• Get ready for your career in science
• You and the job you want
• Employers and the labour market
  • Overview of labour market for scientists
  • Industries that employ science graduates
  • Occupations for science graduates
  • Where do employers advertise jobs?
  • What do employers seek in a science graduate?
  • How do employers assess your skills?
• Practical Skills to Find Work
• Useful Resources

Employers and the Labour Market

How do employers assess your skills for the job?

Employers will be interested in receiving information from graduate candidates that explains how their skills, experience and qualifications will transfer into their organisation to enable top work performance.  You may be asked to present information in a number of ways including:

Initial application

As a starting point your application provides employers with evidence of how you match selection criteria, your business communication skills and your ability to comprehend information on the employing organisation and job role.  This means that information you provide in your cover letter, resume and employer application form will be carefully reviewed by employers.

Interviews

Why do employers interview?
You look like the right candidate on paper, have the right experience, good qualifications and referee details to support your application.  Employers interview because they want to:

• Clarify details provided on your application
• Assess your personal and professional qualities, enthusiasm and interest and find out more about your skills
• Discuss in more detail the requirements of the job
• Get an idea of what you would be like to work with

Even though it might not feel like it when you are being interviewed, interviews are a 2 way street, an exchange of information rather than an interrogation by the employer.  From the applicant perspective an interview provides:

• An opportunity to further market your suitability for the job role
• The chance to find out more about the employer and organisation and decide if it is place you would like to work in
• Determine if it fits with your career goals

What will the interview be like?
Formats of interviews vary, influenced by the size of the organisation, their recruiting practices and the requirements of the job role.

Some interviews will be very formal and structured in their style; others will seem more like a general conversation.  The length of time for the interview can also vary. 

The aim of all interviews is to get you to talk about your experiences and what you have learned from them.