Career Launch
Campus placement was a system. Nobody hands you the next one.
For three years somebody else scheduled the drives and shortlisted the companies. After graduating, that structure disappears and most job seekers replace it with refreshing job portals. This session gives them a working system: where roles actually surface, how to reach them, and what to do every week.
Most openings are not found on the page where most people look.
Job portals are the most crowded and least effective channel, and they are where almost every fresher spends their entire search. Referrals, direct outreach, communities, alumni and company career pages all convert better and are barely used.
The other half of the problem is rhythm. A search without a weekly structure becomes a mood — busy on the bad days, absent on the worse ones.
Where roles actually come from
37 topics across 7 areas. Seven channels, in rough order of how well they convert.
ReferralsThe highest-converting channel, and the least used by freshers.6
Not “please refer me”. A referral becomes possible when somebody knows what you can do and there is a specific open role.
- Who already knows your work
- Seniors from your college
- People you met at events
- Former internship colleagues
- Friends of friends in the industry
- How to ask, and when
Direct OutreachApproaching a company that has not advertised.5
Smaller companies frequently hire without posting. A specific, researched message to the person who would manage you outperforms a hundred portal applications.
- Identify companies doing work you want
- Find the person who runs that team
- Say specifically why them
- Attach evidence, not a plea
- Follow up once
Company Career PagesWhere roles appear before or instead of the portals.5
- Building a target list of thirty companies
- Checking on a schedule
- Setting alerts
- Applying early
- Why the same role converts better here
CommunitiesWhere practitioners talk, roles get mentioned first.5
- Technical and professional communities
- Local meetups
- Online groups and forums
- Open-source and volunteer projects
- Being useful before needing something
Job PortalsUse them, but know what they are.5
Highest volume, highest competition, lowest conversion. Worth thirty minutes a week, not thirty hours.
- Which portals matter for your role
- Keyword and alert setup
- Why applying early matters
- How to spot a stale posting
- When to stop
Recruitment ConsultanciesUseful for some roles, irrelevant for others.5
- What consultants actually do
- Which roles they fill
- How to be worth their time
- What to be cautious about
- Never pay for a job
A Weekly SystemThe part that decides whether any of it works.6
A search collapses without structure. A modest weekly rhythm, sustained, beats bursts of activity followed by silence.
- Target list maintained
- A fixed number of quality applications, not volume
- Two conversations a week
- One piece of evidence built or improved
- A record of what was sent and when
- A weekly review of what is converting
Track it, or it does not exist
- Company and role
- Where it came from
- Date applied
- Contact, if any
- Follow-up date
- Outcome
- What you would change
- A spreadsheet is enough. Not tracking is why month three feels identical to month one.
What good looks like in a week
- Five to eight well-targeted applications rather than fifty generic ones
- Two conversations with people doing the work
- One follow-up on something outstanding
- One improvement to the resume, portfolio or a skill
- Thirty minutes on portals, not the whole week
How the session runs
A recruiter and somebody who found their own role off-campus each describe how it actually happened, channel by channel. Participants then build their own target list of companies, identify who they already know inside or adjacent to them, and draft one direct outreach message that gets reviewed in the room. Everyone leaves with a weekly plan they can hold to.
What your students leave with
- A target list of companies rather than a portal habit
- An understanding of which channels actually convert
- One direct outreach message, written and reviewed
- A map of the people they already know who could help
- A weekly structure for the search
- A way of tracking it that makes progress visible
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Campus placement was a system. This session replaces it with one you run yourself.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.