Advice for New Grads

Every year, a few friends will approach me asking for advice for their child who recently graduated from college and cannot find a job. With the current state of our economy, the number of such inquiries continues to grow. No matter how great or depressing the market is in a particular year, my guidelines pretty much remain the same. Even though some folks maintain I am boring and inflexible about just about every topic, the basic rules of job hunting never change, just the technology used to execute them. These suggestions will be offered in no particular order and your recent grad may select the ones most suited to their needs.

One strong recommendation needs to be voiced before moving on and some of you may not like this but here it is anyway! The majority of the search for a first job out of college must be done by the candidate, not their parents!!!! Certainly, we all should feel obligated to advise and steer but we must all let our children learn the lay of the land immediately to strengthen for the future. Use self restraint when they try to get you to do their work for the. To any recent grads reading this: I am not being harsh, rather I am a realist and you need to dig down and get involved now!

1. If you have not already done so, contact your college's Career Services office and ask them for any guidance and recommendations on places to search. While they are not obligated to find you a job, they should be able to support your efforts.


2. Contact everyone you know at home and from school and make sure they are aware you are out there job hunting. This includes former school teachers, professors, long time neighbors, members of the clergy, former scout leaders or coaches, etc.


3. Personalize your resume so that you stand out from all the other entry level candidates vying for the same very limited pool of jobs.


4. Be extremely open minded about the types of positions you will consider applying for. No job is too menial for someone trying to start at the bottom.


5. Realize early on in your search that the pay rate, work schedule, and title might not be what your college admissions assured you would be available four or five years back. Even in better times, this was not always the case.


6. Strongly consider aggressively searching even during the long and hot summer. Many folks wait until September to begin locking around and, before you know it, December is approaching and hiring budgets dry up until April.

Have fun searching for a job. Be as creative as you wish and look for ways to challenge yourself each and every day!

Entry Level Work

Quite often, a graduate of a local college or trade school will call me looking for their first job. Typically, I explain that most employers come to fee paid recruiters looking for people with some level of work history in their desired field of work. As a former Director of Career Services, I know that most institutions maintain records of employers who have hired their graduates in the past, usually for about five years or so. There is no reason why a past graduate should not approach the proper person at the school they graduate from and ask to see a copy of that list. Naturally, they can not guarantee that everyone on that list will be interested in hiring but they are places who are familiar with the background of typical graduates of that particular school. To me, that is eliminating the first part of the cold call because the candidate will likely not need to go into great detail talking about the program they were part of as the employer should have a general idea. From personal experience, only a small percentage of graduates actually take advantage of the resources their Career Services office has available to them!

Message to Recent College Grads

Did you graduate college last spring and still are not working? Have you focused on finding that perfect dream job and found interviews are nearly impossible to obtain? Are your parents getting on your case to find something, anything at all? If so, you are definitely not alone!

When I worked for a trade school, we classified jobs as directly related to your training, closely related, somewhat relate, unrelated. The current economy makes the first option is a real challenge but the second and third might be reachable.

Let us assume for a minute that you have a degree in Elementary Education. If you happen to live in NJ, a man they are touting as one of the greatest governors of all time, took away your chance of a directly related job this year. Closely related is still a possibility as I see postings all the time from learning centers, such as Sylvan and smaller privately owned groups, looking for qualified teachers to teach basic skills, SAT prep, etc. Certainly, this is not an awful alternative. Somewhat related jobs would include working in a before or after care program providing homework assistance or getting a job in a religious school teaching youngsters. At the minimum, the alternative jobs put some money in your pocket and give you something for your resume.

This process applies to any educational path you have just completed. Contact me if you want some ideas and directions!