I am responding to your High Fliers graduate recruitment survey article on recruiter.co.uk (’Graduate vacancies up but competition for places intensifies’, 13 January).

Some students believe getting a job is a lottery and that the odds have decreased. This is dangerous as it leads to a scattergun approach to applications, causing a lack of research to the positions being applied for, leading to poorer quality applications.

For our graduate programme we use a pre-screen questionnaire before students fill in the application form to apply. This ensures candidate are eligible and clear as to what is expected from them in the application process.

We experience high interest in our vacancies, but the pre-screen questions help ensure that it is the candidates who are seriously interested in a career with Deloitte who complete the full application. It’s not the number of applications we receive that we are interested in, it’s the quality.

I believe that students should adopt a similar approach. It is a better strategy, and use of time, to concentrate on high quality, well researched applications for jobs that are of real interest, rather than attempting to complete as many application forms as possible. Graduate recruiters can spot and will warm to candidates who have truly done their homework about the organisation.

Research is key to graduate job success. Students can take practical steps to improve their ability to find and secure a graduate job in this market. More time needs to be devoted to research and preparation, but not necessarily to filling in more application forms.

Students should never underestimate the importance of good research. Be quick to identify areas of work that are of interest. This research brings about better more impressive applications. Don’t wait until the final year at university to start the process, students in their first or second year at university need to ask themselves ’what job do I want to do?’.

Our application process is open for 2010, and we will be recruiting around a 1,000 graduates to join Deloitte. Students can now apply for our 2010 vacancies if they have already graduated or are in their final year.

We put a lot of effort into on campus activities to engage with high-quality candidates as opposed to raising our profile. We focus on building specific relationships to get to the right students. Campus events are meant to be educational, with us providing clear, open and honest information about careers with Deloitte and the application process.

These events do allow students to make a more informed choice. In fact, we find that many of our successful graduate applicants have attended the events on campus which we have held.
Sarah Shillingford, graduate recruitment partner at Deloitte