Ok, enough fun.
Four (or five) years of skipping class, drinking too many tequila shooters, and re-working your myspace-facebook color scheme is about to come to a screeching halt. Some of you are worried that your ‘education’ won’t actually pay off for you with the big bucks promised by that marketing professor. You know, the one who has never actually worked for a company. Well, sorry to say, his advice is the business equivalent of reading about Steve Jobs and thinking you are about to invent the I-Phone, dude. Sure, it could happen. But, in the meantime….
Here is some advice your parentals want to give you, but won’t.
1. Get serious about finding a job. The last thing you need is to take a three month vacation after school. I know, I know. YOU worked hard and need to experience life a bit. Spare me. Mommy and Daddy just spent their retirement on your educational experiment so out of respect, the least you can do is go through the motions of becoming a real live, functioning, support yourself semi-adult.
2. Your major doesn’t much matter. You will be surprised how infrequently you get asked about your major, so don’t be all that shocked when your communications major background holds no water. Your GPA will count for something now, but no one will care really because it varies so much, school to school, major to major, etc. You think we don’t know that?
3. If you send out a resume, proofread it over and over and over. Seriously. Can you spell? Make it easy for the employer to find you and contact you. Lose the studmuffin@gmail.com.
4. If an employer happens to call you after you send out a resume, respond. Here is the sad reality. Monster and all these BIG job boards have devalued your resume to the point, where you will send out hundreds of resumes and NOT get ONE reply. So, when you do get a reply, answer back. It will send a clear message to the company that there is a reason for them to acknowledge receiving your resume.
5. Even if the job sounds terrible, interview anyway. You should go on an interview a day, at least. Interview for the jobs you don’t want, too. This is like asking the hottest girl at the bar for her myspace page, you don’t make the shots you don’t take as Michael Jordan used to say.
6. Figure out the numbers. How many phone calls to get one interview? Do that every day. How many interviews can you do per week, per day? How many companies have you actually called after you sent your resume? Your entire day should be devoted to finding this first, best job. The ratio of resumes to phone calls should be ONE.
7 . Show your stuff. Be prepared for each interview. You never know what might happen. Give yourself some positive self talk on the way to the interview, get there on time, early if possible. Come out of yourself, no one is going to see you in the hallway and say…YOU ARE THE WINNER today, here is your employee badge.
8. Go ahead and be a pest. I used to say the applicant should follow up right to the point of becoming a pest to the HR person. Screw that. The chances of you actually becoming a pest are so remote, it is not even on the radar. Call back, write back, email back. Do it every other day, at least, until the company says “enough.” But give them a new reason to like you on each of these contacts…”I was thinking about the job last night and had this idea…” or…”I forgot mention that I sold more Girl Scout cookies than anyone else…”
9. Not sure of your passion quite yet? It is easier to find your true calling once you have a job. Plus, you don’t really know what you love, do you? I mean really? Those soap opera watching jobs are so hard to get, anyway. Get started…finding what you don’t like is even helpful. Practice showing some passion even if you are not in your keeper job.
10. Remember that almost any job is bigger than you are. This is the secret of almost any job, and one that you can exploit. I don’t care what the job…flunkie to VP, I can tell story after story about some person who took this one job and made it into something more than the company thought possible. You know this happens…be that story and person. You will find your true passion faster with this attitude. Actually, learn to do this…and companies will find you. I promise.
10 users commented in " Some Brutal Post-Spring Break Advice for the Graduate on Getting That First Job "
This blog is great… As someone who has been out of school for a relatively short while, I can attest to pretty much each one of these points. People rarely consider that just because you absolutely love computers (my major was in computer engineering) doesn’t mean that you must work at Google to fulfill your desire. I work at a bank, and I literally stumbled upon managing our first blog for a living (and it’s not just a living, I’m super-passionate about it).
Great advice for any fresh grad or someone nearing graduation. The only point I would argue is the first… I truly regret not living in abject poverty while backpacking across Europe after school… I didn’t have the balls to do it, and now I wish I had. In my opinion, the experience would be worth far more than the 3 or more months lost on the job market.
Hi Michel…yes, you might be right on the first point. it is not so much the experience, it is more that the entire four year span was an experience. as someone who personally funded college, it was a bit of a milestone, not to mention a pay increase to have those tuition payments over…so i didnt want to hear how I should fund a european trip on top. But that was just me. Everything before you turn 40 is an experience, as michener said.
oh, thanks for your kind words too…which blog do you manage?
I’m the host of RBC p2p, Royal Bank of Canada’s student blog (which is actually written by students.)
And… You’re welcome! I love reading Gen x’s perspective on things. It helps me to better understand my peers, colleagues, and in the past, the team that I managed. Cheers!
Those are some awesome tips!
Probably one of the biggest things I’ve learned about getting started is that it’s important to take every day as it comes. Live in the present and not always prepping for the “perfect” job. You get to do all kinds of things, make the best of all of them.
Hey thanks Michael…just checked out your blog…way to go! Stop by again, I appreciate your comments.
Reality 101 and you’re an AWESOME teacher. Tremendous post. Tremendous.
I have to get Carly to read this!
This is great advice. The one item that I would disagree with is that I think you absolutely CAN become too much of a pest. I’m actually about to reject a candidate precisely for this reason; her constant follow-up and checking in has annoyed the hell out of me, and I have so many great candidates who aren’t making a nuisance out of themselves that I’m going to reject her just so I can start answering my phone safely again.
Thanks Dawn.
Aska Manager—yes, you are right. I was simply exaagerrating the point. FOr every pesorson who becomesa pst there are dozens more who never show they want the job enough.
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