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Struggling to find grad schemes

I'm an English Lit finalist really hoping to find jobs in logistics and operations/policy or mental health and public/nonprofit sectors but I'm really struggling to find any, I don't know where to look. I'm applying to a couple of grad schemes but one of the jobs I was hoping to apply for closed early so that's gone... has anybody else been in/is anybody else currently in the same position?

Reply 1

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by zazzy.r

You won't find grad schemes in most of those sectors. Grad Schemes are mechanisms for bulk recruitment of graduates to organisations that need lots of recruits and have lots of different departments to fit them to. Non-profits certainly don't work that way, and I don't suppose many logistics companies do either. Most logistics jobs will be internal to companies.

Just look for jobs, alongside grad schemes. Theres' nothing special about a grad scheme, you will likely be paid less, and have a bigger 'tenure' hurdle 1-2 years in, and you will be joining a 'process' rather than a team environment.

Your spread of roles is oddly wide, and you will surely be able to put together a stronger application for some sectors than others - focus on your strengths. Apply to companies directly - build up a bookmark list of companies that do the work you want to do, are in the geography you need, and have those entry level roles. Read about the companies, get used to their recruiting dynamic and language.

Avoid entirely relying the great big recruitment hubs like Indeed etc. It's a lazy way of job-hunting and it opens you to enormous competition. You don't want to make 100 applications to jobs that have 300 applicants each, you can far too easily end up with nothing. You want to make 100 applications to jobs that only have 30 applicants, and then the chances are you will only have to make half that number of applications before getting an offer.