The graduate job coaches offering access to ‘unwritten rules’

{"text":[[{"start":6.05,"text":"Steven Round hoped that by supporting his sons through school and university, “the job was done”. However, seeing one struggle to find a job and another desperate to progress in his role, he decided to hire a coach to help them navigate the professional world."}],[{"start":22.05,"text":"“I didn’t realise stuff like this existed,” he says."}],[{"start":25.5,"text":"Executive coaches have become an established part of corporate life in recent years. They offer counsel to senior leaders, helping them decide on priorities and navigate the rungs of organisations. But a burgeoning niche is now appearing at the other end of the career ladder: graduate coaches who advise young people on how to choose the right job and help them spruce up their CVs, hone their job applications and network in a recruitment market that has become swamped by AI. "}],[{"start":52.5,"text":"The idiosyncrasies of modern graduate job hunting were alien to Round — his last corporate roles came about through approaches from headhunters, and he came of age at a time when two “E” grades could grant admission to his college."}],[{"start":66.5,"text":"Despite his sons attending “good universities”, he says, “it’s tough.” “There’s been a real paradigm shift in the way people are recruited.”"}],[{"start":75.6,"text":"Graduate job searching has spawned a small industry of services offering job placements and coaching, with patchy results. One jobseeker told the FT they felt they were given a hard sell on a coaching service that included “technical training and career support” — for a monthly fee of £5,700."}],[{"start":94.35,"text":"Anne Clinton, director of careers at the London School of Economics and Political Science, says some advisers make “undeliverable promises of guaranteeing internships, particularly in highly sought-after businesses”. They target “highly ambitious” students interested in banking and finance."}],[{"start":110.25,"text":"But in a marketplace where school and university fees run into tens of thousands of pounds, some parents see the cost of a graduate coach as worth it if it helps their offspring to break into working life."}],[{"start":121.25,"text":"At the top end, Graduate Coach, for example, offers a package that includes interview preparation and application support and costs £12,500, with an additional £6,000 when the applicant secures a paid job. It also provides cheaper, shorter services including one focused on writing a CV, cover letter and LinkedIn profile for £2,000."}],[{"start":145.85,"text":"Nonetheless, such costly services underline the competitive advantages afforded to jobseekers who can get additional help, typically paid for by parents, says Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter."}],[{"start":160.6,"text":"“We tend to think of recruitment as a test of ability, but in practice, it is often a test of cultural fluency, knowing how to signal ‘fit’.” Coaches, he adds, sell “access to the unwritten rules of the system: how to present yourself, how to network, how to approach interviews”."}],[{"start":176.45,"text":"Trudy Morrice decided to pay for help for her son after watching his confidence fade as he made application after application, only to be ghosted by employers. “They’ve been to university and have a massive debt rocketing up. You can see them think, ‘Maybe I won’t get a graduate job.’ As a parent, it’s really distressing.”"}],[{"start":195.7,"text":"Georgie Blackburn, a graduate coach, says such anxiety is not unusual as “the sheer competitiveness of the graduate and entry-level job market” can mean “clients applying for often hundreds of jobs and not getting through to the interview stage”."}],[{"start":210.35,"text":"AI is exacerbating the situation by enabling candidates to submit more applications. In turn, recruiters are using algorithms to screen applicants. “Graduates feel a real sense of helplessness as a human rarely reads their application,” says Blackburn. “They rarely hear back from applications, so it feels impossible for many to navigate and to improve.”"}],[{"start":232,"text":"AI-driven video interviews mean graduates can no longer even rely on an interviewer’s facial expressions for feedback. For graduates whose education was punctuated by stints of online schooling during the pandemic, this lack of interaction can be particularly dispiriting."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":247.65,"text":"Chris Davies, founder of Graduate Coach, says the “principal change” in the 15 years he has been in this sector is that “now nobody wants to hire a graduate without relevant experience”. "}],[{"start":259.25,"text":"Advisers encourage graduates to consider less mainstream opportunities than large graduate programmes, and to overhaul their CVs to incorporate AI keywords and create LinkedIn profiles. "}],[{"start":270.75,"text":"Morrice says that when Davies helped her son, the first step was to make sure his CV was compliant with AI, break down extracurricular undergraduate activities and recast them as skills and experience. “You have to spell it out and make it easy for them to fill out their scoring system.”"}],[{"start":289.55,"text":"Together with his coach, he rehearsed interview techniques, eventually finding a role that suited his engineering degree."}],[{"start":296.3,"text":"Chloë Garland works with graduates even before the job-hunting stage, helping them find a vocation they want rather than conforming to parental expectations or being swayed by their peers."}],[{"start":306.75,"text":"“When a young person is looking for a career, they open their laptop, scroll through LinkedIn and Indeed, find something that they could do based on their degree and might get stuck in that for ten years. I sometimes get them to slow down,” she says. “On the other end of the scale, I get people in their late twenties or thirties stuck in finance who tell me they write poetry and are really creative. Figuring out what you want to do takes time.”"}],[{"start":332.25,"text":"Graduates have grappled with how to find a suitable career for decades but the context has changed, she says. AI has increased uncertainty, while social media has fuelled “hyper comparison” among peers, which can make graduates “shrink and feel less confident”."}],[{"start":349.1,"text":"Too often, decisions are made out of fear rather than curiosity, she adds. “They feel they are running out of time. There’s still this myth that we’re going to have one career for life. The pressure to figure this out at 18 is extreme.”"}],[{"start":364.25,"text":"One employer describes a “cottage industry out there” feeding on graduate anxieties. “You shouldn’t need to pay money to be successful.” Instead, they advise job hunters to use resources on employers’ websites and find opportunities to develop leadership, communication and organisation skills."}],[{"start":382,"text":"For those who cannot or do not want to pay for additional help, experts stress the importance of university careers advisers. Some, such as those at King’s College London, have created software to help candidates game the AI algorithms. Some social mobility charities and social enterprises offer mentoring."}],[{"start":401.25,"text":"Blackburn recommends students consider building experience throughout their time at university. “Aiming for internships, work experience or volunteering in a field that’s relevant to their career interests is extremely important. Having a great degree isn’t enough.” Some parents hire her while their child is an undergraduate “to help them get the best start, or to gain support with internships”."}],[{"start":422.65,"text":"Davies rejects stereotypes of pushy parents and recognises the challenge of steering their children through the modern graduate jobs market. “Many of the people I coach, their parents are graduates themselves [who] got jobs when there weren’t that many. [They] went to university, and in banking, law, got jobs through introductions. That has all gone. There’s a parental approach of, ‘blimey, what are we supposed to do?’”"}],[{"start":446.95,"text":"Georgy Petrov, director of skills and employability at Queen Mary University of London, says coaching can “undoubtedly be valuable . . . but it cannot fully compensate for wider economic pressures facing young people.”"}],[{"start":460.95,"text":"Still, it worked for Round’s sons. “But it’s expensive,” he acknowledges. “It’s like sending your kids to private school; it gives you a set of advantages.” "}],[{"start":477.9,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1779087941_4423.mp3"}