Job Search Guide for College Graduates

After college graduation the next logical step for any graduate is a job search. This can be easier said than done and just because you have a degree, a job is not a guaranteed lock. In order to find the job of your dreams, you have to willing to work for it.

Granted, you do have an instant advantage in your job search as a college graduate because you will have that degree as a feather in your cap. However, you will lack the experience that others who have been in the field for some time now already possess. So, in order to stand out from the rest of the crowd, you have to have something that very few people have; fortitude. Here is how you can ensure that your post college graduate job search goes well:

•    Get Your Resume Ready: Your resume will be the single most important tool in your post college graduate job search tool box. Make sure that your resume really shines so that it will help you stand out from the many other recent college graduate applicants who may be gunning for the exact same job as you. If you are not confident enough to write your own resume, consider either hiring a resume writing service or a personal resume writer. Just be sure your resume is as close to perfect as possible.
•    Use Your Resources: A definite step to take when you are looking for a job after you graduate from college is to utilize all of your current resources. Who do you know in your personal life who may be able to help you obtain a great paying job? While the most obvious choice is looking to your parents and friends, don’t overlook your college professors. If you clicked with one or more of them, they may be able to provide you with some valuable job leads as well as a glowing letter of recommendation.
•    Get Online: You should also take advantage of the many places online that will allow you to post your resume and create a profile for yourself. Places such as Moster.com and HotJobs.com can help you easily and effectively spread the word about your job search.
•    Hit the Streets: Nothing beats good old fashioned hustle when you are searching for a job after college. Start by printing off about 20 resumes and then dress to impress. Once you have everything ready, hit the streets and work on getting your name out there. This is accomplished by you actually going to various places that you would like to work and personally handing them a resume. Face to face impressions are great and can sometimes help you secure a wonderful job.

Once you graduate college, take a well earned day or two for yourself. Then, get right back to work as the only way to ensure your future with a great job, is by working hard. Just as you worked hard to earn your degree, you will have to work equally as hard with your college graduate job search to ensure the job of your dreams.

How to Interview with Ease

Anyone who has ever had to interview for a job has no doubt experienced the pre-interview jitters, but there are many things that you can do to ensure you can always interview with ease. Interviewing is an art from all in itself, but if you are well prepared ahead of time, you can easily become a master of the interviewing art.

Here is how you can make certain that you will always be able to interview with ease:

•    Learn About the Company: You can tip the scales in your favor tremendously if you learn a little bit about the company you are going to interview with. This is as easy as doing a little research online. Learn things such as the history of the company, how much business the company brings in, what the company typically pays its employees, and more all with a few quick minutes online. Then, memorize the important stuff and bring it out in the interview. This will help you look more prepared and always leave you with something to talk about.
•    Prepare for the Typical Questions: Be prepared for all the typical questions that interviewers ask. “Tell me about yourself.” Why should I hire you?” How much do you expect to make?” “What are your strengths?” “What are your weaknesses?” By being prepared ahead of time with the answers to such typical questions, you can avoid the job killing umms and uhhs that come out of an unprepared mouth.
•    Practice the Interview: As with anything else in life, practice makes perfect. Before you go to the real interview, you should practice with yourself in the mirror over and over again. Write down a list of questions and then ask yourself the questions. As you answer, pay close attention as to how smoothly you answer them. You can also have a friend or family member conduct a practice interview with you. This should be repeated until you no longer stumble to find the words you are looking for and when your confidence is peaking.
•    Arrive Early: Arriving for an interview a few minutes early accomplishes two different things. The first thing it accomplishes is you look eager and professional to the person who is interviewing you. But, more importantly, when you arrive a few minutes early, you allow yourself a few minutes to gain your composure and get your thoughts together. Take that few minutes and breathe deep, calming yourself before you enter the interviewer’s office. Then go at them with a clear and confident mind.

While a lot of the hard work in job hunting is actually trying to get an interview, you have to be sure that you nail any and all interviews that you do line up. While you may never be able to totally kill all the butterflies in your stomach, if you do your homework and prepare ahead of your interview, you will be able to go in with a remarkable amount of confidence which will surely show and your interview should be one of ease.

 

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How to Make a Good Impression on Your First Day of Work

The impression that you make on your first day of work can make or break your entire existence with the company that you are going to work for. Therefore, it is vital that you make a good impression on your first day of employment so that you start your career off on the right foot.

