How to get an
entry-level job at Attacat
This is a presentation I give at the end of any graduate* recruitment round we do. If we are recruiting at the moment the vacancies will be listed on our main careers page. If we aren’t I hope you may get some useful tips out of it for any entry level job.
*I’ve always defined a “graduate” as someone looking to get a fresh start regardless of age. With innovations like this my definition of graduate is expanding to “regardless of age and the formality of education”
How this presentation came into being
The greatest pleasure I get at work is being able to give people a career. Over the 17+ years I have recruited in the region of 30 graduates.
A good number are still here and have risen to the top of the organisation. Others chose to move on but in most cases have gone on to jobs with great companies. I know of at least three who’ve made it to director level and I know more will follow.
The feedback beer
In 2010 graduates were having a particularly hard time. Graduate vacancies had been massively cut globally following the financial crisis. So when we completed our recruitment round we tried something a bit different. We invited all the unsuccessful candidates along for a “feedback beer”!
The idea was to say thank you for applying and to try to help candidates learn what applications look like from our side of the table.
I gave a presentation on our process and the common mistakes we were seeing and then took a few minutes with each candidate to look at their application.
I was nervous that it would be a complete disaster but after a few minutes it settled quickly and it worked out really well. It was a real credit to those who were brave enough to come (it takes guts to say “I’m willing to learn from this”) and I’m still in touch with one or two of the attendees to this day.
Since then we’ve done this session each time we recruit. The presentation above is the most recent iteration of the presentation.
Final thoughts...
As I write this in 2020, the world is changing fast. Covid has accelerated digital and our recruitment process now feels someone dated. The presentation is based on what was, rather than I suspect what will be. However, I don’t think these key lessons are any less relevant:
- The recruitment process is one that can be learned
- It’s not what you’ve done that is interesting, it’s the difference you’ve made whilst you are doing it that is interesting.
Wishing you the very best with your job hunt, whether that's with us or someone else.
Tim