Applying for Graduate Position Jobs

Graduates from University or TAFE will be looking for Graduate Positions in both Federal Government, State Government or private companies. The Australian Public Service (APS) offers a wide variety of Graduate positions.

Chapter 8 will help you in applying for graduate positions and give you a strategy for job search and addressing the selection criteria. Graduate selection criteria can be difficult to understand and to answer, but this chapter will help you through the process.

Chapter 8 includes:

  • Preparing a strategy for securing your first job
  • How to target your résumé on the job you want
  • A list of possible interview questions to aid your preparation
  • Identifying your special skills learned from courses – Science, Social science and by being a successful student
  • Graduate programs – government and private

In Chapter 9 you will find a list of competencies you have gained by being a student, and some general competencies that might be applicable to you.

A short excerpt from the section on preparing your first résumé:

Competencies gained from being a tertiary student

Many graduates have had part-time jobs while studying and have picked up useful skills that can be claimed in job applications. Others, who have not had such experience, often feel they have no skills to add to their résumé competency list and have no examples when it comes to writing responses to selection criteria. They often do not realise or value what they have learned just from the experience of being a tertiary student.

Students gain skills when taking part in discussions and tutorials, working in teams on projects, planning their study time, organising assignments, analysing data, taking notes and learning while on placements.

They are often told that being a tertiary student is not the “real” world. The skills you learn while studying are definitely “real-world” skills and will get you a job in the “real” world. Full and part-time students know all about work-life balance, determining priorities when balancing work, study, family and private life, and working within a budget, as well as goal-setting and perseverance. These skills enable them to respond to the common criteria – communication, teamwork, computer skills, problem-solving etc.

This is followed by a large list of competencies you gain from studying social science and science subjects which you can include in the Competency section of your résumé.”

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