College Grads: Wake Up and Find a Job
It’s been a great four or five years, hasn’t it?
You’ve worked pretty hard. You’ve also played hard. Well, the party’s over, graduates. If you’re hoping to land a gig in what is unquestionably one of the worst job markets in decades, there are a few things you can do to give yourself a better chance.
Maybe you’ve heard it before, but it is true: you’ve got to treat your job search like a job. You must be focused and organized. Every day you’ve got to spend hours – many, many hours – working at it. There’s no one secret to landing that first job (except, of course, knowing someone who can hook you up), so you’ll want to make sure you have the following avenues covered:
Related Articles
Related Media:
• Online Search
• Social Media
• Career Services
• Professional Organizations
Let’s take a look at each one.
Online Search
There are plenty of online job boards. You’ve probably heard of Careerbuilder.com and Monster.com (Stock Quote: MWW ). There’s also Indeed.com, which aggregates job postings, and Craigslist.org.
Other specialized sites post jobs within particular industries: Dice.com is for tech jobs while Idealist.org is for anyone looking to work for a non-profit.
(For more, check out this recent MainStreet article on industry-specific job sites.)
It’s important that you’re on these sites and applying for jobs every day. And this goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: make sure your cover letter and resume are simple, clear and free of any typos. But don’t take our word for it.
“Don’t use any funky formatting or graphics,” says Maria Stein, director of career services at Northeastern University. “Know key words in your chosen field. Also, make sure that your skills and strengths are targeting the fields that you want to target.”
