Best graduate job boards
Finishing university can be quite a daunting time for anyone and it’s easy to feel a little overwhelmed. We understand – you no longer have the routine, structure and familiarity of your classes, classmates and university life. But, remember when starting university felt the same? You soon get used to the big changes that happen in life and graduating from university is no exception. It’s an exciting time in fact. When it comes to finding your first job after university, you might be able to find one through a friend or a classmate, or you might have spoken to someone already at a graduate fair or event held by the university. But, online job boards are probably a good place to start if you haven’t secured a job already. This guide will take you through some of the best graduate job boards found online, so you can get going with your job search.
LinkedIn | Best graduate job boards
The first place to start should probably be LinkedIn. Hopefully, over your time at university, you’ve been building up a network of connections that will come in useful for you now and later on in your career. Being a professional social networking platform, the main benefit of LinkedIn is that it combines networking with jobs published by organisations.
It has an extensive job database, and the roles relevant to you and your network will be easily found and shared. You can also message recruitment teams and agencies yourself.
LinkedIn is completely free to use, although you can pay for additional services it offers later down the line if you need them. If you don’t have a profile already, it’s never too late to create one and get connecting with people who work in the industry you want to start working in. The wider your network reaches, the more relevant opportunities you will find. You can search by job title, skill, company or even the general industry. Make sure you set up alerts for the relevant roles that might be popping up in your area. LinkedIn Salary is a useful function on the site that’s also worth trying out. You can compare salaries across sectors, job titles and even locations.
Don’t forget to keep your profile really up to date with any skills and experience you’ve gathered through work and your time at university. The skills you have listed on your profile, along with the connections you have on there mean you’re more likely to appear in candidate searches that organisations are making on the platform.
Save the Student | Best graduate job boards
Save the Student is a resource you may have already been using during your time at university. It gives lots of useful information on managing money as a student, finding accommodation and cooking etc. But it also has a job search function that you can use for graduate jobs, graduate schemes or even part-time jobs.
It pulls in the search results from other UK graduate job websites and agencies into one consolidated place. You can then filter those search results by factors like location and specific job titles.
Prospects | Best graduate job boards
This platform is the largest and most used job site for graduate roles specifically. If you’re also thinking about doing further or postgraduate study, this is a good place to start as it includes those kinds of options as well as a huge bank of the most up-to-date graduate roles for your area.
As well as including lots of useful information for students, graduates and anyone looking for a new job, Prospects uses a straightforward job search function. Simply use the search to filter roles by sector, location, salary etc. And just like LinkedIn, if you create an account you can set up job alerts when new roles are added – so you can get in there quickly when it comes to applying for the most interesting or exciting jobs that come up.
This platform is also great for browsing through job profiles, so if you’re not too sure what kind of role you want, you can find out more information on what certain jobs involve, what additional training might be needed and how well they’re paid.
Indeed | Best graduate job boards
There are a few recruitment websites out there that you can sign up to (for free) that work in a similar way. Indeed is probably the biggest of these which means it may have a wider selection of roles listed, although it’s worth browsing through others too – there’s TargetJobs, Monster and Reed for example.
Indeed is one of the best graduate job boards out there because it allows you to upload your CV onto your account which means when you do find jobs that you want to apply for, in many cases, you can apply for them with just one click. It also allows you to make lists of roles, so if you’re applying for quite a few (which we understand you might be as a recent graduate), you can easily keep track of which applications you’ve sent, started or still need to get to. There is also a direct messaging function, so you can communicate with recruiters and employers directly.
Another advantage of Indeed is that it also posts company reviews that users can leave. This means you can find out about any organisations you’re interested in directly from the employee’s ratings and testimonials.
