OK, you’ve worked hard and gotten through four years of a challenging college education. You’ve heard rumors of a competitive job market, and you want to know how to maximize your chances of landing that sweet job right out of college, so that you can put that four years of learning to good use and start paying off those ugly student loans. But how to do it? That is the question.
Believe it or not, the process of landing that first job starts well before you walk the stage and get handed that fancy piece of paper. In fact, it starts as soon as you begin your college degree. That is because the single most important predictor of employability upon graduation is grades in college, although other factors include the number of job opportunities in your field and your alma mater. The second best predictor of employability upon graduation is experience in the field. That means that the sooner you get your feet wet in the industry, the better chance you have of finding a job upon graduation. So then the question becomes, how do you get your feet wet in a given industry?
A good place to start is your school’s Career Development office. (It may have a different name at your school, and it may be a part of your “college-within-a-college”, such as the Jones College of Engineering, rather than in a centralized office.) The main function of the Career Development office is to help graduating students find jobs. They also are supposed to help undergraduates find summer internships, externships and volunteer positions. So instead of relaxing on the beach all summer, your mission, if you are serious about landing a competitive position right upon graduation, is to find a summer internship in your field, and work there, in a paid or volunteer capacity. Keep your internship goals realistic. Certain job descriptions require specific academic credentials, so if you don’t have them yet, it is probably not worth your time to apply for such a position. However, it may be worth it to start working on attaining qualifications that you identify on several job postings relevant to your industry. Also, don’t over-state your intentions for the job; if you are applying for a summer-only position, don’t fill out applications for full-time, permanent positions. If you get hired, later on when you depart you will burn your bridges with that employer.
Another good resource besides your school’s Career Development office is connections through your family, friends, or professors with whom you have rapport. Certainly the easiest door in to an industry is family connections; if you have them, use them to full advantage!
If you’ve hit dead ends so far, try internet job posting sites such as monster.com. Focus on jobs in your industry that are labeled as “intern” positions, or have a statement of “No experience required” attached to the posting. This is usually done by companies who want to save some pennies by hiring newbies and then providing the training themselves. A caveat is that if you get hired by such an operation and things don’t seem to be quite right, such as a company that seems to cut corners on safety, is engaged in sketchy business practices, or doesn’t seem to want to do the correct paperwork for their employees, run away as fast as you can!
If you have tried all of the above and have struck out, temporarily surrender your expectation of getting a paid position, and focus on attaining a volunteer position. People like free stuff, and companies are no exception. There are still two reasons why a company may not want to hire you even if you come at no cost: they think you will gunk up the works, or they are concerned that you will expose them to legal liability. If your desired career/position is one that involves high stakes, such as in the field of law or engineering, if you do get hired as a volunteer, you will not be doing anything super significant for quite some time. So does that mean volunteering is a waste of time? Absolutely not. For one thing, it looks good on your resume or curriculum vitae (CV). Secondly, you can look at your volunteer position as an opportunity to shine. The surest way to turn your volunteer position into a paid position is to make yourself indispensable. Offer to do the jobs that no one else wants, do them with a cheerful and upbeat attitude, and work as hard as you possibly can at them. Initially, you should expect to do the least desirable and/or the most brainless jobs. But if you do a great job with those assignments and have a good attitude, you will be given a little more responsibility, often with greater challenges involved. Each assignment that you complete with great attention to detail and on schedule will give your boss more confidence in giving you more important assignments. You begin to transition from being totally expendable to being a highly valued member of the team. What often happens in such cases is that after you complete your volunteer internship, the company has become so dependant on you and your contributions that they offer you a paid position. Voila, you have turned “nothing” into something.
Another matter to consider is your resume. The standard format is one page and should only exceed that in rare instances, such as where substantial job experience is relevant to a particular position. Rather than following a chronological order, instead, order by relevance and weight. If you were a CEO before you ended up in a lower position, list your CEO title first. Most companies scan resumes electronically before they are ever seen by a real person, and they are likely to look for buzzwords relevant to the position. For example, if the job is in biotech and involves recombinant DNA technology, they will be looking for those keywords on your resume. Words like led, initiated, coordinated, participated, founded, and the like are better than a bunch of words quoted from your last job descriptions. Focus on specific accomplishments from your previous assignments, like “increased department sales by 25%.”
Finally, be ready to sell yourself. Put your face in front of decision makers, not paper pushers. Focus on their goals, not your goals. Their goal is usually to make a profit. Tell the decision maker how you will positively impact his goals. “I will be the greatest revenue driver in the company.” Be ready to demonstrate what you’ve completed or accomplished already as evidence that you are up to the task.
If you have tried all of the above and haven’t hit pay dirt, consider a job as a consultant. All you need to do is figure out what you know how to do, get some business cards made up at the local copy shop, get some fliers made up advertising your services, and post them at strategic locations, such as coffee shops, bookstores and/or wherever you think your customers will be. Before you know it, your phone may well be ringing off the hook with business. Finally, if nothing at all pans out, it may be time to reset your goals and aspirations to something more realistic or consider going back to school for additional training, credentials, or certificates. Just remember, you create your own luck in the job search. Happy hunting from Logos Tutoring!