A graduate's morning: where to start looking
Sarah is a recent civil engineering graduate with a 2:1 and some site experience from summer placements. She has three months to find a graduate scheme or internship. At 8 a.m., she opens her laptop with a list of job boards she knows matter: LinkedIn, Indeed, Totaljobs, CiscoJobs, the websites of major contractors like Balfour Beatty and Laing O'Rourke, and specialist engineering recruitment sites. She realises she cannot check all of them every morning.
Instead of visiting each site separately, she creates a simple spreadsheet with columns for: job board name, date last checked, search terms used, and notes. She then makes a decision: she will check the major general boards (LinkedIn and Indeed) daily, the specialist engineering boards three times a week, and company career pages weekly. This prevents duplication and keeps her focused.
Setting up effective searches across multiple boards
Sarah realises that each job board has different search filters and terminology. On LinkedIn, graduate schemes are tagged with 'Entry level' or 'Graduate scheme'. On Indeed, she needs to search for both 'graduate scheme' and 'graduate engineer' separately. On Totaljobs, the filters are slightly different again. She spends 30 minutes setting up saved searches on each platform with the exact terms she needs: 'graduate scheme civil engineering', 'graduate engineer', 'engineering internship', and 'graduate programme'.
She also learns that some boards let her set email alerts. She enables alerts on LinkedIn and Indeed for new postings matching her criteria, set to arrive daily. This means she does not have to visit the sites as often, but she still checks them manually twice a week to catch anything the algorithm might have missed. She notes the search terms she used so that next week she can try variations like 'graduate civil engineer' or 'civil engineering graduate'.
- Create saved searches on each job board with multiple keyword variations
- Enable email alerts where available, but verify them manually too
- Check specialist engineering boards at least weekly
- Record which search terms work best on each platform
Where JobEng helps
Find graduate schemes and engineering internships with one search. JobEng is an app for UK engineering and construction, on iPhone and Android with the same account on the web. Engineers use it to find work and manage their applications.
Filtering for genuine opportunities and avoiding noise
By mid-morning, Sarah has 47 new job postings across all her searches. Many are not what she is looking for: some are for experienced engineers, some are recruitment agency listings with vague descriptions, and some are for roles in other sectors. She applies filters to narrow the list. On most boards, she filters by location (she is willing to relocate but prefers the Midlands), contract type (permanent or fixed-term internship), and posting date (last 7 days).
She also develops a quick screening rule. If a posting does not mention the company name, does not describe the role clearly, or asks for more than five years of experience, she skips it. If it mentions 'graduate scheme', 'structured programme', 'mentoring', or 'rotation', she keeps it. This takes her list from 47 to 12 genuine candidates in 20 minutes.
Tracking applications and avoiding duplicates
Sarah adds her 12 shortlisted roles to her spreadsheet with columns for: job title, company, job board found on, posting date, application deadline, and status (not applied, applied, interview, rejected). She notices that one role appears on both LinkedIn and the company's own career page. She makes a note to apply via the company website directly, as applications submitted there often reach the hiring team faster.
She also checks whether she has already applied to that company for a different role. One company, a medium-sized structural engineering firm, has posted three graduate roles. She decides to apply to the most relevant one first, but keeps the other two in mind in case the first application is rejected. This prevents wasted effort and shows the company she is genuinely interested.
Building a sustainable search routine
By lunchtime, Sarah has applied to three roles and updated her spreadsheet. She sets a routine: 30 minutes each morning to check alerts and new postings, 15 minutes three times a week to browse specialist boards, and 10 minutes each Friday to review her spreadsheet and plan next week. She also sets a reminder to revisit company career pages directly on the first of each month, as some firms post schemes only on their own sites.
Over the following weeks, Sarah tracks which boards and search terms yield the most responses. She finds that LinkedIn and company websites produce more genuine graduate scheme postings than some other boards. She adjusts her routine accordingly, spending more time on high-yield sources. She also notes the typical application deadlines (many schemes close in January and September) and plans her searches around these dates.
Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
Sarah learns some lessons the hard way. She applies to a role without reading the full description and misses that it requires a driving licence. She applies to a posting that turns out to be a recruitment agency fishing for CVs, not a real job. She also forgets to update her spreadsheet for two weeks and loses track of which companies she has applied to. She corrects these mistakes by always reading job descriptions fully, checking whether the poster is the actual employer or an agency, and updating her tracker immediately after each application.
She also discovers that some boards have better search functionality than others. On some, she can search by salary band or company size. She uses these filters to avoid roles that are too junior or companies that are too small for her needs. She learns that persistence matters: she applies to 20 roles over eight weeks and receives interviews from four of them, leading to two offers.
How to start
- Download JobEng free from the App Store (iPhone) or Google Play (Android).
- Create your free account as an engineer, technician, graduate or student.
- Open JobEng and start with: find graduate schemes and engineering internships with one search.
Download JobEng free
Free for engineers, technicians, graduates and students. On iPhone and Android, with the same account on the web.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I check job boards for new graduate schemes?
Check major boards like LinkedIn and Indeed daily or set up email alerts. Check specialist engineering boards and company career pages at least weekly. Adjust frequency based on which sources give you the most relevant results.
Should I apply to every graduate scheme I find?
No. Screen postings carefully and apply only to roles that match your skills, location preferences, and career goals. Quality applications to fewer roles are better than rushed applications to many. Keep a spreadsheet to track where you have applied.
What search terms work best for finding graduate schemes?
Try variations: 'graduate scheme', 'graduate engineer', 'graduate programme', 'engineering internship', 'entry level engineer', and add your specialism (civil, mechanical, electrical). Search terms differ by board, so test several on each platform.
How do I avoid recruitment agency postings and focus on real jobs?
Check the poster's name. If it is a recruitment agency, the company name will be the agency's, not the employer's. Many real graduate schemes are posted directly by the employer on their own career page, so check company websites too.
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