You will only get one shot at your first impression, so make the most of it. Here are some easy ways for you to make sure that your first impression on your first day is first class:

•    Arrive Early: Arriving a few minutes early to work is always a good idea, but it is pivotal on your first day. You should show up about 20 minutes early so that you have time to settle in. This will give your new employer time to introduce you around, show you were you will be working and other things of that nature. If you show up right on time, then you start your career with the company off by having them pay for your settling in, which will not make for a good impression.
•    Dress to Impress: It is far better to be overdressed than it is to be underdressed. While you should have an idea of how you need to dress before you go to work with a company, if you don’t, be sure you’re dressing in an impressive fashion. No matter how you dress, be it in uniform or a suit, make sure there are no stains, wrinkles, and /or odors anywhere on your clothes.
•    Be Quiet: On your first day of employment, you should only be worried about getting acclimated with your new company. While you may be a person who likes to chat a lot, you will have plenty of time for small talk as your employment moves forward. On your first day, make sure you are focusing on listening rather than talking and if you do talk, you should only be asking questions related to your job.
•    Watch Your Body Language: While you may feel a bit nervous and maybe even a little intimidated on your first day of work, part of making a good impression is not showing your uneasiness. That means you need to pay special attention to your body language. Be sure to look people in the eyes when they are talking to you and also be sure to flash a lot of smiles. Avoid looking down, putting your hands in your pockets, or folding your arms. You want to leave all your new co-workers with the impression that you are approachable and not standoffish.

Remember, you only get one first impression. That means that you have to make that first day, first impression one that will leave positive lasting memories. Making a good impression on your first day of work will go a long way to helping you fit in with your co-workers and ensure that the time you spend with the company, will be time well spent.

 

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26% of Managers Admit They Weren’t Qualified When Promoted

Being a leader at an organization is a great step forward in workers’ careers, but many admit the title comes with challenges. More than one-quarter (26 percent) of managers said they weren’t ready to become a leader when they started managing others. Fifty-eight percent said they didn’t receive any management training. The nationwide survey by Careerbuilder was conducted among more than 2,480 U.S. employers and 3,910 U.S. workers between November 15 and December 2, 2010.

When asked what the biggest challenge is as a manager, workers in a management position said the following:

• Dealing with issues between co-workers on my team – 25 percent
• Motivating team members – 22 percent
• Performance reviews – 15 percent
• Finding the resources needed to support the team – 15 percent
• Creating career paths for my team – 12 percent

“Good management skills can positively impact productivity, performance and overall employee morale,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “We see more companies investing in management training programs to develop today’s and tomorrow’s leaders.”

When it comes to rating their direct supervisor, the majority of workers (59 percent) felt their boss was doing a good or even great job. Twenty percent described their direct supervisor’s performance as poor or very poor. The top concerns workers have with their boss include:

• Plays favorites – 23 percent
• Doesn’t follow through on what he/she promises – 21 percent
• Doesn’t listen to concerns – 21 percent
• Doesn’t provide regular feedback – 20 percent
• Doesn’t motivate me – 17 percent
• Only provides negative feedback – 14 percent

When it comes to rating the performance of their corporate leaders, 50 percent felt their leadership teams were doing a good or great job while 23 percent described their performance as poor or very poor. Corporate leaders received a poor rating from workers primarily due to insufficient communication, unrealistic workloads, and a lack or training and employee development:

• Doesn’t make an effort to listen to employees or address employee morale – 40 percent
• Not enough transparency, doesn’t communicate openly and honestly – 33 percent
• Major changes are made without warning – 30 percent
• Workloads and productivity demands are unreasonable – 27 percent
• Doesn’t motivate me – 21 percent
• Stopped investing in the development of employees – 20 percent

Monthly Layoffs 41,528 in March: Lowest Since 1995

While government-sector job cuts rose to their highest level in 12 months, the pace of downsizing declined in March as employers announced plans to reduce payrolls by 41,528 jobs during the month, down 18 percent from 50,702 job cuts announced in February.

The report on March job-cut announcements released Wednesday by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. revealed that March job cuts were down 39 percent from a year ago, when employers announced 67,611 job cuts. 

Overall, employers have announced 130,749 job cuts through the first quarter, 28 percent fewer than the 181,183 planned layoffs announced in the same period of 2010.  The three-month tally is, in fact, the lowest first-quarter total since 1995, when employers announced 97,716 job cuts from January through March. 

Once again, the public sector dominated monthly job cuts, accounting for 19,099 or 46 percent of all March layoffs.  The 19,099 planned job cuts announced by government and non-profit organizations increased 17 percent from 16,380 in February.  It is the highest monthly total for this sector since March 2010, when it reached 50,604. 

If there is any silver lining in the government layoff figures, it is that they are down significantly from a year ago.  The March figure is 62 percent lower than a year earlier and the 41,929 job cuts in the sector through the first three months of the year is 33 percent lower than the 62,700 government layoffs announced in the first quarter of 2010.

