Gradstaff, a recruiting firm that specializes in entry-level placements, estimates that 75-80% of college seniors will graduate without a job. If this describes you (or your child or grandchild) here are tips from recruiters and free resources from employers to help land that first assignment:
Take advantage of free coaching
Fifth Third Bank in conjunction with national outplacement firm NextJob is offering 1,000 job search training scholarships as part of its Brand of You campaign. The contest started this week and runs through July 20, 2015. Even if you don’t win one of the 1,000 scholarships, there are free resources at the site.
PwC US offers CareerAdvisor, an online tool with articles, activities, videos and tips on identifying possible career paths and developing your resume and other job seeker necessities. “Good grades, extracurricular activities and a strong resume alone won’t guarantee that you will find yourself in the career of your dreams,” said Michael Fenlon, PwC's U.S. and Global Talent Leader. “CareerAdvisor helps job seekers discover who they are, what they want to do and how to get there. Whether it's accounting, engineering, teaching, science or health professions, or management consulting, CareerAdvisor acts as a motivational tool for students to reflect on their passions and take control of their future.”
Don’t rule out Career Services at your alma mater for help. Many colleges allow alumni to access at least some of the resources, including contacts, job listings, workshops and coaching.
Target smaller companies
If you focused your efforts exclusively on leads from your school, you may only have tapped possibilities at the larger companies. But smaller companies also hire and don’t have the money and people to dedicate to a campus recruiting effort. Robert LaBombard, CEO of recruiting-firm Gradstaff, recommends focusing on networking and referrals to get to small employers:
Since most small and medium employers don’t dedicate a lot of resources to recruiting, they tend to rely on referrals and word-of-mouth to fill open positions, and these employers may not even advertise positions before filling them with candidates that are “on the spot” with a shared connection. While LinkedIn and other social networking sites continue to be relevant and important for job seekers, finding connections to prospective employers through friends, family, classmates and other personal networks will become even more important for finding and securing a first professional job. Alumni connections are often extremely important in these referrals…. Most new grads have much better networks than they think.
Start with an internship
Don’t overlook internships in your quest for a permanent job. Many times you can convert a short-term assignment into something longer-term. While internships are sometimes exclusively for current students, many programs also accept graduates.
Demand for interns is on the rise —first quarter 2015 demand was well above the five-year average according to "The State of American Internships, 2015," a report recently released by Burning Glass Technologies, a labor data analytics company. Hilton Worldwide now hires interns at the property level and has increased internship hiring from 0 interns in 2012 to 55 hires in 2014.
Create your own opportunity
Tony Beshara is a recruiter with Babich & Associates and creator of The Job Search Solution. He outlined these steps to mine for unadvertised internships, but it’s a good process to follow for full-time jobs as well:
Go on LinkedIn and find all of the people that graduated from your school, preferably with a degree similar to yours and within proximity to where you live. Call them and ask them about an internship. It's amazing the number of alumni who NEVER get called by students from their alma mater about much of anything, let alone an internship. Alumni love it when they can help students from their alma mater. It gives them a tremendous sense of "giving back."
Remember that in addition to similar degree or geographic proximity, you can target people with other overlaps to your background – extra-curricular interests, common contacts. In addition to alumni from your college, look at “alumni” from other significant periods in your life -- sports leagues, volunteer stints, summer camp.
For more career advice (for all ages of job seeker), check out SixFigureStart® free toolkits on Negotiation, Networking, and Personal Branding, including a free download for entrepreneurs.
