We asked four successful grads how to get a great grad job – here’s what they said.
- Brendan - Paralegal at Freehills, Former congressional intern at the US Senate
- Maddy - Former Trainee at PwC, Westpac Graduate
- Lulu - Analyst at Quantium
- Simon - Analyst at Deloitte
BRENDAN: It’s never too early to start thinking about life after uni.
SIMON: As soon as you start uni...
LULU: After the first year, I was finding out more...
SIMON: I think what I did wrong was that I didn’t really start thinking about it until the end of second year, and by then all the summer internship applications had already closed. And so it kind of made it a lot harder for me during third year.
MADDY: If you’re in uni, the best thing you can do is study hard and get good grades (it’s harder than it sounds) and get work experience. That’s really really hard, but it will put you ahead of so many other candidates.
BRENDAN: With a grad programme, there’s a few things that people tell you to consider. Obviously make sure that you’re doing fairly decently at university. At the end of the day, employers and grad programme managers look at your marks. But also be someone more than the marks. Get involved in your universities, get involved in your local communities.
SIMON: Whether it be, you know, on a society at uni, or something on the weekend, or even if you’re just playing sport, it’s like, that’s still something. It shows that you work in a ‘team environment’ and those things.
BRENDAN: Have an experience behind you and have a story, even if you haven’t had a lot of work experience in a related field.
LULU: And then a lot of companies will offer, at the end of your summer internship, a graduate role straight away for when you do finish your studies.
SIMON: If you’re getting in that early and you’re able to get a summer internship somewhere that you really like, or somewhere that you’ll really enjoy the work, then chances are you’ll be offered a return as a grad.
LULU: There are still a lot of companies that don’t offer summer internships and so, for those ones, they’ll usually have applications opening around March of your final year in university. So it’s important to just keep an eye on the different dates for different companies to make sure you’re not going to miss out on any applications.
SIMON: That way you don’t need to apply for anything in your final year and it saves you a lot of time.
Update 1 June 2024: The disclaimer in the video is out of date. Student Super changed trustee from Tidswell to Diversa on 18 December 2020 and moved from Professional Super, a sub-fund of the Tidswell Master Superannuation Plan to Professional Super, a sub-fund of OneSuper on 1 June 2024. See the Significant Event Notice for more information.
