So you got yourself a job....

Firstly, congratulations. Seriously. It's incredibly tough out there and if you've secured yourself a role on a graduate programme, then you've done very well indeed for yourself and hopefully you're happy that your hard work has paid off.

A lot of grads get very enthusiastic about their new role and ask what they can do to prepare to really hit the ground running when they join, so I thought I'd offer some advice on this topic.

The first point I always make to grads is to relax, enjoy and make the most of the time off you have been end of exams and the start of your job. You're probably about to enter a period of at least 40 years of work with 25-30 days holiday and maybe a couple of career breaks if you're lucky. Go and do something fantastic that you've always wanted to do - take out a small loan if you have to (just my opinion) and go and travel around Vietnam / climb Mt Kilimanjaro / drive Route 66 / bungee in South Africa. You might not get the opportunity for a while.  In addition, it works out better for us as an employer too if you come back refreshed and happy after a good break and ready to face into the start of your career. Sometimes grads who start work too quickly after Uni are the first to ask about career breaks after 18mths and that's not great for either side.

Keep up-to-date as best you can with what's happening in the industry. In this time of newsfeeds / news letters / twitter / google news alerts, etc, it's not hard to make sure that information is 'pushed' to you rather than you having to pro-actively go out and search for it constantly, so set up a few key notifications and a little time to run through them every now and again and you will be up-to-date. Keep in mind you don’t need to understand the same level of detail as you do for an interview. No one is going to sit you down on your first day and say 'tell me what was on the front page of the FT last Thursday' (unless you're very unlucky!), you just need to have a reasonable idea of what's going on. Obviously if you're going into a Trading role, then it will probably be to your benefit to stay even closer to the news.

Keep up to date too on the company you are joining. Have a look on their website on what they have that you can sign up to. Read the annual report (these will often come out in April/May time) to see how things are going. Keep an eye on the share price (if applicable), keep an eye on the Communications / Investor Relations pages for what's going on with the company.

Have a look for Facebook Groups being set-up by your soon-to-be start group and if you can't find one, consider setting up one yourself. It's a good way to start to get to know people in advance of day 1. Sometimes the company has already done the set up of a group for the new starts, so might be worth checking.

The one skill that I would tell any graduate to work on in advance of starting a new graduate job is Microsoft Excel skills. It sounds really boring, but it is the skill that the majority of grads working in finance / consulting will need in their early years. In addition, many of the grads who really make an impact are the ones with great Excel skills and you become a 'wanted' resource. That's not to say that all you end up doing is Excel, but it’s a great way to find yourself in a key position, in demand, and therefore able to make an impact in many ways over and above your Excel. It can be a 'way in' that can lead to lots more. No matter what your level of Excel is, there is always more to learn. If you only know the basics, teach yourself how to use functions and tables. If you can do that, teach yourself Pivots; if you can do that, teach yourself Lookups; if you can do that, teach yourself Visual Basic… the list is endless. I promise it will stand to you very well if you are good at Excel and can move knowledgably and effortlessly around the software. There are loads of great tutorials online, so if you are interested, take some time to 'upskill' yourself a bit.

The other area that might be worth putting some thought into is self-awareness. Being self-aware means to understand your own strengths, and your own limitations, and the impact that these can have on you and on your team. You should also note that you need to develop both your strengths AND your weaknesses. Sometimes people focus on trying to improve their weaknesses at the expense of continuing to develop your strengths. Your strengths are what will make you shine and be successful. Your weaknesses are what hold you back. You need to keep improving both at all times. Have a look at this site on Jung Types to help identify what your preferences are. http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp  If you get the opportunity to do Myers Briggs / Belbin types during your graduate training, this will further enhance your self-awareness.

Hope that helps… congrats again on the new job.

Dealing with difficult situations during the application process

A lot of the questions that get asked on forums or that students find particularly difficult to deal with is when a clash of some sort occurs with dates or offers.  The advice you will get will often depend on who  you are asking - the employer, the careers service, your friends, your family etc. So, I thought I would give you my honest advice as a recruiter on dealing with some of the more common scenarios that occur.

You have an offer from your second favourite company that expires this Friday and an invitation from your favourite company to attend an assessment centre next week.

The first thing I would do is check with your favourite company (I'm going to call them Company 1) and explain that you have an offer from Company 2 but that they are your preferred employer and is there any way you can attend sooner. A graduate with an offer in hand from a competitor is always of interest, and so if they can slot you into an earlier centre, or make some alternative arrangement, then they usually will.

The next consideration is whether the offer is verbal or written. If the offer is verbal, then I would just accept it. The reality is that this is not binding. It will take at least a few days for them to send out the contract and they will need to give you a week or so to look over it. By then, you should have heard back from Company 1 after the assessment centre and if you get an offer from them too, then you can decline the written contract and write a letter of explanation (more on this later).

If the offer is written and about to expire, then that is when it is trickiest. Essentially, you have 3 options:
1-call and ask for an extension on the offer
2-sign the offer but intend to renege on it if you get an offer from Company 1
3-decline the offer.

