These job and career-related tips -- for all students and recent grads searching for your first real jobs --
have been gathered from numerous sources throughout Quintessential Careers and organized here for your convenience.
College students' biggest mistake is pursuing money rather than their
dreams according to nationally known speaker and author Gary Tuerack.
"That's a fatal mistake," Tuerack said in the
Q&A interview he did
with Quintessential Careers. "And statistics show that those who do
what they love end up being the millionaires in society."
College students, it won't be long after you're back on campus in
your junior and senior years that you'll want to start thinking about
checking out career fairs. Attending a career fair is just one of
many steps in the career exploration and job-search process.
Employers participate in these events to meet job seekers and recruit
employees. They can provide general information about career options,
as well as specific information about current openings. Job seekers
can attend career fairs to look for a job, gather career information,
and/or develop a network of career contacts. MonsterTRAK.com provides
a set of
Top 10 tips for attending a career fair.
Should new college grads and others be worried about the downturn in
the economy? Author Donald Asher observes that college recruiting
dropped by 50 percent in the last recession, but this fact was little
reported in the media. In the
Q&A interview Asher did
with Quintessential Careers, Asher cautioned that "all job-seekers
should understand that companies will not carry them through the next
downturn. These are the new rules, and both sides have to deal with
them, both when they are to their advantage and when they are not. If
you are an integral part of the value chain of a profitable
enterprise, you'll be fine, but if not, it will be time to worry."
The Web site Jobcircle has a nice article on company research called
Ten
Things You Should Know About Researching Companies. The article has
great advice, such as starting your research early, talking to people
who work at the company, checking your facts, getting the scoop from
impartial information providers (such as WetFeet) and seeking out
media coverage of the firm.
Recruiting Trends reports that federal agencies may now use student
loan repayment as a recruitment incentive. The U.S. Office of
Personnel Management (OPM) has authorized repayment of up to $6,000
per person per year up to a total maximum loan repayment of $40,000.
Janice R. Lachance, OPM director, says, "OPM is committed to meeting
this challenge using innovative and flexible new tools. This new
regulation gives agencies a tool similar to ones used by the private
sector."
The value to a college student of being partnered with alumnus/alumna
or other professional in his/her field as a mentor is priceless
according to Marcia Merrill, career advisor at Loyola College, MD. In
the Q&A interview she
did with Quintessential Careers, Merrill said: "Students (mentees)
get to ask their mentors questions about the 'real world.' Mentors
report that it's very rewarding to help someone, remembering what it
was like when they were trying to decide on a career. They invite the
students to job-shadow them in the workplace to see how it really is
and experience firsthand what it's like to be an attorney, doctor, or
counselor/psychologist. Having a mentor can be the first step toward
deciding on pursuing a given career. Many students begin with making
networking contacts and grow into working part- or full-time for
their mentor or their mentor's contacts. Internships often result as
the student gains the experience needed to make a career decision. A
college career center is only one way of seeing about getting a
mentor. Usually colleges have an Alumni Network for this purpose.
"If you're not affiliated with a college, you can find mentors by looking
at the association that corresponds to your field of interest.
Examples: Society of Women Engineers, Association for Sociological
Research, American Management Association, American Institute of
Physicists, to name a few. Every major/career field has one or more
associations dedicated to that particular area of interest. Most have
Web sites that outline membership benefits, usually including mentor
programs. There are several online e-mentoring Web sites, such as
Mentornet.com and asktheemployer.com, to name a few. Not having a
formal mentoring program within your workplace is not an excuse. You
could start your own!"
If you are a new grad or other jobseeker who is a little freaked out
by the number of interviews required of you in the typical hiring
process, be aware that most companies interview candidates two to
three and sometimes four times before offering a job. Notes Diana
LeGere of Executive Final Copy, "The more money you make, the longer
the process. Relax! You should actually do much better on the next
two or three. After all, you feel great! Who wouldn't feel
magnificent after putting his or her best foot forward? You are being
considered for a wonderful new position. The initial screening
interviews were just enough practice to get you calm and feeling on
top of the world. Go back to your notes, study, rehearse and know
your lines. The next opportunity is likely to be in front of the top
echelon of the company. That's exciting because he or she is the
decision-maker."
