What employers want

Do you stand out from the crowd? If the answer is ‘only when wearing my lime green jumper’, or ‘yes, I’m 6 ft 7’, maybe it’s time to start thinking about after you graduate. Every year, 300,000 students graduate – the majority with a 2:1 or 1st class degree. If you’re going to end up in this throng and will be competing for graduate level jobs, how will you get yourself noticed?

If it feels too early to be thinking about this problem, it’s not. With a bit of thinking now, life could be a lot easier when the time comes for you to leave the ivory towers of higher education establishments, and transfer your skills into something more financially (if not intellectually) productive.

So what can you do that will make your CV catch any recruiter’s eye (short of covering it with gold star stickers or handwriting it in orange marker pen)?

Do your degree

Research carried out last year by the University of Hertfordshire gives us a clue. Employers were asked what they looked for when recruiting graduates. The most sought-after quality, according to 45% of recruiters, was relevant work experience.

The second quality looked for in new recruits was a ‘good work ethic. The real revelations though were that just a quarter of graduate recruiters said they were interested in the class of degree gained, and a measly 14% were worried about the reputation of the university. And fewer than one in ten, just 7% of employers, would be actively put off graduates because of their grades.

"We want people who want to make a difference to society, to make the world a better place"

But although recruiters blithely stated in this survey that how well you do in your degree isn’t hugely important, obviously it remains extremely so in some ways. For some careers it’s more important than others, but nearly all the major graduate employers, for example. demand at least a 2:1.

A degree is very clearly not everything, however. So what else are these recruiters looking for? The 93% who said they wouldn’t reject a graduate because of their grades, claimed instead to make their decisions based on ‘other aspects of the university experience’. Like what? A good place to start is with the major graduate employers.

One of the UK’s biggest companies, BT, has a well-respected and highly competitive graduate scheme. According to graduate people manager Rob Cross, the company takes on about 200 graduates a year from 6000 initial applicants.

“We’ve got a minimum academic requirement that the vast majority of applicants meet. We’re looking for people who have gone over and above this and stand out as a result,” says Cross. In terms of degree subject, BT ‘looks for a variety of different backgrounds. We take everyone from computer scientists to ancient history graduates’.

Personality matching

Rather than a particular educational background then, what BT wants are people who will fit in with its culture, and to find these individuals, a few key personality traits are looked for.

“Enthusiasm is really important,” says Cross. “We look for evidence of passion and drive to achieve.

“We also look for leadership potential and ambition. We’re a company of 100,000 people, with 600 grads coming in a year, and we really see them as the leaders of tomorrow.”

“Also, we want people who want to make a difference to society, to make the world a better place.”

You may be able to get all this across in the interview. But the hard part is getting there. If you are enthusiastic, ambitious and with a passion to make a difference, you have to let the person reading about your CV know this before they meet you.

Says Cross: “We’re able to pick up these qualities through various things they’ve been involved in through university. We’ve had people who set up their own charity, been involved in voluntary work or been at the heart of a university community.”