But you see while a degree opens doors, you still have to walk through that door and look around the room to get anywhere. Have I extended this metaphor too far? Perhaps. But the point is having a degree often buys a sense of entitlement when really it affords an opportunity. You still need to work hard for the results.

Typically upon finishing your degree you want to launch a career ASAP. This is a good thing. The early bird gets the worm and it’s important to stay competitive. But your dream job hardly ever falls in your lap. Despite what your 3^rd year commerce assignments prepared you for, you will need to enter the work force at ground level like all those before you did. You can’t, (because you aren’t fully qualified) to make executive decisions on Coke’s branding strategy from week 1.

Despite what the comforts of our campuses taught us, unfortunately 4 years of intensive study may not give us the right to skip straight to middle management. You see while a degree gives a strong foundation, it is often a far cry from what you will need to do to prove yourself as someone who can be trusted with the big stuff.

So what’s the point then? How am I meant to get the job my degree has qualified me for?

A killer work ethic and willingness to get your hands dirty by starting where your boss did, is often the key to being trusted with the more glamorous responsibilities that MGMT 201 alluded to. Despite what your friend’s big brother said, those kinds of awesome “Whitney Port” roles are usually 2 or 3 years down the track.

Your degree will get you there but probably not in year 1. The benefits of a good education are endless and having a university degree is a great asset. Sadly for many graduates the idea of a degree gives them a false sense of achievement. Degree doesn’t equal ‘too good’ for hard work, it shows you have stuck it out and have the potential to go far, but there is still some ground work to be done!

 To be truly successful in any role, in any industry- hard work from bottom to top is key.

So what are the keys to success? Your degree is the start. Unlike uni, the first year will be hard, but it’s probably better than being stuck flipping burgers right? You need the basic skills a commercial environment affords you- so get them however you can. Even if they seem pointless at the time, if a job exists, chances are those skills will be needed higher up the chain of command too. Then take small measured steps towards being the new VP of Awesome at CoolestCompanyEver and you may just get there sooner than you think.

The study commissioned by Microsoft, found 78 per cent of hiring managers and recruiters have rejected applicants based on their online reputation, with 63 per cent finding this information on social networking sites.

That begs the question- What do your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other online sites say about you?

 Jay Whitler, a recent Australian law student, has changed his online information and gone under an alias facebook name to protect him from rejection while he is on the job hunt.

“It hardly seems fair. I don’t think pictures I post or that I’m tagged in on facebook should dictate how potential employers judge my work ethic, but I’ve seen it happen and I don’t want one photograph to ruin my future career,” he says.

Although this tactic may benefit graduates in the short term, it can come back and haunt them in the long term potentially crippling their career, according to Kirsten Dixon, personal branding strategist and online reputation manager.

Dixon, describing an unwanted online presence as “digital dirt,” is paid close to $US10,000 to remove undesirable digital footprints.“Your online reputation has a lot to do with your personal brand,” she says.

Blair Whitehead, General Manager at ProGrad, does not search candidates online due to lack of time, but says it is quite common amongst employers, “Many employers that we work with will often search potential employees – it can be an interesting way of assessing people prior to interviews.”

Blair Whitehead stresses the importance of keeping a professional approach to information posted online, “A picture can be very incriminating…as can the quotes beneath it.  Be very aware of public photos which perhaps don’t portray the most “professional” side of you,” she said.

In today’s online community, the best move a graduate can make regarding their cyber profile is to keep Facebook private. It is wise to block all content to anyone who is not a friend.

By all means use Facebook as it is intended- for social networking, but this social medium may be your professional downfall if you are not careful. Don’t use it in a professional context by adding or “friending” potential employers.

Instead, keep a Linked In profile as something for this purpose, by ensuring that this is the portal you use to portray your desired corporate image.

For more advice on how to approach the graduate job market or potential employers, contact ProGrad’s Graduate Management Team on 02 8235 8300 or email info@prograd.com.au

Well at least the tech part is true? There are as many bad stereotypes about generation Y as there are stars in the sky. And as lame as they may be (obviously thought up by a baby boomer frustrated with their offspring) they can have a negative impact when these stereotypes infiltrate the workplace and start to affect your job hunting prospects.

When middle aged managers and HR humbugs see your neatly typed birthdate anywhere between the 1980’s and 2000 they immediately switch off. So what kind of things can you do to overcome the stereotype and push on to get the chance?

First of all- Get rid of the birth date on your resume- it only gives them an excuse to judge you before proceeding.

2nd- Show them that you can stick at something. Including work experience on your resume that has lasted upwards of a year or two, amongst your brief internships and placements can show you have staying power.

3rd- Include travel in your resume. For a similar reason, when a hiring manager sees that you have got the travel bug out of your system they may decide you are less likely to ditch them as soon as you have saved enough for New York, Paris or London.

Finally- Take advantage of your reputation as being tech savvy. While you don’t think of yourself as a nerd, typically you will be much more familiar with a PC or Mac than anyone your senior and will therefore be comfortable navigating a CRM system or company database- even if you don’t know what it is.

