10 Tips to Improve Your Post-Graduation Job Search Process
Hello, everyone :)
As I sat on the train during my morning commute to work, I got thinking about all of the many job applications to various different jobs I submitted throughout the past few months. Finding a job took up all of my focus, and for much of the time, I felt like I would never hear back or never get that job offer I so desired. The whole process was stressful beyond words, but I know that I got rather lucky, as most people are on the job search for much longer than I was.
Now, while I am not claiming to be an expert at all of this, I want to be able to impart some advice for those of you who may still be undergrads because in an odd way, your job search starts from the moment you step onto campus. Sounds extreme, but it's true. You spend the 4 years at college to get educated, figure out what you want to do with your life, and earn a degree to be able to do what you want, but that requires a lot of moving parts. So, today, I want to give the advice I wish I had taken and/or gotten when I was just starting out in school so that hopefully you can find success on the job hunt soon after graduation. Here my top ten tips to improve your post-graduation job search process.
1. Stop planning 10 years in advance
Remember when you were in high school and you had to figure out what you were going to major in college, and you needed to find schools that had that degree? That whole process forces you to plan for a future that is already full of unknowns. When I was a senior in high school, I wanted to be a physics teacher, so I picked a university that had that program. But guess what? I graduated with a communication degree, and now I work in an office. The plan to do a five year masters program to teach physics went out the window and was replaced with something totally different.
I am a big planner, but I couldn't possibly plan, and maintain that plan, throughout college and beyond. If you do that, you'll probably end up pretty miserable because what you thought you wanted at age 18 might not be what you want at age 22.
2. Ask your professors their job search stories
This one was super important for me as far as giving me hope. When I heard some of my favorite professors tell me their post college stories, a lot of them were pretty rough. This incredibly successful professors had minimum wage jobs post-graduation. They were unemployed for months, and some started one career path, hated it, and went back to school to be a professor. Their stories not only demonstrate how unpredictable life can be, but that eventually things work themselves out. What you post-graduation job search needs is hope.
3. Don't rely on career-planning
If your college/university has a career planning/guidance center, do not put all of your chips on them. A career counselor at my former university told me that I would probably be applying to jobs for upwards of 2 years because of the state of the job market. I got a job 2 months out. They also helped me set up my resume, but that resume got me nowhere and the one I set up for myself got me multiple callbacks, interviews, and my current job. The internet is a beautiful place full of much more helpful advice than career planning can offer. Additionally, their advice (at least in the case of my school) was incredibly dated. Hiring processes are changing, and these centers aren't always keeping up with the latest trends.
Example: My career planning center told me to send my resume in PDF format when applying and that's actually wrong. ATS (which I will discuss in a bit) picks up Word Docs much more accurately than PDF files. If you want HR to actually look at your resume, send it as a Word Doc, or rather, don't get help from career planning!
4. Don't be picky about internships
Intern anywhere and everywhere!! OK, maybe not exactly, but honestly any opportunity can be a good one. Don't worry about pay or hours because at the end of the day, if you can have something to talk about in an interview, it's way better than not having anything. Internships are not something to be picky about, a job is. Experience is experience, regardless of what it is - it's all about how you word things. And I promise, you will learn something from even the dullest of internships, even if it is how to deal with a coworker or use a tool on an Excel spreadsheet; those could be essential to your career.
5. Broaden your scope
If you had told me a few months ago that I would working in the field that I am, I would have said you were crazy. I wanted to work in the beauty industry, or so I thought, but the truth is, beauty didn't want to hire me. Corporate did. Once I started to accept the fact that I was probably not going to hear back from beauty, I expanded my search to fields I never imagined working in. I do communications, and all industries need that service, so it was just a matter of looking for a specific job title or anything that I was qualified for without looking at the name of the company or checking what field the company was in. The same could be done for the majority of majors.
6. Make it your full-time job after you graduate
You are not going to get a job by applying for 1 a week. You should be looking for jobs daily if possible and applying for a few per week, but not while you're still in school - who has the time and energy for that?
It took me upwards of 100 applications to get a job, and I graduated with multiple honors and internships as well as a part time job and leadership roles. That resume only got me 3 interviews and 1 job offer in a 2 month window. You'll find that the majority of people today submit thousands of job applications before finding success, and while some people get lucky sooner than others, a lot of people struggle to find a job for many months, but that's normal.
So while you can be looking for jobs as an undergrad, and maybe applying, do not go too crazy. If you wait until closer to graduation, you'll be able to get a break after school and won't have to jump right into the workforce.
7. Make multiple job profiles when the time comes
I had 6 different job profiles when I was applying, and I checked them all daily. I also got daily notifications from them. Not all companies post to the same sites, and the more you put yourself and your resume out there, the more likely you are to get noticed by a recruiter or be presented with a great opportunity. I got daily emails and phone calls from recruiters who found my resume online. Granted, they were all sales and/or customer service roles that I didn't want, but still, I got noticed a lot!
8. Stop being afraid of standing out (take chances!)
Contrary to popular belief, your resume and cover letter shouldn't be boring or standard (in most cases- you don't want to go crazy on a finance job application. In other words, know the professional scope of your target industry). If you are using formats or lines verbatim that you found on the internet, no HR rep will touch your profile. I always made sure the first line of my cover letter was distinct, bold, something that made the person reading it want to know more. No more of this, "I am writing you in regard to the job posting" but rather, "Communication is my passion" or "When I tell people I like public speaking, I'm often met with disbelief." You should be telling a unique, but brief story with a cover letter to adds to the lifeless, but informative resume you attach with it.
9. Get ATS ready!
The good ol' 'Applicant Tracking System.' Anytime you submit an application online, this is what your resume goes through, and it could be the difference between having your application touched or thrown right out.
This system, which as I mentioned picks up Word Docs a lot better than PDFs, picks up keywords from your resume to see if they match the job posting. That means, you have to incorporate keywords and phrases from the posting into your resume as best as you can while making sure everything still flows. These words and descriptors should be in your experience section (if possible), but you could also make a skills section and put them there too. However, don't just throw these words in because they have to actually apply to you. Additionally, do not get too funky with formatting because that can throw off the system's reading, and make sure your font style and size are consistent.
Remember, your resume is ever changing, and you should never be sending the exact same resume to every job posting. Your resume should be altered to suit every unique job posting.
10. Put money into it if you have started the search and need help
Perhaps this is a last resort, but sometimes you have to put something in to get something out. I don't think there is anything wrong with paying to have your resume looked over by a professional. You don't always have to incorporate their edits or suggestions, but a neutral outsider's perspective could make a real difference in how you frame your experience moving forward. TopResume helps improve resumes, cover letters, and even LinkedIn profiles (which I highly suggest). I wouldn't have a cover letter done because most companies don't even read those half the time and those should be more personal, but a LinkedIn profile is essential for young professionals. It's the Facebook for your career, but it can be hard to manage since it strikes a unique balance between casual and formal, but that's where a professional could help.
I also suggest LinkedIn premium since it tells you how you stack up in certain jobs compared to other applicants before and after applying. That is an opportunity you almost never get in the real world, so I definitely think it's worth the monthly fee. Plus, it could narrow your job search down and make it more efficient.
So, those were my top ten tips to improve your post-graduation job search. Let me know if you found this helpful and/or would like more posts like this moving forward.
Remember to enjoy college and not worry about actually applying to jobs until after you graduate or in your final semester. If you take my advice as an undergrad, you will be prepped and and ready to hit the job market post-graduation.
As always, thanks for reading! Stina:)