By Ericka Simpson
Getting advanced college degrees could instill you with the belief that you deserve to land high paying, quality jobs. It’s at these jobs that you can position yourself for promotions and rewarding challenges that your college education and life experiences have already prepared you to meet. The degrees can also convince you that finding jobs after college is going to be easy.
Proven tips for finding jobs after college
If that’s what you think, consider this. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 21 million Americans were enrolled in college in 2011. When it comes to finding jobs after college, the good news is that many of these students already have full-time jobs. You may not have to compete with them when you start your job search.
The bad news is that millions of these adults are your competition. They are strategizing and learning new ways to make finding jobs after college easier, fruitful. Give yourself a boost by networking for jobs while you’re in school. The more time you give yourself to find good jobs, the better.
Sign up for internships. If you’re going after a master’s degree, apply for fellowships. Do as much lab work as you can to get hands on experience. For example, if your college offers you a thesis or non-thesis option, consider the non-thesis option. This will force you to complete loads of research and lab work.
Make the most of collegiate contacts
Keep in touch with organizations that you intern or fellowship with. Don’t just keep in touch with your supervisor. Keep in touch with the human resources director, human resources recruiter and other managers you met while you interned at the organization.
Below are more action steps you could take while you’re in the process of finding jobs after college. Success at finding jobs after college calls for you to be resilient, persistent and positive.
- Create a spreadsheet or database. Add the names of organizations you want to work at, why you want to work at these organizations and the names and contact information of two to three people at these organizations.
- Develop a resume and job cover letter. Work with a professional resume writer if resume writing is not your strong suit. Monster, Career Builder and other job boards post sample resumes and cover letters that you can use for free.
- Email contacts at organizations you want to work at your cover letter and resume. Customize job cover letters and resumes to the specific organization and for the specific job you are applying for. For example, if you are applying for a junior underwriter job at ABC Company, mention the firm and the job title in your cover letter one to two times.
- Pull up hiring managers and recruiters’ LinkedIn profiles. If these leaders attended the same college that you did, mention that in your cover letter.
- Set up automated job alerts through major job boards. No need in spending hours poring over one job after another at the boards. Let the open jobs come to you.
- Search internal job boards at organizations you want to work at. Many organizations don’t post any or all of their open jobs with major job boards as the boards require companies to pay a fee to post jobs (these quarterly fees are not cheap).
- Attend professional or industry events. Let’s say you’re working at finding jobs after college in the financial services industry. By attending events like Financial Services Industry Exchange and Financial Services Talent Network seminars, alumni financial services networking events and meet-and-greet nights hosted by area banks and other financial services firms.
- Step into related roles if the particular role you want is highly competitive, making finding jobs after college near impossible. For example, top financial services firms easily receive 20,000 resumes for investment banking roles. You could get your foot in the door by seeking a financial advisor, hedge fund or research job.
Finding jobs after college takes consistent work. U.S. News and World Report says that it could take a year to find a good job. Of course, you could find any low paying, non-benefit offering job quicker, but you want a good job. By developing a schedule for when you will search and apply for jobs, you can gain traction. Following up with recruiters and hiring managers can also keep you in these important decision maker’s minds. As you keep in touch with college career counselors, attend college job fairs and network with alumni, you can become aware of jobs you may otherwise not have heard about.
