Preparing for a Skype interview
At Step we use Skype a lot, whether it’s for an interview, a way of meeting the candidates, or to do your pre-start checks (passport check, payment schedule etc). It is still extremely important to be professional when using Skype, so we’ve listed a few tips to help. Is your Skype ID professional and appropriate? Remember…
The keys to graduate success…
‘My degree is next to worthless’… Well at Step we tend not to agree. This BBC article reports on the fact that it is not always possible to find a job directly related to your course of study, resulting in a feeling by some forlorn graduates of it all having been a waste of time.…
Planning for the difficult questions – making use of your experience
Interviews are an art form in themselves and as we enter the time of year when graduates are entering the job market, it’s important to maximise every opportunity you have. Here are some tips on competency based interviews based on feedback from our own experiences as account managers here at Step. Many competency based questions…
“It’s just me, the dog, and the kettle…” – Why we work with SMEs and you can too
Best quote from a business development call EVER, I think! The person I spoke to couldn’t believe that I was calling to offer him a way to access graduate talent, because he wasn’t from a massive conglomerate or big-brand company. “Surely there is no way a new graduate would be interested in working for…
Maximising Opportunity
As a student or graduate, you need to make the most of the opportunities available to you. One such opportunity, which is a great platform to meet potential employers and to learn to network, is careers fairs. Most Universities hold these at least once a year (but often, there will be one per semester). However,…
6 reasons you could have been rejected
You’ve just spent hours upon hours applying for graduate jobs around the country and have lost count of how many times you have resaved your CV and cover letter. If that rejection email comes through, it leaves you feeling disappointed but mostly disheartened. Don’t wrack your brain for hours on end causing endless worry and…
Honesty is the best policy!
I’ve lost count of the amount of times I ask why someone is interested in a role, and they respond “I have always wanted to work in that” This really gets my goat! Why? Let’s take a recent example of this where someone had a first degree in a completely unrelated subject to their masters…
10 Steps towards stress-free (ish) exams
I know personally that exams can be a really hard and stressful time of the year at university, but if you think about what you’re doing, prepare and look after yourself during this time, you’ll feel a lot better about it. These are just a few tips that I picked up over my three years…
Parent Power
There has been much talk in the world of employability recently about the power of parents in a graduate’s quest to embark upon their perfect career. Here at Step, we regularly receive phone calls from well-meaning parents, fact finding on behalf of their offspring. The tone of these conversations can range from exasperated and desperate…
Not another lecture on the importance of communication skills
“I have good communication skills…” That’s brilliant. But are you really communicating with me when you say this? If I am your prospective new manager, I want to get a sense of your personality. I want to know how well you can adapt your tone and choice of language. I need to see if you…