To survive in a more competitive economy, author Donald Asher notes
that job-seekers "must be better prepared so as to compete better in
the job market. In the
Q&A interview he did
with Quintessential Careers, Asher said that better preparation means
candidates "need to research the careers they are entering and find
out what type of skills and qualifications they need for the type of
job they seek. Each profession requires certain skills, and they
should be certain they are taking the appropriate courses and/or
receiving adequate training to prepare them for their career. Then I
advise everyone to have some computer skills and good writing skills
as these skills are often overlooked, yet necessary for nearly every
job. They are basic skills that employers look for when hiring in
this day and age but often find lacking in job candidates."
Ginny Rehberg, a Boston-based career consultant and executive coach,
recently listed five ways that volunteering can boost your career and
resume:
You can make new contacts -- so important since the majority of
jobs come from networking.
You can develop new skills, including the so-called "soft skills,"
such as teamwork and awareness of diversity.
You can hone your ability to manage time.
You can learn to influence others without possessing and exerting
power, which Rehberg cites as an important skill in the less
hierarchical workplace of today.
And finally, the bottom line consists of great experience to list
on your resume.
According to author Donald Asher, today's employers "seem to be
driven by two different trends. In the
Q&A interview
he did with Quintessential Careers, he described those trends this way: "(1)
They are not at all hesitant to lay off staff, individually or en
masse, and they aren't at all hesitant to close entire lines of
business that are not profitable. (2) They are hiring precise
skillsets, not bodies. They are desperate for workers, yes, but very
specific workers. They will not hire someone who does not match
specific criteria, and in the past they would have. This trend could
unravel, however, if employees become too spoiled to work. The
offspring of wealthy people seldom make wealth, or even retain the
wealth they are handed, because they don't feel the need to strive.
The same thing can happen to wealthy societies."
Defining "cutting-edge" jobs as those that blaze new trails, Ferguson
Publishing's book, 50 Cutting-Edge Jobs lists the following among its
trailblazers: benefits administrator, bilingual consultant,
biotechnology patent attorney, business valuator, chief information
officer, chief knowledge officer, complementary medicine
practitioner, computational linguist, computer animator, computer
repair technician, computer and video game designer, desktop sound
engineer, digital agent, environmental accountant, fiber optics
technician, forensic accountant and auditor, forensic
psychophysiologist, fuel cell technician, fusion engineer, geriatric
social worker, grief counselor, health advocate, horticultural
therapist, information broker, interactive media specialist, among
others.
"If you want to be a job seeker in this new millennium then use a
visual medium, a portfolio," advised teacher and writer Martin
Kimeldorf in the
Q&A
interview he did with Quintessential Careers. "A
resume is from the last millennium. Both resumes and portfolios will
help you focus your job search and provide you with the language you
need during networking and interviewing. But please take a portfolio
to the job interview," urges Kimeldorf.
Seeking a career in information technology? Know what to expect.
Although demand, salary, and perks are still promising, IT staffers
are working longer hours but producing less, according to ZDNet,
quoting a new report on global IT trends. The study, by research
firm Meta Group, found that U.S. computer professionals worked an
average of 45 hours a week this year, an increase of 36 percent from
1999. Working hours rose by 30 percent outside the U.S. Even with
these extra hours, the high learning curve demanded by projects has
affected productivity among technology workers. The average U.S.
software developer produced 9,000 lines of code in 1999. This year,
the average has fallen by 47 percent to 6,220 lines of code.
One of the most dreaded interview questions (and it's not even really
a question) is "Tell me about yourself." Eric Schlesinger of PFPC, a
company that puts on career fairs for college students, provides this
helpful template for responding (it's geared to college students but
can be adapted by others):
"My name is _____. I will be graduating from ____ with a degree in
______. I have had some experience in __________ (industry/function)
doing _______. Most recently, I _______. Before that I was
___________. My areas of expertise (core transferable skills) are
____________. My particular strengths are (relate to the specific
opportunity you are interviewing for) __________________. I am
interested in how I might contribute to your organization."
The biggest "reality check" job-seekers face once they successfully
make it into the workplace is that that they or their supervisor
might be gone within nine months, according to teacher and writer
Martin Kimeldorf in the
Q&A
interview he did with Quintessential Careers.
"Therefore, one should keep a portfolio documenting accomplishments
and learning on the job. You will profit from taking it to your next
employee evaluation -- or your next interview -- whichever comes
first," Kimeldorf notes.