If you’re a recent graduate struggling to bridge the generation gap and break into a corporate career, contact ProGrad’s Graduate Management Team on 02 8235 8300 or email us at info@prograd.com.au

At ProGrad we love a good incentive, and we strongly believe in rewarding effort! Better still, we love to get our grads involved. Cleverly we have devised a scheme that will do all of the above…

From now until the end of April if you recommend or refer a friend who comes through our assessment day and is successful, you will go into the draw to win an Apple iPad!

We love helping out friends, or friends of friends, so if any of your classmates, work mates or even neighbours are looking to launch their graduate careers, tell them to get in touch with us and mention your name as a referral.

Every time you send a friend through our process and they are successful on our assessment day, you get one entry into the draw to win!

There’s no limit to the number of entries you can have, so refer away! The more the merrier is our motto.

This brand spanking new iPad could be yours, for the low, low price of helping a friend! (It surely is better to give and receive)

There is also the excellent runner up prize of 2 tickets to Gold Class cinemas!

The winner will be drawn in the first week of May. Your successful friend will need to come through our assessment day by the 28^th of April and give us your name so we know who to enter.

For any more information, recommendations or referrals, contact the Graduate Management team on 02 8235 8300 or email us info@prograd.com.au

Aside from their endorsements (Katie Perry and Justin Bieber are currently pitching ProActive to us while Tiger Woods shows off Nikes latest get up), there are the movies, television and music they produce. And on top of this we see the continually growing world of celebrity branding and merchandise. Everything from fragrance and fashion to cookware and credit cards, you can pretty well establish a life furnished entirely by celebrities.

Perhaps for some celebs this sales drive comes from their roots, many having a background in sales.

Some well known celebrities who dabbled in the world of sales before heading to the Hollywood Hills include Johnny Depp (who was a pen salesman), Ellen DeGeneres (sold vacuums) and even the lovely Jennifer Anniston did her time as a telemarketer (yuck, we definitely don’t endorse that) before hitting the big time.

Now this is not to say that a career in sales will lead to on screen fame (though there are definitely abounding opportunities for progression into other areas) but are there links between these two seemingly separate worlds?

Common factors:

• Self confidence- while many celebrities (and salespeople) may come across as arrogant, having the confidence to get up and speak with authority is something that encourages people to listen.
• Strong communication skills- being able to explain yourself persuasively and to a range of people is key to getting them to believe your message.
• Motivation to succeed- in fame, much like sales, you are only as good as your last success. Being driven to achieve again each time is key to ensuring you stay on top.
• Empathy- this last one may seem strange but an actor like a salesman needs be able to understand someone else’s situation. In acting it’s crucial to being able to convey that emotion on stage, in sales so that you can help find a solution and meet their needs.

If a graduate career in sales is something you have been considering, or want more information about, contact ProGrad’s Graduate Management team on 02 8235 8300 or alternatively email us at info@prograd.com.au

 Hi Jemma,
 
Thank you and all of the ProGrad team. The day was unbelievable and an experience I will never forget.
 I leant so much from the day and even if I hadn’t have progressed to work with Prograd further I would have walked out of there with knowledge I wouldn’t have gained anywhere else. It is a true credit to you and your team.
 
I have attached my academic transcript and I am currently working on my CV from the knowledge I gained yesterday and should send that to you later on tonight or tomorrow.

Kind Regards, Chris

 Hi Jemma,

 Just sending an email to thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me in the last 24hours. I hope I wasn’t too difficult to deal with. Thank you especially for your feedback on my speech this morning, it was very reassuring and gave me that little extra bit of confidence.

 I had such a great time today and learnt so much at the assessment day that I’ve taken with me and am already applying to my resume, as well as a few other things.

 The ProGrad ladies were all amazing today, everyone was so helpful and lovely and it really made such a difference having their friendly faces with us during today’s activities.

 Once again, thank you so much for everything you’ve done.

 I look forward to hearing from you soon.

 Regards,

Emilia

Thanks to all the graduates who came along! If you are looking to kick start your career in business to business sales and need a hand getting started, contact ProGrad’s Graduate Management team on 02 8235 8300 or email info@prograd.com.au

Kanye West and Lady GaGa. Apart from being musical superstars, they don’t have a huge amount in common. Something they do share is their unbridled self confidence – which, coupled with their ceaseless self promotion, undoubtedly made them the successes they are today.

Love him or loathe him, it cannot be denied that Kanye is one of the most confident men on the planet. He once called for a revised edition of the bible, because he felt he should be a character in it. Way back in 2002, Yeezy met Oprah at a chance meeting after she took an interest in his car. After they chatted about his wheels, cocky confident Kanye promised the media queen that he would one day appear on her show. The rapper grew up not far from Winfrey’s Chicago, Illinois TV studio and would often eat at a restaurant across the street, so he could dream about an appearance. He added, “I’d come over and just look at the studio and go, ‘One day I’ll be inside that studio.’”

