Using the internet and media to find opportunities

Imagine this: it’s the 1970s and you’re looking for a new job. The internet doesn’t exist. Where do you go?

You might need to physically walk around your nearest city to look at a noticeboard or see if there are any vacancy signs in the business’s windows. Perhaps, you look in the phone book and call around local businesses, or maybe turn to a newspaper to look for advertisements!

Thankfully, nowadays it’s way easier to look for your next role – with the internet and hundreds of jobs at our fingertips, you should find a job in no time, right? Well, here’s some of the top places I recommend looking for jobs:

• Indeed: Indeed is the largest job site in the world, and any employer can post a job on the site. Though it’s not specific to graduate roles, it does offer a variety of job opportunities, and so you might want to use it as a starting point to see what kind of opportunities are out there. It’s often a good place to look for jobs in smaller organisations as posting is relatively cheap compared to the larger graduate careers sites like Prospects and Target Jobs.
• Prospects: Prospects are experts in graduate careers, with their site being the UK’s biggest graduate careers website. It allows you to register for regular alerts on apprenticeships, internships and graduate jobs. They also provide loads of advice and support on lots of the topics we’ve been looking at in this course.
• LinkedIn: If you’re not already utilising LinkedIn, now is the time to create a profile! You’ll find lots of graduate jobs advertised through the site. You can even make it easier for employers to find you by switching your profile to ‘Open to Work’. There is also an alumni search tool which is a great way to connect with professionals working in your chosen fields.
• Gradcracker: Gradcracker is the UK’s career website for STEM (Science, Technology, Maths and Engineering) students. Search for apprenticeships, work placements, internships and graduate jobs. If you’re pursuing a STEM career, this is the place to look.
• Target Jobs: Target Jobs is a leading graduate jobs board where you can search for graduate job vacancies, internships, career advice and events from top employers.
• Glassdoor: Glassdoor is a bit different to a normal jobs board as you are able to view employee reviews as well as company salary information. Do take the reviews with a pinch of salt though, as people are more likely to leave a review if they have had a bad experience.
• Sector-specific websites: If you have a specific career interest or you can take a look at sector-specific websites. For example, if you are interested in working in the education sector, jobs.ac.uk is a specialist jobs board for higher education institutions, or if you’re interested in working for a charity, try charityjobs.co.uk. You can also visit the University of York job sector pages or Prospects Job Profiles for specific jobs boards in the sectors you are interested to work in.
• Recruitment agencies: Recruitment agencies try to find suitable candidates for roles they are recruiting for. You can usually sign up to recruitment agencies to receive job alerts. Be mindful that many recruitment agencies will have sector specific focuses so make sure to sign up to the ones that are appropriate for your career interests.
• Social media: When companies you are interested in are hiring, typically they will shout about it through their social media platforms. Keep an eye on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram for new job postings shared by the company or employees. You can even use the ‘events’ section on Facebook, and other sites like Eventbrite, to find sessions and meetups to expand your network.
• Student Circus: If you’re an international graduate, sites like Student Circus can help you search for roles where sponsorship is on offer

Let’s focus in on social media! You might think the likes of Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) are just there for you to post about your daily life or to waste time at 9 pm before you go to sleep. However, they can, in fact, be really useful in assisting with your job search. As I outlined above, if you follow businesses or institutions of interest to you, you might find that they share job opportunities, or you can open even more avenues through networking!

Facebook

Facebook can be useful in helping you to find recruitment events or to connect directly with local businesses to follow their journey, in case they post about job vacancies. You could even join a local ‘jobs’ page to find new opportunities.

Instagram

Similarly to Facebook, though it doesn’t have a ‘jobs’ section, job opportunities are often shared on Instagram with followers through posts, or through their stories. Make sure you keep an eye out whilst you’re scrolling through, as you might find some hidden gems. You can also follow your university’s careers service on sites like Instagram, where they offer tips and opportunities for graduates.

X (formerly Twitter)

If you’re still a user of X (formerly Twitter), you might use the search function to look for relevant hashtags (#) relating to your job search – things like #recruiting can often bring up active job vacancies, though bear in mind these are likely not going to be location-specific, so be vigilant!

LinkedIn

As a huge LinkedIn fan, this site is the MVP for the job-search world. Whether you’re looking for your first graduate role, looking for recruitment fairs or sector events to attend, or looking to expand your network and tap into new sectors and follow new businesses, LinkedIn has it all! You can join specialist recruitment-focused groups, search hashtags, or go straight to the ‘Jobs’ page to filter jobs to your specifics.

Don’t forget that when you’re filtering roles, you can think about the types of roles you want based on your Ikigai and the other things we’ve gone through in the course already!