What you need to know about first year insight schemes

What you need to know about first year insight schemes An ever increasing number of employers are offering a widening range of  opportunities aimed specifically at first year students. Many such schemes are now open for application. It can be scary to have to start to engage with the process leading towards graduate recruitment so early in your university career.    Its made worse by a number of persistent rumours circulating on campus and it seemed a good time to try to debunk some of those. Myth 1 If you don’t get a first year “experience” with your chosen employer you’re doomed! I see students who feel under enormous pressure to succeed in an application to an employer for some sort of first year engagement with them. Obviously employers are doing a bit of early talent spotting and theyre upfront about that: We are always looking to attract exceptional people at the earliest possible stage. Linklaters This doesnt mean however that the recruitment process is well underway by the end of the first year and that  if you didnt get a first year scheme youve missed out. This becomes clear when you look at what a few more employers are saying about these schemes: Our First Year Insight programme is  brand new   for 2015 designed to let you find out more about KPMG. Competition for places on the most prestigious graduate schemes is intense so it’s never too early to start considering your options. Allen Overy Part of this is about them  giving you the chance to start finding out whether the sort of career youve been considering is  really for you.  They dont want to waste money on training you, if actually this  isnt what you want.  Keep calm! Review how far youve got with your own career decision making. If you think you might want to go to work for them, then why not put in a (good) application. But, if you dont have a clue what you might want for the future then dont worry. Take your time to think and go for an internship in the summer of your second year. A first year scheme is only one of a number of ways of getting yourself noticed. You can  often do this really successfully at events on campus. If youre the one who goes along with well researched questions, then its more than likely that the recruiters will be taking a note of your name. Myth 2 You need to apply to as many schemes as possible. No, definitely not! Ive met students who are making ten or more applications and are allowing the time spent doing these to impact adversely their academic studies. Ive also been  told  by students  that the only way to approach this is to apply to as many schemes as possible, and that this makes having a generic CV and cover letter the only way to proceed. If youre panicking like this, then stop! Heres some advice from Jake Schogger,  one of our finalists, hes learnt to find his way round the application process and  has landed himself a great graduate job after a variety of internships: If you get two or three rejections for being too generic, odds are youd get another fifty if you applied. This is why you see so many people getting either nothing or a substantial number of offers. By all means apply to  5 or  6 but only if you can truly spare a great deal of time to spend  on them. If youre still not convinced heres what Jakes future employers have to say on the subject: Attend a couple of workshops, one here and one at another firm Freshfields. That all seems pretty clear! Myth 3 Everyone else has got a scheme. No, they havent! One of the curses of social media is that we all hear very quickly about someones success. Delighted wall posts and messages of congratulation are de rigeur. Its easy to forget that those who havent made a successful application, (or any application) dont announce that on Facebook. Those who have secured schemes will be in the minority. Dont let everyone panic you! Do whats right for you. Your career decision making may not have reached a stage whereby applying for a first year scheme is right for you. Thats fine! So remember Your first year is just the start of your University and career journey, you don’t have to engage with potential employers just yet. Of course, you’re not doing yourself any harm if you do get to spend time in the workplace of your current top favourite employer, but it isn’t essential. For many areas of work you wont have an option to do a structured paid insight programme. Dont worry if theres nothing on offer. Try to research alternatives so that you build your own insight into  the career area which interests you a blog post on how to go about this will be coming soon! And finally, dont  neglect your studies in an attempt to get an elusive first year scheme!