If you’re in your penultimate year – the one before your last one – and studying degrees in Business and Engineering, you’ll probably have heard of vacation programs. Though some employers are moving to recruit for both their graduate and vacation programs simultaneously in March/April, many continue to be advertised mid-year and close around late August time.
If you’ve been keeping an eye on student friendly job sites such as our own UniHub, or Grad Connection, Graduate Opportunities, Seek Graduate and the like, you might have noticed that some of the vac programs are closing as early as next week. Yep, next week.
The vacation program train is in motion!
If you’re confident that you have all of the good stuff these employers are looking for, such as the grades, a specific degree, some employment history and/or community spirit, then you might just want to get an application in.
Vacation programs don’t grow on trees
Only certain organisations are in the position to offer formal on-the-job, supervised and paid 12-week maximum work for students in the summer time.
If you haven’t got on board yet but would like to, here are some pointers:
- Check out any opening and closing dates
- Be sure that you are eligible
- Map out who are you going to apply for and in what order
- Pay a lot of attention to the advertisement and to the application form. Lots of applications get vetted out at the ‘submit application online’ stage
- Know who you are applying to, why and what you’ve got to offer
- Try out some personality/psychometric tests
- Work on a cover letter and resume, if required and get someone to check it
- Prepare for any video, phone or in-person interview.
If you’re organised, you’ve probably got everything running smoothly. If not, it’s time to get a move on! Employers like to test students out when they think they might not be looking!
Don’t worry, many applications are also being advertised onwards from mid-July. We are here to help with any part of the application process. Plus, we’re here all year. Look us up!