“Despite the decline from last year, it is difficult to be optimistic about the outlook for government workers.  Most cities and states have only just begun to address their massive budget deficits and we have yet to see how budget cutbacks are going to impact workers at the federal level,” said Rick Cobb, executive vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

“The good news is that other areas of the economy appear to have stabilized in terms of downsizing activity.  The sectors that had the heaviest job losses at this point a year ago have seen significantly fewer layoffs,” said Cobb.

Job cuts in the pharmaceutical industry have fallen 87 percent from 26,165 job cuts a year ago to 3,385 this year.  Automotive job cuts, which totaled 7,728 at this point last year, are down 53 percent to 3,668.  Job cuts in the telecommunications sector are down 69 percent from 14,795 to 4,552.

“The hope is that a few months of even slightly stronger hiring in the private sector will tip the scales toward accelerated job creation.  Employers are watching the labor market closely and if it starts to look like the talent pool is getting shallower, then they could be compelled to increase the rate of hiring,” said Cobb.

Five Common Cell Phone Text Messaging Campaign Mistakes

Employers and consumer marketers are increasingly adding targeted cell phone text messaging (SMS) campaigns into their marketing campaigns, especially when they’re trying to reach college students, recent graduates, and young adults.

“The first place I would go is to the Mobile Marketing Association’s Consumer Best Practices document to learn the dos and don’ts of SMS marketing,” Jeff Hasen, chief marketing officer of Hipcricket told Mobile Marketer. “Second, I would read up on successful and not-so-successful programs … to understand what others have done. Third, I would seek out trusted providers. Remember, choosing purely on price will likely lead you to the guys in a garage who started a firm last Thursday. That is likely to lead to failure.”

Five of the most common SMS marketing mistakes to avoid are:

Choosing a Laptop for College

In today’s high-tech world, it is more important than ever to choose the right laptop when you go away to college. Choosing the right laptop for you will of course depend on you, but there are some things that you will always want to take into consideration.

Here are some things to consider when you are trying to choose a laptop for college:

•    Your Major: Depending on what your major will be, you may want to get a laptop that has a high amount of memory. While a laptop that has less memory will save you money, you will suffer if the memory is not enough to sufficiently run the programs that your major will require. Video and graphics may also be a big deal, again depending on your major.
•    Your Convenience: Many students will go straight for the laptop that has the biggest screen possible, like a 19 inch screen for example. While this may be better for watching movies and videos on, remember that you will likely have to carry your laptop from class to class and the bigger the computer, the more inconvenient it will be for you to lug around. In many cases, a smaller and more compact laptop will be adequate for viewing and also much easier to carry all around campus.
•    Your Internet Access: Most new laptops now come standard with wireless internet cards installed in them, but you should always be sure. If your laptop doesn’t have the capability to use wireless internet provided by the college then you will not be able to go online at school unless your laptop is hardwired, which will do you little good.
•    Your Safety: You should also consider your safely in regards to your laptop. To be as safe as possible you can get a laptop that has a Universal Security Slot, or USS, which will allow you to install cables that let you lock your laptop up. You should also be sure that your laptop has good anti-virus software installed on it so that you can minimize the possibility of hackers getting any of your information.
•    Your Budget: Finally, you need to consider your budget when buying a laptop for college. Figure out first what it is and then conduct your search. Be sure to do plenty of comparative shopping and look online for unadvertised specials. The more you can save, the better your laptop will be for the budget you have.

Additionally, you should make sure that any laptop you are considering is one that is going to last. You can easily look at online backup reviews and even ask the sales person at the store how they feel about the laptop you are considering.

College can be a real challenge and there is no reason to add to this challenge by choosing the wrong laptop to take with you. Your laptop can help you make the most of your college years, so you should take your time and do your homework so that you ensure you are getting the best laptop possible for college.

Spring Semester – College Job Search

“Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.” – Robert H. Schuller

Spring Semester? It’s January! Yeah, I know how the college semester naming convention works, but at least the Fall semester really starts in the Fall. Anyway, May, summer vacation and (for some lucky parents) Graduation are just around and it’s not too soon to either be looking for your first job after graduation or a summer intern spot. There are plenty of resources at your disposal, not the least of which is your College Recruiting Office.

Internships: Whether you are graduating this Spring or will still be a student, you should definitely consider an Internship and it is never too early to start that process: 

• eFinancialCareers – Graduates and Internships – This links to eFinancialCareers page for graduates and internships. There were 156 job opportunities for graduates when I checked the site. The job sector search (on the left hand side of the page) is set to graduate trainee, you can try this with other search engines as well. Select region for your country.

• How to Find an Internship – Not Just Any Internship—One That Fits Your Needs – This article, by Collegeboard.com, provides a guide to planning your College Internship process. The article provides a number of links to resources (one of which is covered below) and is a good place to start your planning for internship programs.

