GRADUATE recruitment packs used to be fairly dull old things, consisting mainly of an application form and some vaguely forbidding tosh about how A.
Bumfluff & Daughter Incorporated was a go getting firm in the area of safety pin and thumb tack manufacture and was looking for bright young things who didn't bleed easily.
Times have changed and a good indication of how seriously firms take graduate recruitment is the lavishly well appointed graduate literature which they now circulate.
The Marks & Spencer brochure has odd cardboard shapes attached, British Telecom has a personality questionnaire. One of the best graduate recruitment packs currently available is that supplied by Midland Bank, which includes cut out face masks and a selection of stickers, among them an imitation gold credit card and long red stick on nails. Have fun while you worry about your career appears to be the message.
The downside of all this is that completing the application forms hasn't become any faster or easier, forcing prospective applicants to become almost as selective as the companies seeking to employ them.
God bless CVs and covering letters, then, and God bless Amdahl Ireland, who are recruiting 25 graduates this year.
Amdahl supplies information processing systems and solutions and is involved with companies such as Oracle, Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu. It currently has 10,000 employees worldwide, 200 of them employed in Dublin.
Amdahl is seeking graduates from computer related disciplines for its systems management and integration group, which provides systems management solutions, benchmarking and on site consultation and support. There are also vacancies in applications management, which develops customer specific applications utilising the Huron ObjectStar rapid application development environment; and in software services, which provides soft ware test development, automation and execution and support and delivery services.
Applicants should send a CV (not more than two pages long), including personal details, exam results, college projects and work experience (including areas of teamwork, leadership, etc.) and hobbies to: Personnel Department, Amdahl Ireland Limited, Balheary, Swords, Co. Dublin (tel: (01) 840 3001/ fax: (01) 840 7690) before Friday December 20th, 1996. First round interviews will be held in January, second round in February and offers will be made in March.
Marks & Spencer has 190 vacancies for management trainees, mainly in the commercial area, but also in personnel and finance. Four vacancies exist in the Irish arm of the company.
General degrees are acceptable but the emphasis is on leadership, planning and organisational abilities. Application forms should be returned to the Recruitment Department, Marks & Spencer plc, Michael House, Baker Street, London WIA IDN (tel: 0044 171 268 38831 268 8676) by November 29th.
Finally, a reminder that November 8th is the closing date for applications for the Procter & Gamble post Christmas course.
