Mechanical Engineering

Daniel Williams
MEng Mechanical Engineering (2012)

contentbox-quote-orange.gifBefore I started looking for a job I wrote down my aspirations and what I wanted to do, which really helped with job selection. I signed up with Totaljobs and Gradcracker who have been emailing me jobs and I was using the aspiration list to filter down to the ones I wanted. However, all the jobs I have applied for I have found myself.

One of my aspirations was to become chartered so I went onto the IMECHE website and got a list of all accredited schemes, then used my aspiration list to get down to a list of jobs I wanted to apply for. This approach means I only applied for four jobs but I have got to the assessment centre for three of them, with one job offer and waiting to hear from the other two. The only difficulty I have had was leaving it until after Christmas and some of the vacancies were closed for applications.

When filling in applications and writing cover letters I really focused on the competencies that the company are looking for (which can be found on the job description) and why I wanted the job. This was helped by only applying for jobs that I wanted.

I did a lot of preparation for interviews; I found as much information about the company from their website, mainly looking for divisions of the company, main products, locations, size and products. I took the competencies the company are looking for and wrote out an example which demonstrates I have those skills. I also wrote a paragraph about why I wanted to work for the company and listed tasks and projects I have been involved with and what I did well in those tasks.

From my experience of interviews two things that I was asked and had not thought of were;

  • After explaining a situation where I dealt with something, the interviewer asked me what did I learn from this? So make sure you have reflected on the experiences you are going to use as examples.
  • Think of when you have been given feedback and how did you use it to improve your performance? 

Doing a placement is the best thing I have ever done. I have a job offer from my placement provider and the experience has helped me applying for other jobs. Everyone I know who has done a placement got a job straight away and I know people who graduated last year with no experience and they still haven’t got a job.

I am not familiar with the media coverage of the graduate job market. However, there are thousands of graduate jobs available, Total Jobs email me twice a day with about six jobs at a  time that are suitable for me; in Engineering and other roles that accept Engineering graduates.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is applying for everything and not taking the required time to fill in applications. I would suggest only applying for the jobs you really want and your enthusiasm for the job will come across in the applications.