• Internships.com – Seems like the likely place to start your search for internships. The site has links at the top for company directories, student tool kit and student home. The link at the start of this paragraph runs the Internship search at the site (there were 666 Internship opportunities when I checked the site). You can narrow this down by using the search box on the left hand side of the page.

College Career Services: Overall resources for College Grads and soon to be graduating.

• College Career Services – This is a list of college career services sites posted on CareerAlley. This is a great list, which includes Company Career sites that have dedicated college pages. There is also a very long list of resources and articles which you will find useful.

• Top 10 College Career Services Blogs – Onedayonejob.com provides this article which lists the top college career blogs. You don’t need to go to the college in order to leverage their website. So take a look at the list and visit each of the sites. While you are at it, visit your college’s career site.

Good luck in your search.

Job Search Encounters Of The Fourth Kind

“Mission control, we have a UFO pacing our position, request instructions.” – Astronaut Cady Coleman NASA Transmission – Shuttle Mission STS-73

So, if you are into the UFO thing, you will know right away what an “encounter of the fourth kind” is.

Relating this to job search is probably a stretch, except it has happened to me. You know how it goes, you get a call from a recruiter, they are trying to fill a specific job and, while it is something you could probably do, this is just not a job that you will ever take (assuming they actually make you an offer).

But then, for some reason, you go on the interview anyway. And then, things just get out of control and you are “sucked into the moment” as if you’ve been abducted by some alien life form. You go through countless interviews not really knowing why you are there or what you are doing, wasting hours of your time.

And then finally, as if you’ve just come out of a drunken haze, reality sets in, you see an opening and you bolt for the door before they can pull you back in.

But wait, you think that this is the end of it (but it isn’t). Now the recruiter is calling you, emailing you, texting you and otherwise trying to track you down so that they can complete the brainwash and return your mindless body to “the interview process”.

Okay, maybe a little melodramatic, but it can and does happen.

So what’s the point? You know what you’re best at and if you get that “gut feeling” that something is not right, listen to yourself and wait for the right opportunity.

• The Right Job – What better place to start than therightjob.com? This site has a ton of resources for helping find, well, the right job. Top of the page starts with a quick search (just enter your key word). Directly below this is another choice, just select a category. But wait, that is not all, directly below the search section is a list of great resources. From Resume Tips to Cover Letters and Interviews (not the fourth kind), this site delivers a wealth of information.

• Are you in the wrong job after all? – This article, posted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, provides some pointers to help you figure it out. From “you are not doing the job right” to “the position is different from what you expected”, this article is definitely worth a read. Some interesting points, like maybe you are in the right job but in the wrong place.

• Quiz: How to Find Your Perfect Job – Another great resource from Alison Doyle, why not take a quiz to which job suits you? Select one of six categories and you are ready to take your quiz. What, you don’t know what to do? No worries, select “I don’t have a clue” and there are four quizs for you to take so that you can figure it out. Need more? There are a bunch of additional resource links directly below the article. Related articles and job search help is a few clicks away.

• The 20 Best Job Search Web Sites – Where to start? Why not the top job search sites? Posted on PCMag.com, this article helps filter the top sites (based on their criteria). You know how it is, so many job search sites, so little time. Each site is listed with a brief overview followed by a link to the site. Definitely a place to start if you’ve not built your job search site list.

• The 100 Most Influential Headhunters – Got your list of job search sites from the last link, now to get your list of recruiters. Now 100 is probably too many to use, but this is a great list to start from. Posted by Businessweek.com, the article is like a slide show. Select the > symbol from the top right hand side to get to the next page where you will find (one at a time) profiles on the top recruiters along with their contact information. Remember, be selective and pick only those recruiters that fit your profile.

Good luck in your search.

 

Author: Career Alley

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Are You an Employer’s Candidate?

As a job seeker, you might enter a job search focusing on your needs and wants. While that is okay to a certain degree, your primary concern should be what a potential employer is looking for. Different jobs require different qualifications, but there are some qualities that any employer can value in a potential candidate. If you have them or develop them, then an employer will be more interested in you.

Here are a few qualities that can benefit employers:

-Long-term potential- Employers desire workers who can remain with their companies for a while and have the opportunity to advance.

-Works well with others- It is important to employers that a new hire gets along with his or her co-workers to accomplish company objectives, as well as to enhance morale in the workplace.

-Can work independently- Employers appreciate people who can work on their own and don’t need too much direction. These are individuals who get their work done and add value to their companies.

For other qualities that benefit employers, see the source below.

You may have specific interests in your job search; however, to get hired, you must focus on the needs and wants of a potential employer. By possessing qualities that can benefit any employer, you will be seen as an employer’s candidate for the job.

-Source-

http://thecareernews.com/newsletter.php?news=2460

 

Author Byline: William Frierson is a staff writer for CollegeRecruiter.com.
Author Website: http://collegerecruiter.com/

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.