There’s been lot’s in the press recently about 300,000 people in the UK graduating this year into one of the toughest job markets for a long time. (Sunday Times – Graduates face the toughest tests)
Most of the time we work with employers, but what practical help is out there for graduates?
This led us to Tanya de Grunwald and her excellent book ‘Dude, where’s my career? : A guide for baffled Graduates’.
The book focuses on helping ‘normal’ graduates (what Tanya calls ‘the baffled’) who haven’t put much (or any) thought into their career planning and certainly haven’t had a master plan to become president of the universe since they were 6 years old.
Looking back, I’d firmly put myself in that category when I graduated.
And the truth is that these normal, ‘baffled’ graduates , are the backbone of most organisations and hugely valuable, if only they can find the right career to play to their strengths and are allowed to grow and flourish.
What we really love about the book however, is the ‘emotional support’ approach Tanya takes. Most graduate careers help just focuses on the (important) nuts and bolts – like writing a great CV, but not on helping people understand what really makes them tick, how to get motivated and importantly how to deal with the inevitable knock backs. Dude gives this support in a highly practical and accessible way.
If you know one of this year’s 300,000, buy them a copy of Dude or take a look at Tanya’s blog.