"The secret to a successful job-search campaign is target marketing,"
said Debra Feldman, specialist in cyber-savvy strategic job-search
consultations, in the
Q&A
interview she did with Quintessential Careers. "If
you can be a marketing whiz, then you can get yourself the job you
want by correct positioning, clever promotion, and savvy selling
propositions," Feldman points out.
Want to succeed at your first job once you've landed it? Better
sharpen your so-called "soft skills" according to a survey of
employers reported by the BBC. These soft skills, which employers say
are often lacking in entry-level hires, include:
taking initiative
communicating effectively
making decisions
solving problems
building relationships
Nearly 80 percent of employers said employees with these "soft
skills" would find it easier to move up the corporate ladder. They
say real-world experience, say a year between high school and college
or an internship during college can help build those skills.
Read the
full article.
One of the best sources of networking contacts for college students
is the guest speakers that come to talk to your classes. These
professionals are a vast untapped resource. One of our students who
was interested in a career in pharmaceutical sales went up to a guest
speaker from that industry after the presentation and introduced
herself. She asked the pharmaceutical rep if she could send him her
resume. He agreed, and she kept in touch with him throughout the next
semester before she graduated. By the time she claimed her diploma,
she had lined up a $40,000 a year job with the drug firm.
"In a temporary world of work, think of yourself as a portable
container of skills," advised teacher and writer Martin Kimeldorf In
the Q&A
interview he did with Quintessential Careers. "I
favor this image because the word 'portfolio' means a portable
collection. I invite people to adopt what I call a "portfolio
mindset," which, briefly, means making a portfolio, reading and
studying those career books that make sense to you . . . then put it
all into play! Don't wait by the keyboard or the phone - go out and
hit the bricks!" Kimeldorf suggests.
Transitions Abroad,
a bimonthly guide to practical information on
affordable alternatives to mass tourism:living, working, studying, or
vacationing alongside the people of the host country.
It's no longer totally a man's world in information technology. "It
is a label that people in information technology (IT) can't seem to
shake: the nerd stereotype," writes Sherri Pfeil in Employment
Review. "And unfortunately, many girls are still taught early in life
that women are supposed to learn how to cook and play with their
dolls while boys play with computers. Even little girls' favorite
doll, Barbie, displayed a lack of knowledge in technology when she
proclaimed, 'Math is hard.' Although men still dominate the IT
industry, more women are joining the ranks and climbing up the
corporate ladder today."
Read more.
Think summer is not a good time for job hunting? Think again. Summer
can be a great time to job-hunt. Competition is minimal because
job-seekers assume hiring decisions will be postponed until fall.
While the assumption often proves correct, the groundwork for hiring
can be laid in the summer -- through effective networking. Just as
parties and networking opportunities increase during the Christmas
holidays, picnics, barbecues, beach parties, and outdoor sporting
activities provide sizzling summertime networking occasions.
Vacations can be planned around the possibility of relocating one's
career to another locale and networking while on vacation. New fiscal
years often begin in June or July, making new hiring possible.
When looking for a job out of state, it is a good idea to check out
the local colleges' career-planning Web sites, advised career
counselor Doris Flaherty in the
Q&A interview she did
with Quintessential Careers. "As always, some Web sites are more
informative than others, but I usually come up with several good
leads for the geographical area of interest. Any college usually has
more focus on its surrounding area since the majority of the
graduates will find work there," Flaherty says.
College students need to be particularly mindful of approaching the
job search from the employer's point of view and talking about what
THEY can do for the employer -- NOT what the employer can do for
THEM. We've seen college students fall into the trap of telling
employers their demands in career objectives on resumes, in cover
letters, and during the interview. Remember, the employer is not out
to satisfy all YOUR hopes, dreams, and aspirations; instead, the
employer wants to know how YOU can help the organization's bottom
line.
Brian Krueger, author of the excellent
College
Grad Job Hunter, says that the job-interview question that college students most often
blow is: "Why did you choose your college?" Your response should
demonstrate not only sound decision-making skills but should describe
how the education you obtained at your specific college will benefit
the employer.
College students' biggest mistake is pursuing money rather than their
dreams according to nationally known speaker and author Gary Tuerack.
"That's a fatal mistake," Tuerack said in the
