New here? Don't forget you can buy the book at Amazon. Thanks - Tanya x

Dude has a Facebook fanclub!

Click here to join

Need help deciding what to do with your life?

Like watching TV?

Thought so.

Then you’ll love CareerPlayer.com as much as Dude? does.

Founder Rob Westcott knows job-seeking graduates are far too busy (!) to wade through long-winded careers articles online. Which is why he’s done all the hard work for you, filming hours of footage with successful people from all walks of life - and then snippety-snipping them into short films, to bring you just the very best bits of what they had to say.

Simply pick an industry you might be interested in (like Advertising and PR, Banking and Investment, or Travel, Leisure and Hospitality) and play the ‘Overview’ vid. If you like what you see, click through to more in-depth videos. Bored to tears? Then pick again.

To check out CareerPlayer.com, click here

Looks like Dude has ruffled a few feathers - after taking part in an article for the Guardian in which I suggested that (most but not all) university careers advice centres are more than a teensy bit out of touch with the students they need to reach…

Read the offending article here

I should add that I’m not condemning uni careers services across the board - I have good friends at The Careers Group (part of the University of London), as well as at Liverpool and Reading Unis.

However, having written Dude? and in my ongoing role as ‘graduate expert’ on guardianjobs.co.uk, I have to say that the message from you lot - the baffled graduates - is coming through loud and clear: on the whole, university careers advice is simply not working.

Time and time again, you tell me that your careers centre was boring, uninspiring, overwhelming, depressing - or all of the above.

This summer, Dude is spearheading a campaign for a radical overhaul in the way careers advice is packaged for today’s students.

Want to join the fight for better careers services? Get in touch here to have your say.

Dude continues to hobnob the glitterati of the careers scene, now befriending the delightful (and delightfully named) Anita Peach, Editor of the ever-fabulous GradJobs.co.uk magazine.

With my permission (Anita is a well-brough-up young lady) she snipped an excerpt from Dude’s pages to spread the love to her 63,000 readers.

How does it look? See the excerpt here

Greetings!

You find Dude fresh from my latest careers event - ‘Skills4Work Media’, held at University College London, in Euston.

Joining me on the panel was BBC film-maker Paul Williams, as well as Carlotta Brentan from advertising supermos Saatchi and Saatchi and Meera Thakkar from PR gurus Burston-Marsteller.

The organisers had some concerns that the audience of 50 students (from first to final year) might be shy about asking us questions at the end - but happily our audience rose to the challenge of firing some corkers at us before we could leave.

I was visibly pleased at this. As I told them, if you don’t like the sound of your own voice, you might want to re-think going into media!

Still desperate and jobless, as we head into February?

Yup - thought so!

Which is why Dude has been busy spreading the love to job-hunting graduates - in another new feature for guardianjobs.co.uk

Crammed with genius new ideas and never-read-before advice from recruitment gurus (and now Dude’s good mates) Dan Hawes at the Graduate Recruitment Bureau and Charlie Boss at Freshminds Talent, the full article can be read here.

Dude is chuffed to bits - I’ve been given the best gig in town!

For the last two months I’ve been featured as the Guardian’s resident graduate expert on their online forum, fielding job queries from Guardian-reading grads seeking advice about their next move.

The best bit is that we’ve covered the stuff that graduates REALLY want to know - the real gems that no-one else tells you, not just the usual ‘How to write the perfect CV’ stuff (Zzzzzz).

For example, how can you camouflage a dodgy 2:2? Or how to convince a recruiter you’re super-committed, when your skinny CV suggests otherwise? If we’re heading for recession, should you grab any job you can get - or can you afford to shop around? Can you still get away with going travelling - or in this economic climate, does it look a bit (ahem) slack? And is there ANY way around having to do long stretches of unpaid work experience to get into competitive industries like media?

To post your question, click here

Hurrah - I’m not talking to myself - you people ARE out there!

The first question from the floor comes from Sophie…

“I graduated last year and have since been working as a trainee on a national newspaper sub-editing scheme – but due to a reduced budget they have so far been unable to offer me a full-time job. I have started writing freelance commissions on the side (also for national newspapers). I love writing and now want to make the freelance thing work full-time. I see you write regularly for four great publications – how does one go about getting known and getting more than one article commissioned every few weeks? Just from constantly pitching ideas? I’m finding this uncertainty and daily checking of my inbox, attempting to send pitches and not hearing anything a rather disheartening existence and would really appreciate some advice! Thanks - Sophie”

Thanks for your question - actually even though it’s a journalism one, my answer should actually be useful for anyone looking to get into media…

Click here for my full response.

It’s a special day indeed when Dude meets another passion-packed soul bringing a fresh approach to graduate careers - someone like 30-year-old, basketball-playing powerhouse, Oxford graduate and boss of Rare Recruitment, Raphael Mokades.

Through sheer hard graft, the big man and his crack squad of able assistants have built a bonzer business that specialises in teaching ‘the rules of the game’ to graduate job-seekers from ethnic minority backgrounds - grads who might not otherwise be feeling the love for - or from - the corporate world.

Rare now works with some of the most switched-on, forward-thinking companies out there (L’Oreal, KPMG, the Guardian…) to transform the face of traditional graduate recruitment into something a bit less pasty and a bit more beige.

Such a ma-moosive fan of Raph’s work am I, that I convinced him to be interviewed for this profile for the Guardian.

Although showing fear is not in Raph’s repertoire, I sensed he was a little anxious initially. But then his friends told me he always talks that fast. Anyways, now he is happy.

For more information about Rare Recruitment you can click here.

Can you feel it?

Oh yes, that’s right, Dude is feeling a whole lot of love from the Guardian right now. As well as giving me an almost embarrassingly kind book review and regular monthly graduate feature, my new BFFs there have now invited me to host their ‘Ask the Expert’ page on their new graduate careers forum.

Like me, the Guardian’s team is almost freakishly committed to reaching baffled graduates nationwide - to help you in your search for a brighter tomorrow. Together, we WILL make graduates smile!

Swing by the forum now