The economy sucks right now. Every media site you go to is littered with stories about the pending doom and gloom of the job market. But the truth is, if you’re young, smart and motivated, there is no reason finding a job should be difficult. You just have to put in the extra time and effort to make yourself employable. So for all you college seniors and recent grads, here’s a 5 step process to making sure employers are knocking on your door, and not the other way around.
1. Figure out what your interests are
You hear it all the time, find your passion and pursue it. Well, I don’t totally buy it. You don’t have to find that one true calling to find a job you like, but you should, at the very least, have an interest in the field you pursue. As far as I’m concerned, being interested means that you would do the work in your free time - without getting paid. You’ll most likely have multiple careers throughout your lifetime, so forget about searching for the perfect one.
What do you read about, talk about, or blog about on a regular basis? Can any of tho
"...I’ve had random meetings with young CEO’s of great start-up companies like Banyan Link and Unigo. I used to be unsure of setting up phone calls just to chat, but I’ve now realized that that’s what successful people do. They connect with other successful or soon to be successful people, just because."
This definitely applies to all work. It's all about networking and networking with the RIGHT people. Getting ready to go into the job market myself, I see that I took great advantage of some opportunities I had to meet successful people...and other times I did not. It will either pay off or hurt me in the end. Launching a career and finding the RIGHT job in these economic conditions should get very interesting to say the least.
Another great way to get in early is to start doing work while you're in college. If you study marketing, for instance, take some joblot work for a few hours a week remotely with a company that wants to try out your skill set to see how you're doing. Will help sharpen those skills and both you and the employer can 'try before you buy.'
@joebachana I totally agree. Internships are a good first step. That's actually what I'm in the process of doing right now; looking for one for Summer '09. Hopefully that will get me somewhere!
@Kara re: internship, whats your specialty? Online Marketing? Can you write? Have you done event planning work? Also where is your location? re: 'internship' it doesn't necessarily need to be onsite at a company if you are self-sufficient in your skillset
@joebachana I'm not really looking for anything specifically. I'm interested a lot in consumer behavior (more research/psych) and also ad creation. I understand that "onsite" isn't important but I definitely want to escape the college town for the summer; that's why I'm looking for something that will get me to the city.