Perhaps you spent most of your Christmas holiday in a frenzy of time-consuming applications cover letters, psychometric tests and telephone interviews, only to be rewarded by a 3-sentence rejection email. I certainly lost a sense of what I had applied for by the end of the month-long break.
It is important to remember that rejection is not a reflection of your ability and shouldn’t deter you from reapplying or applying for other similar firms. However, unwavering rejection may mean that you need to reassess your goals and career aims. Perhaps you are not really suited to the grad schemes you’re applying for. As grad schemes are, as a general rule, primarily offered by corporate campus giants such as Deloitte, Accenture and KPMG, maybe you should look at gaining work experience or an internship with smaller companies instead. Winning a place on a grad scheme with one of these monopolies is not the be all and end all.Also, you must bear in mind that the graduate labour market remains saturated, an average of 73 grads applying for each place on a grad scheme. They are extremely competitive and often luck-based. Perhaps they want someone with an A-Level in history, or someone who’s done work experience at an insurance firm. Small, secret criterion like these examples may help employers determine between potential employees. They are nothing to do with your personal ability.Lastly, it is more important for students to focus on their final year exams and deadlines than on what they’re going to do the year after. Getting a third in your degree will get you nowhere – it will be much better for you in the long run if you focus on your immediate future, then apply for grad schemes or jobs in a post-uni gap year. Don’t lose sight of what the most important thing is at the moment: to do as well as you possibly can in your degree.