Sure enough, he appeared on her show just three years later. Winfrey remembered the 2002 meeting: “People say that to me all the time – they say, ‘Hey Oprah, I just wrote a book,’ or ‘I’m a singer,’ but you’re the first person who ever made that true.”

It may feel like Lady GaGa has been around for decades, but it is only since 2008 she released her first single. She is officially the most followed person on twitter, the first person to ever break the eight-million-followers milestone, and also leads the Facebook race with a whopping 28,347,356 likes at the time of writing this article.

Although many people believe that Lady Gaga’s rise to fame is an overnight success, it has taken her years to become the absolute pop phenomenon of the new decade. In her high school days, GaGa was made fun of by her classmates. She left her family, went to live at a cheap apartment and wrote music until she would convince an agent to listen. Her rise to the top can be attributed to her complete self belief.  She claims Madonna is her fan and she really believes it.

Both Kanye and Lady GaGa knew what they wanted, worked incredibly hard, and let nothing stop them from reaching their goals.
So how can this help you get the job of your dreams?

Well, it isn’t recommended to wear a dress made of meat to an interview, or interrupt during the interview and say “Yo interviewer, I’m really happy for you, I’ma Let you finish, but I am the best graduate of all time!”. But having the self belief and knowing that you are the right person for the job WILL get you the job of your dreams!

For information on how ProGrad can help you get that all important interview, take a look at the website www.prograd.com.au, contact one of our friendly team on 02 8235 8325, or email ellen.giebels@prograd.com.au.

The ProGrad team continues to grow; both in sales and operations and in our client demand. More and more opportunities are becoming available for our graduates, and it was this unprecedented growth that prompted the move to the new office.

Several factors contributed to the decision as to where the new office should be.  The Barrack Street office was selected by ProGrad because of its many impressive amenities. Boasting a brand new assessment centre custom designed for our intensive assessment days, the new location also features a spacious open plan office for our friendly team.

The central location is of real significance for overall efficiency. Only two short minutes walking distance from the current office, ProGrad’s decision to remain in the area limits the impact the move could potentially have on our graduates, clients and employees.

Relocating to the new office demonstrates ProGrad’s genuine commitment to our highly successful operation which will continuously be developing, adapting and growing.

“This is such an exciting time for the team at ProGrad,” said Blair Whitehead, General Manager of Prograd.

 “Moving to a larger, more modern office supports our plans for future growth, and will allow ProGrad to service our clients and graduates even more effectively.”

Contact details for ProGrad will not change with the move. For further information on our new office please feel free to contact us on 02 8235 8300 with any queries, or email ellen.giebels@prograd.com.au

Graduates who are new to the working world often face difficulties in adjusting to the work environment.  During the adjustment and learning phase, it is natural to feel nervous; particularly while the work-load is low. 

During these times, they key is not to get disheartened.  One of the biggest challenges faced by new employees is a feeling of boredom.  Boredom can simply be a mis-communication between employer and employee.  Like any relationship, expectations need to be made clear from the outset.  From the first few days in a business, both parties need to be clear about what they each expect from the other. 

If you are new to a company, the first thing to demonstrate is a positive working attitude.  Attidue is everything.  Many skills can be taught, and employers will enjoy teaching a willing participant.  The “go-getter” is likely to receive extra investment from an employer, often because they are vocal about their needs.  Proactivity is key. 

ProGrad have placed thousands of graduates over the years and we’re graduate employers ourselves.  “Graduates require constant stimulation and fresh challanges.  I don’t believe they get bored easily, however they do require some clear goals to achieve.  More importantly than that, there needs to be a level of reward upon achieving those goals”.  Blair Whitehead, General Manager, ProGrad Pty Ltd

“Most employers recognise the value in recruiting young talent into the workforce, and are willing to invest heavily in the long term development and success of those individuals.  That said, it is essential that candidates are being proactive in driving their own careers.  Boredom is unacceptable in the workforce.  If you’re bored, then change it.  Take initiative, speak to your manager and set new personal and professional goals.  Take a proactive and positive approach to changing the way you feel in the office environment”, Blair adds.

Here are a few tips if you want to kick boredom in the workforce:

1) Be proactive and organise a time to meet with your manager to ask for more responsibilities

2) Set clear and defined goals to achieve and allocate time frames in which you would like to achieve them

3) During face to face meetings with management, approach them with clear, well considered plans which you would like to achieve.  Most employers will be impressed by these actions and will assist to prepare something more formal ongoing. 

4) Don’t dwell on it.  Boredom is an attitude. 

If you would like to speak to ProGrad about any of these suggestions, please contact the Graduate Management Team on 02 8235 8300

Alternatively, you can email info@prograd.com.au

You can view the article and stats here.

ProGrad aim to rectify this mind set as we offer our services to find graduates positions in the workforce and corporate scector!

If you are struggling to find a job and would like to know about ProGrad’s services feel free to visit our website at www.prograd.com.au or contact us directly on (02) 8235 8300