Almost two-thirds of graduates say they had a bad experience when applying for their first job, according to research.
Research by GTI Specialist Publishers shows that more than 65% of graduate jobseekers said they had been upset about the way they were treated by potential employers and shocked at poor graduate recruitment practices.
Their complaints included failure to respond to applications or provide feedback following interviews.
Nearly half of the respondents (44%) claimed that employers had either not bothered to reply to their applications or had taken weeks or months to respond.
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In addition, 31% were unimpressed by the impersonal way they were communicated with, often with generic e-mail that referred to them as a candidate.
Most worryingly, a small number of students claimed they had even been victims of blatant race or sex discrimination.
Some had had to endure interviews where they felt intimidated or largely ignored. One student claimed that the interviewer had yawned all the way through an interview.
