemes? Do they recruit directly into junior roles too?
And perhaps most importantly: where might your skills be useful?
Now you're no longer waiting for an algorithm to show you a vacancy. You're starting to understand a market.
Don't get trapped by job titles
This catches graduates out all the time.
You decide you want to be a Business Analyst, so you search for Business Analyst jobs.
But another employer might call a similar entry-level opportunity Junior Consultant, Operations Analyst, Commercial Analyst, Project Analyst, Transformation Analyst or Business Operations Associate.
There may also be roles you'd be excellent at that you haven't discovered yet because you don't know the job title exists.
Search too narrowly and you can accidentally make your job market much smaller than it really is.
That's another reason I like starting with employers. Look at the organisation, its teams and the people already working there. Learn the language they use for their roles.
You may discover routes into the career you want that you'd never have thought to type into a search box.
And don't only look at the employers everybody knows
There's nothing wrong with aiming for the big names.
But I'd also ask: who are their competitors? Who supplies them? Who are their clients? Which smaller companies operate in the same industry? Which businesses are growing?
There are thousands of employers doing interesting work that don't have household names and don't run huge, highly visible graduate schemes.
That doesn't mean they don't employ graduates.
This is where research starts opening up a market that simply searching “graduate jobs” may never show you.
Then I'd find 20 people
Once I had my 50 employers, I'd identify people who could help me understand those organisations, roles or industries better.
Someone doing the kind of work I'm interested in. A graduate who joined a year or two ahead of me. Someone in the relevant department. A recruiter or early careers professional. Perhaps someone I already have a connection to without realising it.
And I would not message 20 strangers asking, “Have you got a job for me?”
I'd follow people. Read what they share. Connect where appropriate. Ask a thoughtful question. Have a conversation.
You're not trying to turn every person you meet into a vacancy.
You're building knowledge and relationships around the market you want to enter.
Your network is probably bigger than you think
Before deciding you don't have a network, look again.
Family. Friends. Former classmates. Lecturers. People from societies. Previous employers. Colleagues from part-time jobs. People you've volunteered with. Neighbours. Sports clubs. Your parents' contacts.
Tell people clearly what you're interested in. Ask whether they know somebody working in that area. Ask for an introduction or information.
People can't help you if they don't know what you're looking for.
And don't restrict this to LinkedIn. A WhatsApp message, text or conversation can be just as useful.
I'd still use job boards
Absolutely.
I'd set alerts. Check relevant sites regularly. Look at employers' own careers pages. Use specialist sites where appropriate. Investigate graduate schemes.
But job boards would be one part of my strategy. Not the strategy.
Because if your entire job search is:
See vacancy → Apply → Wait → Rejection → Repeat
you're handing almost all the control to somebody else.
I want graduates doing more than waiting for suitable vacancies to appear in front of them.
So here's the exercise I'd do
Build your 50.
Identify 50 employers that could potentially need someone with your interests, strengths and skills. They don't all need to be recruiting today. That's the point.
Find your 20.
Identify 20 people connected to those organisations, roles or industries who could help you understand your target market better.
Start five conversations.
Choose five people and make sensible, personalised contact. Be curious. Be human. Give them a reason to reply.
Keep watching the 50.
Follow the organisations. Check their careers pages. Notice when they're growing, launching something, winning business or recruiting. Learn the terminology they use.
Your list isn't just a spreadsheet. It becomes your market.
One final thing
Don't spend three weeks creating the perfect list before doing anything with it.
Start with ten employers if that's easier. Find a few people. Make contact. Then keep building.
The objective isn't to finish your spreadsheet.
It's to create opportunities.
This is one of the exercises I give graduates
In Get the Job You Want, I ask graduates to identify target employers and relevant contacts because I don't want their entire job search dependent on vacancies that thousands of other people can see too.
The programme will be opening more widely soon.
If you'd like a clear, practical process to follow through your graduate job search, you can join the waiting list and be amongst the first to hear when it opens.
And if you're a parent trying to help your graduate, you're very welcome to join too.
If you're not already following me or subscribed to Get Hired: Graduate Edition, I'd love you to join us. Every week I share practical advice about how recruitment really works and how graduates can navigate it more effectively.
And if you know a graduate whose job search currently begins and ends with a job board, please send them this edition.
It might give them a much bigger market to explore.