Thanks, splitimage.

That's an idea - a lot of them give contact names and phone numbers, and sometimes addresses, although they look like they're for the recruitment agencies instead of the actual companies looking for work.

Both my parents have looked at my CV, as well as one of dad's friends (also an engineer), and they were quite encouraging, but I went to the careers service last year and the most positive thing they had to say about it was "well, you've got the bare bones there..."

I guess that's true. I don't think any of my friends on my course have relevant experience - most of them are either working in shops or cafes.

Does orchestra count as a club? I've been second violin in the university orchestra for a year now - we're off to play concerts in Ireland next week! To be honest, the workload for the course I'm on is so high that I'm not sure how much extra I can do and still be able to cope. There are roles like president and treasurer in the orchestra, though, which I could try applying for in later years when I have more experience there. That's very cool it helped you get your first graduate job! What clubs were you in, if you don't mind my asking?

I was actually looking for CAD jobs from the Easter holidays, but I did leave looking for other work a bit late, you're right. Unfortunately, the exams right before the break makes it difficult to job-hunt and revise at the same time, and I was away on holiday until three days before I moved here, which didn't help. I'm going to be in a similar situation next year - my parents are very keen for me to come on holiday with them again, seeing as it's the last family holiday we'll get before my sister goes on her gap year. So that means there's only going to be about a month and a half in which I can actually work, because the break doesn't start until some time in May and the holiday would start in mid-July, and almost as soon as the holiday ends I'm very keen to go on a German course that's running for three weeks in Germany. So between mid-July and the end of August I wouldn't be able to work at all, and after the end of August there's only about two weeks until the start of third year. The German course is important to be because I've still got a probably crazy ambition to work for either Volkswagen, Audi or Mercedes when I graduate, but the holiday is obviously very important to my parents...I don't really know what to do.

That's a thought - I'd have to see what next year's workload is like, but we usually get one afternoon off a week, sometimes more, so I might be able to fit it in. It would be good to have something on my CV that lasted longer than two months!

That's a good idea, there's a library quite close to both where I live at home and where I live here.

That's great you managed to find a job in the end.

Thanks again!