Anyone who has watched Top Gun will have dreamed about life as a pilot. So we went in search of one to find out what it's really like. 

Meet Jamie Sharp, a commercial pilot with one of the UK's top Airlines.

If you love travelling and want a job with a structured career path and good pay - it might be worth adding to your list of possible graduate job options.

Click the image below to watch the video on CareerPlayer...  

Apparently no one does...

There are 2 things you need to know about Carl Gilleard. The first is that he's head of the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) which makes him a walking oracle on the graduate market. The second is that he's an uber golf enthusiast. So to tempt him away from the office we invited him to indulge in both his passions...

The result is this video which is the first in a regular series of films offering a unique insight into how things look in the graduate market each quarter. In it Carl reveals his advice for graduates, his views on the key issues facing employers and his predictions for 2010.

But most importantly, remember readers...drive for show, putt for dough!

We're never quite sure what to do with the amazing graduate career videos we shoot which become rather abruptly historic! Last year Lehman's dissapeared after we filmed with them and this year Renault F1 has gone through quite an upheaval shortly after we filmed Pat Symonds. I hope there's not a trend here...

Given all of the content is still relevant (and probably more entertaining in retrospect), we've decided that the blog is the natural home for our cutting room floor. So here' a short exerpt from Pat Symonds the 'ex' technical lead of Renaul F1 who gave us some insights into graduate jobs in engineering and motorsport.

For those of you struggling to decide which career path would be best...!!

Want a slightly more sensible look at the two industries? Watch our industry overview videos for:

Graduate Jobs in Banking and Investment

Graduate Jobs in Consulting

This is the first in a series of guest blogs by our über intern Natasha who has spent the summer with CareerPlayer

07.30 AM: Bran flakes, coffee and Facebook.

If anyone assesses my Facebook page they will establish that it is a place where my friends, family, past and present can connect to me at any time of the day. However, it's not only friends and family that we can establish constructive connections with via online networking. 

After five weeks at CareerPlayer I have realized that there are a myriad of tools that students can use to find graduate jobs. There is one tool in particular that I feel compelled to bring to your attention. Social networks! Social networks are excellent for facilitating the search for a graduate placement. “Identify what your goals are and surround yourself with the people you need to help you achieve them.” This is easier than ever before!

Twitter is my top recommendation for connecting with graduate employers. Twitter is a brilliant tool for you to broadcast what you want out of your graduate career. However, that alone is not enough. You must make sure that the right people are listening! By ‘following’ the leaders in your target industry you can grab the attention of your future employers. It is a fantastic opportunity for you to gain answers to your questions. In addition, you gain an invaluable insight into the finest minds in the business! You can find out what they watch, read and even eat! This increases the ease of understanding the people and the mechanics of the industry you intend to work in. Through maximizing your knowledge, you maximize the chances of you landing your dream graduate job! Twitter may also help prevent you making any fatal graduate career mistakes. Linking with potential employers and colleagues will enable you to paint a picture of the personality of a company. Don’t like what you see? Then you can immediately eliminate them as a target employer. Therefore, saving time in applying for a graduate position in a company you will loathe working for. 

LinkedIn is a network that is fantastic for connecting with business professionals. LinkedIn is similar to most social networks in the sense that you can exchange messages with industry experts. However, there is the additional opportunity to read their CV’s. This will help you better establish how people achieved their current positions.    

And of course we cannot forget our beloved Facebook! Loads of graduate employers are starting to create pages on Facebook so it's easier than ever before to interact with companies you're interested in...just be careful your profile reflects the kind of image you'd want then to see. You want catch their attention for the right reasons...

Graduate job hunting is certainly no walk in the park! Let the friends in your network know what you're looking for and allow them to support you online via posting valuable newspaper articles, videos and links. “I saw this and thought of you” could now enable you to nail your first graduate job!

For further information, keep your eyes peeled for the CareerPlayer video on social networking coming soon...

We love psychometric tests. Not the rubbish ones you take at school which set you up for a career in fish hatchery management. And not the ridiculous ones you get in magazines. But proper, validated and relevant tests which really help act as a weather vein - narrowing down your career options and setting you off in the right direction.

