Ho Careers Update

State of the job market

I was getting my weekly dose of My Career and thought I'd share this with ya'll, since most of us are gonna graduate this year or have just recently graduated. It said that the class of 2004 (this year's graduates) can expect a much better entry to the job market than their counterparts in past years, due to increased grad jobs being advertised. There were apparently 3 times as many grad jobs advertised on the Net than this time last year. From my opinion, I totally agree because I have gone on the Seek.Com website every couple of days for the past couple of years checking up grad jobs, and I have to say I'm seeing a lot more opportunities now for Business/Law/Engineering grad jobs. This is confirmed as according to the article the greatest growth in job ads seems to be in the area of accounting, sales and marketing, IT and building and construction.

Grad Jobs out there

For people that don't have grad jobs now or may be re-applying, the major grad recruitment season is over. However, don't despair, as there are many companies that have positions to fill or may not not have filled their grad intake program. Just recently I've checked out Seek, UTS Job Board, UNSW job board and kept my pulse on the job market and seen job ads for:

- PWC: tax and audit grads
- Middletons law firm - grad program
- Commonwealth Bank - Enginneers to assist in enhancing work flows
- Telstra : Customer service grad program
- Select Recruitment - HR firm, grad program, not just for HR grads
- For you FOB international students, Deloitte and KPMG are recruiting Mainlanders or people with the right to work in China/HK
- Jardine Thompson: Global Insurance Company seeking business and law grads

For engineering jobs, a friend of mine just got an grad engineering job at a Hydro company and another one was telling that he just scored 3 Engineering intern job offers.

For those wanna be lawyers, law firm jobs, particularly paralegal work opportunities are available in small pockets. A friend of mine just recently got hired as a fulltime paralegal at a litigation firm. Furthermore, for those that want to just gain legal experience, Crown Solicitor's Office is hiring, as well as PIAC (Public Interest Advocates) and the Aboriginal Legal service.

THe IT market also is picking up, with ample part time jobs available.


Casual Job Opportunities

This is picking up substantially as we approach the XMAS season. Many retailers are hiring as of now. If you want some spare cash or have just finished uni, this is good for you. Just met someone who went for an interview for Myer Grace Bros, apparently the whole Myer group is hiring now. Also, spoke to a friend at the Nike Factory @ Auburn who said they are looking for people to fill 3 month contracts (includes December and January). If anyone is interested, ya'll know who to speak to :P.

Applying for jobs

From my experience last year helping out some peeps, November and January is probably a better time to apply, as people are too busy in December or just in plain holiday mode. It picks up substantially in January, when everyone is refreshed from their holidays.

Psychometric testing

Having done heaps of these, I've decided to find out how they really work. Psyche tests, as they are commonly called, are a series of tests, usually made up of Maths, English and selecting the sequence of pictures. What they try to test is raw intelligence. The employers are basically trying to put everyone on a level playing field. Why? Think about this. A Distincion at Business at UTS might not be the same as a distinction at UNSW. So they go back to the basics and find out who smart you really are.

The thing is you don't have to ace these tests. From what I understand you just have to meet their minimum requirements. Eg. At a certain global investment bank, you have to score 90% in the Maths and English test to pass. Sometimes they will lower the barrier after the exam if they find out that hardly anyone met their requirements.

Can you prepare for these tests? Yes to some degree. They try to test out how naturally smart you are. But I wouldn't be the JOB MIESTER if I didn't give you some hints. You can find on the net or at your uni careers service, sample exam questions. Just google psychometric testing or just look up intelligence tests like MENSA (spelling?). Before I went to a certain company, I stumbled across their foreign branch which had practice tests and done heaps of other ones. It gave me great comfort when the questions turned out to be quite similar and I walked out smiling, while the rest where like "what were those questions???".

Practice tests help because they give you the style and flavour of the questions. It can't help you become smarter, just more familiar of what they will test you on. It's like the selective school tests. If you practice on some sample ones before hand, if you've got a greater chance.

Time yourself when you do them and you'll be surprised that the questions ain't hard it just you've haven't got much time to do them.

Having spoken to some academics/industry people, there are rumours that the test is weighted, that is the questions at the front count more than then ones at the end, because everyone does the ones at the start.

That's all for now folks,

THE JOB MIESTER AKA DJ HO