Come And Visit GRB

Hello and welcome to this weeks updates from GRB

There are lots of ways to interact with the graduate recruitment experts here at GRB - you can visit us in Brighton, email us, meet us at a fair or find out more from your Careers Service. We also have regular polls on our websites and the results often find a their way into many newspapers and magazines so its worth taking part. We have one for students/graduates and one for recruiters.

We are members of a few professional associations one of which is the CIPD (popular with HR and Recruitment people). One of their recent seminars I went along to talked about the impact of your voice and how to use it to your advantage. It's an underused technique and can help leave a positive impression during interviews for instance. Think about how your voice alters under different situations and the results may surprise you!

OK, have a great weekend. I'm off to pick up my motorbike from its 8,000 mile service and then tomorrow off to Twickenham with my Dad to see England (hopefully) beat Ireland. Come on!

Dan

GRB Recruitment Surgery Anyone?

Happy Friday everyone

The momentum continues at GRB this week with our team representing many graduates as they apply for jobs we have with our clients. Normally this time of year is the low season because as you'd expect most activity takes place in the Summer/Autumn yet we seem to be bucking the trend and unusually busy because I think companies are in "rebound mode" as they play catch up with any shortfall they have from their graduate programmes and schemes from 2009.

Equally we have had more than usual enquiries from recruiters seeking graduates to join them as interns so keep an eye out for these jobs to be advertised shortly on our site. Barclay's is already on there.

Other news to mention is that we have now launched a monthly poll for graduate recruiters to participate in so these results will make useful reading for them but also for graduates. The first poll asks what time period they expect to hire a graduate and early indications are positive.

Finally, I am thinking of running a "Recruitment Surgery" for my Facebook friends and wondered what day and time would suit most people. I plan to allocate one hour to answer questions from job-seeking graduates so let me know and if enough people request it - I'll do it!

Best regards

Dan

Dan Hawes at a UCL Q&A

Hello graduate job seekers and graduate recruiters of the world

Got a lot done this week. Three visits to London made me feel like all the other miserable commuters trekking up to London from Brighton everyday. Don't get me wrong I love London and but I'm glad it's not a daily visit. Anyway on Monday I was in Borough to hear the results of the latest AGR Winter Survey and despite slightly fewer vacancies it was not as bad as people thought. The main points of the survey are here. If you want more details I have the full survey on my desk!

On Wednesday I was invited by UCL Careers Service to take part in a recruitment consultancy Q+A with a group of graduates. Thoroughly enjoyed answering their questions and helping them increase their chances in this very competitive job market.

And finally today I was in Farringdon to listen to RBS and Centrica give case studies on their graduate recruitment marketing campaigns. Very interesting, especially their use of social media to engage with students. 98% of students have a facebook account - wow! When do they find time to study ;-)

Have a great (Valentines) weekend

Best regards

Dan Hawes

GRB's Chris Cater in Sunday Times

Hello

After a brilliant weekend snowboarding in Meribel I am back raring to go and put our new marketing plan into practice. Our co-founder was recently quoted in the Sunday Times about how positive the graduate jobs market could shape up to be in 2010. Read it here. The good news keeps flowing in this article too.

We have had several new jobs listed on the site this week. Here's a few that may interest you,

Graduate Financial Software Developer
Executive Search Associate
2010 Technology Scheme - Investment Bank
Health Research Analyst

If you are a Sussex based graduate we have partnered with the University of Chichester who have links with local employers looking to take interns. For more info click here.

Have a great weekend. I'm off to Liverpool this weekend and no unfortunately not to see the derby ;-(

Bye

Dan

Rising Stars

Dear all

Another eventful week at GRB with lots of graduate recruitment activity occurring. For instance we have been asked to tender for several graduate recruiters looking for suppliers - and these campaigns are for hundreds of graduates so everyone benefits enormously if we secure these contracts. The ultimate is reaching a recruiters PSL or Preferred Suppliers List - for which we are already on many. For graduates this means they will only be able to apply for this employers graduate roles through GRB. These jobs remain hidden from other graduates so it is imperative to sign up with a specialist agency as they can provide the most direct route to some top-tier recruiters.

Apart from that our Rising Stars programme has been well received by over 300 members of AGR including Universities who are keen to have their students considered. We have taken many enquiries from interested recruiters and have begun to schedule interviews for some of our Rising Stars. New additions to the site include several news articles referring to the positive economic outlook and healthy predictions for this years graduates seeking work. We also launched our own YouTube channel full of video advice on seeking graduate jobs.

Check it out!

Best regards

Dan Hawes

GRB Staff Make It In Despite The Snow

Good afternoon

Thank goodness all the snow has cleared. The South Downs looked very pretty but try getting into work on a motorbike! Thankfully the trains and some buses braved the conditions and well done to everyone at GRB making it into the office. Well the highlight of this week has to be the launch of our new graduate recruitment initiative - RISING STARS.

We anticipate the graduate jobs market to be slightly better than last year (a recent survey predicts a 12% rise in graduate vacancies) however it will be more competitive as this years grads tough it out with last years grads who either went onto further study, travelled or temped. We therefore feel, as the UKs leading graduate recruitment consultancy, duty bound to go the extra mile for this years graduating students.

As a new service to finalists GRB has launched RISING STARS to profile this new wave of future movers and shakers. The GRB team have searched, screened and selected 50 of the UKs most exceptional finalists looking to launch their career in 2010. Employers can request an account here or students can apply to be considered here.

I also noticed an interesting statistic this week released by HESA. The HESA Destinations of Leavers from HE Survey 2007/08* revealed that "recruitment agencies/websites" accounted for 34,190 sources of jobs, higher than many other traditional routes. More info here.

And finally, the GRB Marketing team released the new homepage for GRB giving users an easier and better-looking interface. Hope you like it!

Bye!

Dan Hawes

GRB Celebrates Christmas!

Hello and Happy New Year to you!

Welcome back after the festive break. As you can see from the photo GRB celebrated by going for a meal at a local restaurant, Seven Dials, which was very nice. This picture shows charades being played and one of our staff members falling down (and no that wasn't the film he was trying to act out!).

Anyway we all came back on the 4th and it's all systems go here at GRB despite the weather. January is when we plan our objectives to help even more of the UKs finest graduates launch their careers so expect a new look site, new content, new initiatives and even more recruiters forecast to use our services so it's going to be an improvement on 2009.

General predictions for the economy this year are showing very "sluggish" growth and flat being the new up, whatever that means, but for graduates entering the job market in the Summer it will be more competitive as they find themselves competing with last years graduates so it pays to use as many job hunting strategies as possible to increase your chances of finding work.

I'm off to Brick Lane tomorrow for a Birthday curry so see you again next week. Here's to a good 2010.

Best regards

Dan Hawes