We're currently finishing-up our own fully validated psychometrics zone on CareerPlayer, which will offer something completely new to the market. It's v. exciting and we can't wait to get it up and running.

In the meantime - here's a great concept for anyone interested in graduate jobs or careers in the creative industries. During our filming in these sectors one thing that became clear was that a really key skill was left brain / right brain thinking. And it turns out this isn't just a hypothesis - it has a proper name and it's called diagonal thinking.

Diagonal thinking is the ability of successful people in advertising and marketing communications to think outstandingly well in both linear/inductive and lateral/creative ways. In 2003 the IPA set out to establish whether the most successful people in the industry had this trait and after testing 5 discipline cohorts concluded that there was indeed a strong statistical link. To find our more about the research visit the IPA site.

So. What are the top brains in commercial creativity like? According to the IPA "They're innovative, can explain concepts in both rational and emotional terms, have a broad range of interests and a passion for execution. They can be highly logical, but link ideas hitherto seen as remote from each other; they want to do work that is creative, but also for it to have a practical impact." Is that you reader? Why not take the test and find out...

If you want to get a better feel for what the creative industries are like check out our films on:

Graduate Jobs in Advertising

Graduate Jobs in Marketing

Graduate Jobs in Media Planning

Or if you just want to know your perfect celeb hairstyle - here you go!

Are you someone who's always had a 'calling'? If yes, thanks for your time your eyeballs are no longer required!

If on the other hand you don't have a scoobie on how to find the graduate job for you - then we have a treat in store.

Tanya de Grunwald is our new best friend and her book Dude, Where's My Career? is the best careers advice book we've ever read. Big claim but honestly if you're struggling to figure out what to do you HAVE to read it. This isn't your typical dry and boring career guide but one that comes from Tanya's personal experience. It's a real 'by the people, for the people, of the people' account making it light years more practical and entertaining than anything else you'll find in your career library.

We particularly like the section that helps you figure out what kind of job hunter you are. For the record...we're definitely 'Squirrels'!

Check-out her blog or read reviews and get your hands on a copy of Dude.

There are more graduate career fairs than you can shake a stick at this month. If you're still looking for a graduate job take a look at our event listings - you won't find a more comprehensive guide online.

Never been to a graduate career fair before? Take a look at our video for some tips and advice.

I recently read a brilliant book called The Black Swan and in it the author talks about some career advice he got at business school. He was told to do something scalable. This meant pick a career whereby the same amount of work could have vastly different results, like writing a book. It takes the same amount of time and effort to write a book that sells a million copies as it does to sell 1. By pursuing scalable careers you are therefore open to a situation in which the rewards for your work can be massive without actually having to work 'harder'. Financial trading is another example. Make a trade and the same effort has gone into it whether or not you make a million or nothing at all. This is all in contrast to more predictable careers whereby you're paid by the hour. A dentist for example, or a lawyer. As you're paid by the hour you can only earn more by working harder and/or for longer and given there are only 24hrs in a day there is a pretty set limit to the rewards you can achieve.

This strikes me as a pretty useful way to think about different graduate jobs. Especially as those that are suscepitible to scalability and those that aren't have other distinctions worth noting. One of the big things that the author observes is that scalable careers tend to be populated my giants and minnows. For every best selling author there are thousands of unknown writers. And unfortunately he makes a very persuasive argument that it's more likely to be luck than talent that separates the two. Non scalable careers on the other hand tend to be more middle of the road, with outcomes slightly less impacted by random events. 

So what kind of job would you want? One where your hard work could reap huge rewards or none. Or one in which you plod along doing very nicely thanks?

The author recommends sticking to non scalable careers. You can earn a healthy living (not many dentists on the poverty line) and your life and success is much more predictable. A quick survey of the CareerPlayer team has us in the scalable camp. Sure you might end up a small impoverished minnow but the excitement, the possibility of beating the odds and becoming a giant...we couldn't concentrate without it.