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📩 What actually gets an application rejected
Hey
Most rejection emails say the same thing:
"We had a high volume of applications." "We wish you the best in your future endeavours."
They do not say much beyond the rejection.
Mark Dubes has sat on the other side of that process. As a former graduate recruiter at Mayer Brown who has interviewed over 10,000 candidates, he knows exactly what gets an application rejected.
On 29 May at 12:00, he's joining us to go through it. He’ll go over what firms are actually looking for when they read an application, where most candidates lose points without realising, and what the difference looks like between an application that gets through and one that doesn't.
If getting a training contract is on your to do list this upcoming application cycle, this is the session to attend.
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Plant closures in Europe’s chemical industry are accelerating, with two of Netherlands’ chemical plants shutting down in the past year, forming part of a wider trend of European plant closures. These closures have resulted in the loss of 20,000 jobs, and have also included a fall of over 80% in industry investment.
The European chemical industry faces numerous pressures: energy costs that are at least double those of the US/China, a weak demand, and a competing Chinese oversupply. The UK is particularly hit hard by this downfall in chemical production, with chemical output down 60% since 2021 and very few nationwide facilities.
Analysis
Chemicals underpin nearly every production process. Pharmaceuticals, electronics, agriculture, etc. They all rely on chemical inputs. Losing domestic production means supply vulnerabilities for those adjacent industries that then have to import chemicals at a higher cost or relocate their operations to regions where chemicals are still available.
What makes the issue of plant closure even worse is that chemical plants are often built through interconnected networks. This means one facility’s waste can be used as another facility’s input/raw material. What that means is if any of the plants which formed part of the network were shut down then that eliminated critical inputs for neighbouring plants, compelling those plants to shut down too.
What does this mean for the European chemical industry?
Chemical plant closures threaten entire manufacturing supply chains as companies lose affordable inputs, pushing them to consider industrial relocation to the US or Asia
Interconnected chemical plants face prospects of a domino-like collapse as individual shutdowns threaten entire networks of chemical plants
The EU’s stricter climate policy like carbon pricing makes it even harder for chemical plants to stay afloat, further rendering European chemical production uncompetitive
How to Use This In Applications
17 May 1536 — George Boleyn, brother of Anne Boleyn and alleged lover, and her four other alleged sexual partners were executed.
18 May 1812 — John Bellingham was found guilty and sentenced to death for the assassination of the British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval.
19 May 1536 — Anne Boleyn is beheaded in London, three years after the law was changed and a church was formed so that King Henry VIII could marry her.
20 May 1993 — Britain ratified the Maastricht Treaty, which allowed for greater cooperation between members of the European Union.
21 May 1840 — William Hobson, Lieutenant-Governor proclaimed British sovereignty over all of New Zealand.
22 May 1840 — Britain ended the practice of sending convicts to the penal colony of Australia.
23 May 1533 — In an attempt that annoyed the Pope, the English Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon to be void and his marriage to Anne Boleyn, to be legal. The result was a break with the church in Rome despite Henry’s title as ‘Protector of the Faith’.
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