A case study on how undergraduate student, Julia, used Paperound.com to build her experience and land her graduate role.
Paperound & landing a full-time graduate role
I have recently begun my full-time graduate role as an operations consultant, within a consultancy firm. It’s a business-focussed and client-facing position, which is exactly what I was hoping for – it’s a very exciting time for me.
I wanted to let other students know what helped me on this journey. Here’s a snapshot of my story and how I used the Paperound experience to my advantage for graduate job interviews: I hope it’s helpful!
“Using the experience gained through Paperound helped me immensely to demonstrate my initiative and delivering on ‘real world’ business tasks. I would recommend it to any undergraduate, to put yourselves forward, to help you get onto the career ladder.”
My previous experience as an unpaid intern
During my first year of uni, I undertook a 3-month unpaid internship (as you are probably aware, even these can be competitive). It was a lot of hours, so whilst I appreciate the opportunity to gain experience, it was tough: you kind of resent the fact that you’re working so hard and not getting paid.
Looking for the right paid work experience in lockdown
As lockdown hit in March 2020, I was in the same situation as every other undergrad, looking for some paid work experience.
It was a difficult time – the graduate job market felt extremely saturated and I was receiving so many rejections. I was relieved to have discovered a new service called Paperound, which allows students to pick up ad-hoc paid work for start-ups & SMEs, remotely, at the hours that suit you. It was perfect for me: I could continue with my other commitments, all whilst getting real-world work experience with different companies and being paid for my time!
So, while the whole country has been in lockdown, I found that small businesses were booking me for numerous and varied tasks, such as writing blogs, and helping with business development and outreach. All work that would contribute to my experience when it came to interviews.
How did this help me in job interviews?
In interviews for graduate roles, they asked things like “Give me an example of how you showed initiative?” and “Can you highlight your work experience to date?” ….
I was able to say with confidence that, despite the pandemic, I managed to get work experience by putting myself on the Paperound platform, where I did freelance tasks for different companies.
Normally, as a student, I would have had to say things like “I’ve done an online course” or “I’ve volunteered at XYZ” but I was able to say I literally went out and did real work with start-ups. That was very powerful!
Not only that, having delivered ad-hoc tasks for various companies through Paperound, I was always speaking to business people that were senior decision makers. From a personal learning point, this helps a lot, as the experience of how you talk to them and how you come across to them is important. Now, I can easily talk to senior clients in a professional manner, which I definitely need in my new graduate consulting role. Ultimately, I feel more confident as a result because of the interactions I had on Paperound.
My advice and tips for other students
Getting a graduate role is a tougher process than getting into university, you get a tonne of rejections. So, crucial to landing a role is to find ways to show how you’ve used your initiative and demonstrate what you’ve achieved.
This might feel like stating the obvious, but on Paperound, you can simply put up your profile, and businesses will book you: it’s as easy as that. This means you can actually make some money and have something to show for it at interviews. It also shows initiative as you didn’t give up and made the most of your student time.
You only need one employer to say “yes”… so keep going!
Amazing news for Julia!
The Paperound team are so pleased Julia has found her first full time role in consulting. With reviews like these on Paperound, it’s no wonder Julia got snapped-up!
“Great work, thanks Julia. You listened and followed the brief perfectly. Will be using you more in the near future.”
“Julia did an excellent job at writing a really engaging blog for us. I gave her a short brief and what came back was of real quality. She had thrown in extra points and ideas I didn't think of which was an added bonus. Great work!”
We founded Paperound to help high-calibre students have the opportunity to work with small businesses and start-ups and gain that valuable work experience. For small businesses they get exceptional students, like Julia, delivering on their vital work tasks.
The Paperound team wishes Julia all the best and we’re pleased to have played a very small part in getting her the experience she needed for her future career!
If you’re a student looking to get paid work experience or a small business who just needs an extra pair of hands to get tasks done, check out Paperound.com.