As a new graduate you may be experiencing some difficulties within the UK job market. The IT explosion has come to a close and things have changed since three or four years ago, readily available employment in IT has disappeared. There are certain methods you can use to help yourself secure the ideal job especially as interviews are so important.



Strengths and Weaknesses

essential to understand where you require some improvements, if you have programmed only in Haskell and the position available consists of some Object Oriented languages like Java then it is most significant that you prepare by reading up and start learning by yourself ? inform the interviewer and make a point of it. It will show that you are recognize that you have some short comings but are a person who is trying to improve their skill base outside of working hours. Many companies will then take an interest in training you especially when they see you have a willingness to learn.

Job Experience

As an applicant straight out of university then you may not have had much practical working experience , applying your knowledge in real life working environments then, ensure you acknowledge areas such as team projects and any tuition you gave to lower year students as well as highlighting any problems experienced and how you overcame them in your final year. Chances are if your application made it to interview stage that the company is looking for someone with little experience but lots of fresh innovative ideas. Show that you have confidence! If you don't then who else will?

Show Knowledge Of The Programme In Question

Do not just apply for a job because you have programming experience. If all of your experience is in PHP but have very limited .NET knowledge and in the job you're going for .NET programming is heavily featured in the job role, then do yourself a favour and learn the basic constructs and standard object libraries for .NET.

Be Prepared For A Test

It has been a standard practice to set IT professionals a test to see your ability firsthand and to see how you react to pressure. Going back to the previous point, it may be easier to understand the test if you know a bit about the background of the person who has set the test for you, so basic research and learning the language is a must.

IT Working Structures

Think about things you should show interest in about the usual working dynamics you may find yourself working in, ask about the seating arrangements, should they practice extreme programming, brainstorming or other activities and question how they to relieve stress! Questions like this depict that you are seriously thinking about working within this environment.