All I Want for Christmas is a Job!

If you’re still looking for a job – and you probably are with unemployment over 8% – network, network, network over the holidays! Make it a point to tell people about your job search at holiday parties and family gatherings.

Be authentic when you meet new people and be honest about your skills and work experience.

Look for ways that you can help others. Networking is a two way street. It’s not just a “what’s in it for me” proposition. The most successful networkers are those that focus on mutually beneficial relationships. Maybe you know of a way you can help someone else who may in turn be able to help you get a job. Of course, we’re not promoting “pay to play” tactics here. If someone offers you the Illinois Senate seat over the holidays…well, that’s a topic for a different blog!

A tip for networking at holiday parties. Don’t carry so many things around with you that you can’t hand out your business card easily. Don’t carry too many drinks, bags, etc.

Always be looking for ways to expand your network and be sure to maintain it throughout your career.

For more advice about networking successfully at the beginning of your career, check out our book or web site.

Happy Holidays!

Niche Job Boards

As part of your online job search, be sure to check out the job boards that are specific to your industry. Computer programmers, web developers and graphic designers have notoriously great job sites. For other industries, it may take a little more digging to uncover the good online job boards. Niche web sites are a great resource for finding jobs because there is usually less competition than on Monster or CareerBuilder.

How do you find niche job boards and web sites?

1. NicheBoards.com lets you search for your industry, and then tells you what job boards are out there. This is a great idea, but NicheBoards.com is only associated with 11 other industry web sites so the job listings are extremely limited. 

2. Search for keywords (YOUR INDUSTRY + jobs) or (YOUR INDUSTRY + employment) or (“YOUR INDUSTRY + YOUR CITY + entry level jobs) on Google. 

3. Search the job boards that are part of affinity groups and professional associations in your local area. Look at the job postings listed by industry on your college career center web site. Check out the alumni database from your school and ask alums who work in the industries you’re interested in what professional organizations they belong to. 

Resume Advice

Here’s a link to an article about crafting your resume by Kevin Donlin, a career columnist for a newspaper in Minnesota and the man behind Guaranteed Resumes, LLC. He’s no longer in the resume writing business, but he offers a lot of free advice for job seekers online.

I liked this article because it talks about many of the topics we cover in our book. For those who just want a quick summary of the article, here you go:

1. Be professional and don’t use an immature or silly email address. (i.e. drinkbeeralldaylong@dumbemailaddress.com.)

2. Avoid spelling and grammatical errors. (Larger companies use scanning software to skim your resume for certain keywords that apply to the position they’re hiring for. If you misspell the words that are meant to communicate your key qualifications, your resume will never see the light of day.)

3. Keep your resume to one page. It is highly doubtful that you have enough experience to fill two pages at this point in your career. 

4. Do not enhance your resume with buzzwords you don’t understand, or experience you don’t really have. Stick to the truth.

5. Be patient. Finding a full-time job is a full-time job.

To read more about what NOT to do during your job search, click here to visit our Tips & Articles section of GradtoGreat.com.

Networking vs. Online Job Boards

Let’s explore the pro’s and con’s of networking vs. online job boards when conducting your job search.

In this economic downturn, the job market favors employers. HR Managers do not need to spend their time sifting through hundreds of online applications when most of them are already being contacted directly by qualified candidates within their own networks. Over 70% of jobs are acquired through personal contacts. Less than 2% of jobs are found through online job sites. I think you’ll find less desirable job postings being advertised with the major online job sites. 

You’ll get better results if you spend the majority of your job search energy tapping into your network of professors, contacts from past internships, friends, parents, coaches, part-time jobs, etc. The downside of networking…not sure how to do this? Read more about building up your network.

What about the pro’s of an online job search? Job sites can be highly beneficial if you use them to your advantage. Meaning, don’t just submit resumes for the posted positions. Consider the company as a whole. Is it someplace you would like to work? If so, find a way to get in front of the hiring manager and let them know. Are they offering career fairs on your campus, in your city, at a neighboring college or location?

Find out who the contact person is. If it’s not listed on the job description page, go directly to the companies web site and search there. Still can’t find a name? Call the company and ask for the HR department, or simply ask who the HR manager is. Sometimes it may be a department manager that you need to send your resume to. Just do your research and get the email address and correct spelling of their name. Sending your resume to a specific person will always get you noticed faster than someone who simply addresses their cover letter to “HR Respresentative of job #366374.” 

Consider the following questions when searching job sites?

1. Does one company have lots of openings? For example, 2-5 pages seem to be devoted entirely to their positions. There could be a few reasons for this and you need to determine which it is. 

a. They have so much turnover they always have these jobs posted. This usually occurs with low paying or commission only based sales positions, volunteer positions, and other hard to fill positions. 

b. It’s a recruiting firm that is simply listing hypothetical jobs. They’ll ask you to come in and fill out a ton of paperwork, take typing tests, and then they get paid if they find you a job. For entry level applicants fresh out of college, you’ll usually get stuck with temp work or low paying admin type jobs. 

c. It’s a new company and really does have several opportunities available. (Not likely in this current economy)

Job Sites to Avoid

These are web sites that you might want to avoid while conducting an online job search. I have found little evidence that they would be useful to college graduates. 

In this job market, networking is the way to get your foot in the door. Uploading your resume to online job sites is pretty much a waste of time right now. 

But, as some job seekers are determined to put out as many resumes as possible anyway, here are a few sites we reviewed and feel are not worthy of your time. 

HelpWanted.com
Anyone can post jobs on this site for free. I have found positions such as tree climber, and a position with AT&T for $654. Interesting. Could it be that no one is checking the accuracy of the job postings…because the site exists for the sole purpose of making money off the google ads? Hmmm.    

JobFox.com
We found this site to be one we really can’t endorse at this time. At first the site appeared to be well designed and easy to navigate, but we couldn’t actually complete the entire application process without the site freezing up. Also, JobFox will only present certain resumes to employers, so there is no guarantee your resume will ever land in any HR department. In addition, they have recently laid off sales staff, leading us to believe that your efforts are better spent getting in touch with employers directly. 

SnagaJob.com
This web site is great if you need part-time work while you’re still in school, or seasonal work like over the holiday break. But, this site is dedicated to hourly employment. It’s not the job site where you’ll find your first career gig after college.  

GradtoGreat.com is starting a blog!

Beth and I are excited about our new blog for GradtoGreat.com. If you’ve visited our web site in the last few months you know we’ve taken a brief hiatus to attend to some family business. In September we were devastated to lose our father to lung cancer. And more recently (some good news),  we both had baby girls. My daughter Hannah was born in mid-October, and Beth’s little girl Josie (named after our dad Joe) was born in late November.

While it’s been a chaotic last few months, we’re looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. Our quarterly newsletter will be out again in January, and we’ll formally launch our blog at that time as well. We look forward to hearing more success stories from recent grads about their experiences finding jobs in a very challenging market.