In the current market, I wouldn't advise taking option 3. A bird in the hand, etc… an offer from a company you would like to work for is not to be sniffed at.  I'd probably try option 1 and ask if you can have an extension on the offer. They will know that you have someone else that you want to work for, which isn't ideal, and unless they are feeling generous probably wont extend the deadline, but it's worth a try. They won't withdraw the offer on the basis of you asking the question. 

If they wont give you an extension, then I would go for option 2. Sign it and send it in. OK, I'm a recruiter and maybe you'd expect me to say otherwise, but the reality of the situation that you are in is that Company 2 have left you with no choice here. If the other offer from Company 1 is forthcoming, then ultimately yes, you are in a difficult situation, but I will advise below how to recover as best you can. 

You have been invited to two assessment centres on the same day 
If you are fortunate enough to get invited to multiple assessment centres, it is immensely frustrating if suddenly you find out that the date clashes for 2 (or more!) of them. Whilst many companies will have multiple assessment centres, especially for the larger programmes, the reality is that there does come a point when all the places on a programme are full. Some of the smaller specialist programmes that might take only 10-20 people will often have only 1 or 2 assessment centres a year as a number of the places are likely to be filled with last year's interns.

When faced with a situation where you have two A.C.s on the same day, try to take a logical approach. Yes, you can probably phone and move to another assessment centre date for one of them. But there is a risk that the roles will be gone in the one that you move, or they will already have a number of people from a similar background as you and will be looking to round out the programme with people from a different degree, etc.

When you have to prioritise one A.C. over the other, there are two major things to consider 1) which is the job you most want and 2) which is the A.C. you are most likely to get an offer from. If those two are one and the same, then the choice is clear. Call the other A.C. and see if it can be changed. If it can't, then you do have the option of going back to the other and changing that - but remember, you are then de-prioritising it and taking a risk that the positions will no longer be available. The earlier you can get invited to an assessment centre, the better your chances of getting a role - not least because there are more roles to be had. My advice would be go to the one that you most want, even if it means not going to the other at all. 

You have accepted an offer at Company X and then get another offer from Company Y which you would prefer

This is similar to the option above where you have accepted an offer and then want to pull out and take another.  My advice is to take the one that you really want, if you don't, you will only regret it for some time to come. But only decline the one that you have, once you have signed and accepted a written contract (not on the basis on having received a verbal offer only). 

Declining an offer you have previously accepted - Recovering the situation

Most graduates send an email or a letter. Make no mistake, we know this is because they are scared to phone and just can't face it. I understand that. It's awful. But, unfortunately it really, really is the best thing to do to ensure you eliminate collateral damage. The most difficult thing to do is actually phone up and explain what has happened, how sorry you are, etc. They will still be annoyed, but they will be a lot, lot less annoyed than if you send an email.  They will respect the fact that you made the call.

To put it in context, the reason they are annoyed is:

- that graduate will have been promised to a particular team. That team will now be without a grad. In the eyes of that team, the recruiters have 'failed' them. No one likes to fail.

- there will have been other grads that were very close to an offer, that they really liked, but you were picked over them. Just. Now they are wishing they picked 'the other guy'.

- often the induction will be planned - facebooks produced, teams allocated, FSA exams lined up, etc. Your name and details will be in all of these things, so it might well mean quite a bit of rework for them.

Follow up your call with a letter, explaining the situation, how difficult you found making a decision, enjoyed everyone that you met, that you sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused, etc, etc. It sounds awfully grovelly, but in all honesty, it costs nothing and it makes sure that they don't hold it against you as ultimately they understand that these things happen and we all get on with it. 

In the current market, some graduates are accepting two offers and keeping them both in hand right up to the last minute incase a company pulls out. This I can also understand. However, what I would say is the longer you wait, the more likely you are to get yourself 'blacklisted' at a company for a longer period. Depending on the HR set-up at the particular company, once you are loaded onto the HR system as an employee (which could be anything from when they receive your contract back, to 2-3 weeks before you start), if you withdraw, you are then updated on the system as a 'no show'. This could then show when you later apply for experienced hire roles later in your career.  That's not to say that that definitely means they wont hire you - the longer the time that passes, the better.

Also, many graduate recruiters at different firms know each other well. I know of several situations where they have called each other and said 'we have had this person not show up - are they at your firm?'. I even know one case where a graduate had accepted the signing on bonus from several banks and then (obviously!) only showed up to one. He was found out within a day and fired from his role and blacklisted from all the major banks immediately. To be honest, that was a fairly extreme scenario - not many people are that stupid! - but I just want to demonstrate how well the recruiters know each other.

Some final advice. Don't waste hours and hours thinking what you would do if you find yourself in any of the situations above. Spend your time on activities that add real value to your CV, your interiews, your assessment centres.  If you are "lucky" enough to be in one of those situations, then you will deal with it then as best you can. There is no point worrying about them and planning for them. And to be honest, no matter how many you plan for and think through, in my experience, it is always the one scenario that you haven't thought about that is the one that eventually arises!