The summer holiday is a great time to use CWJobs to get ahead of the candidate crowd: use it to gain intelligence on employers and top advice on job hunting, not to mention applying for jobs.
Here’s how to get the most out of CWJobs.
1. Set up alerts
Our Jobs by Email (JBE) feature allows you to match alerts to your selected criteria and to get personalised alerts.
Tip: Be realistic about the time you have available to spend navigating through and responding to alerts. Focus on setting up alerts that produce the kinds of jobs that you’re interested in such as those that are graduate or sector-specific.
2. Use social media
Visit our Twitter pages and YouTube pages for the latest career advice, expert comment on the state of the IT recruitment market and curated links to graduate and IT events.
Tip: There’s no doubt that social media can help you to find a job and that it offers unprecedented opportunities for building relationships with recruiters, but it should always be used in conjunction with other methods.
3. Upload your CV
Be sure to upload your CV, as this is a crucial way for employers to find you. Because this CV will be generic and for all recruiters’ eyes, make sure you list all your technical and soft skills in bullet points beneath your personal details.
Update your CV when you have something to add to it. Visit our CV advice for tips on how to make your CV hit the recruiter’s sweet spot.
Tip: Don’t forget that when you land an interview through an application, a CV tailored to the job will always put you strides ahead of the competition.
4. Get career advice
Identifying a good job prospect is just the first step many needed to bag that first job. Other critical aspects include writing a punchy cover letter, preparing for first and second interviews and performing at assessment centres. Happily we have advice for graduates on all of these topics - and more. Just visit our career advice section.
Tip: Remember that the best way is to get good advice and to prepare well in advance of meeting any potential employer. The time you put in will yield corresponding dividends.
5. Know your worth
It’s good to know your market worth and what salary you can expect before you step into an interview. Our IT salary calculator allows you to view the salary for any job or industry within any location in the UK. It’s simple: enter your keywords such as PHP; developer, and a location, such as Manchester, and we'll calculate the average yearly wage, the average range of salaries, and whether the typical salary has changed over the previous month.
Tip: Don’t bring up salary at a first interview, recruiters will think you’re pushy or not interested enough in the actual job. At the second interview, it’s fair enough to broach the topic
6. Search for jobs on a map
Our maps make it easy to search for a job close to your ideal location. It’s easy; just click on the map and you’ll be served a list of the jobs, meeting your criteria, within a given radius of your chosen city.
Tip: Location can be really important to graduates, especially if you’re on a budget and need to live at home or watch your commuting costs.
7. Get sector specific
If you’re searching in a particular industry sector, we’ve set up pages for the financial services, public sector and telecoms where you can see the latest jobs and related content. Likewise you can search other sector, plus jobs by roles and skills, on our browse jobs pages.
Tip: It’s good to narrow your search to a sector that you have a genuine interest in. Genning up on the industry will give you brownie points at interview, plus give you more job satisfaction, long term.