Job Search Strategies for New Graduates

Success!  Congratulations as you’ve worked hard and toiled in the classroom for 4+ years and now it’s time to see it all come to fruition as you enter working adulthood! The job market is a huge entity and for those walking in, it can be a cold splash in the face for even the most seasoned job-seekers, much less new grads just getting their feet wet! Below are 10 common mistakes of job hunters (new ones in particular) and following that are 10 tips to get your search going so that you can stand out!

Tips for a Successful Job Search

Tips for a Successful Job Search

Ten Common Mistakes of the (New) Job Hunter

1) Not Being Proactive
2) Using the Internet AS your job search
3) Not Networking Effectively
4) Not Tailoring Resumes and/or Cover Letters
5) Misusing/under-utilizing the Internet
6) Failing to Follow Up
7) Setting Expectations Too High
8) Not Appearing Professional
9) Not Taking the Job Interview Seriously
10) Not Utilizing Your College’s and/or professional Career Services

Now, Ten Tips to get you Really Moving in your Job Search!

1. Research, research and then research some more!

As with any job search plan, one of the most important steps is to do the up-front research. If you have a degree in a chosen field, it’s best to research opportunities and get a general feel as to what the requirements are to be and how organizations differ from one another. Sure, Google and Microsoft (Bing) specialize in search, but are they the same? No. Ford and Chevrolet both manufacture and sell automobiles, but are the two companies the same? No. It is your ‘job’ to be able to distinguish an organization before approaching. Today, especially, there’s an inordinate amount of information available for job-seekers, and to an employer, there’s no excuse you didn’t use it in identifying what makes them unique.

2. Get your resumes (yes, plural!) ready.

Make them specific and tailored for each position and industry. Use your headings, categories and descriptions to give your resume flow and ‘a story’ that speaks to each employer. A generic resume smells of desperation and/or indifference and when an employer has hundreds, if not thousands, it can go by unrecognized.  If it doesn’t ‘speak’ to the role and the nuance of each organization it gets put in the ‘circular file,’ damned for eternity.

3. Just as important, get your cover letters to speak.

Make them so they are not the generic – “as a new grad, I am really interested in a position at your organization… etc., etc….” This doesn’t SAY anything. Use the cover letter to speak to them.  Connect your experience, skills and, most importantly, interest to what they do. Remember, the organization is NOT thinking about you. They are only interested if they can be thinking about HOW you can help them. Your letter needs to sell them on that fact!

4. For grads, be sure to visit your college’s career services office and/or seek professional assistance.

Utilize these resources for career counseling, job and internship listings, access to recruiting programs, and career networking. The staff is typically seasoned in helping you get your materials in order and preparing you for your search. Remember, the ‘job’ of the career office is to help PREPARE you for your job search, not to conduct it for you so you need to be proactive and willing to do the leg-work.  If already out of school and graduated, hiring on a career services professional can be a great way to get objective, resourceful guidance and assistance that can be a huge investment.

5. Being connected and online is your friend.

Allows for real-time information and connection. Obviously, there are a number of online job boards for job seekers, and using your time to keep abreast of these; job listings, postings, job search tips and career advice, is important as a puzzle piece to your job search. As a side benefit, but just as important, keeping your social networks active and in the loop at the same time.

6. Promote and clean-up your on-line presence and profiles.

Use sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to your advantage in self-branding. Many companies now use these social networks to advertise, meet and recruit.  Connecting with prospective employers via social networks could be a way to get in the door. Many organizations now gauge the aptitude of a prospective employee not only by their professional and educational experience, but their online biographical presence. What you say and how you present yourself online can, and will, translate into real-world perception. Whether positive or negative is up to you!

7. Take advantage of recruiting and career fairs.

These are a great way to strike up mini informational interviews with organizational representatives that are trying to sell you their organization. These are great venues to ask questions, pick up valuable advice and then use that in your marketing of self! Bring copies of your resume to distribute as this is a terrific way to connect and position yourself with potential hiring managers, not to mention any information gleaned can then be used in a follow-up cover letter and interview.

8. Package yourself to promote!

Learn the basic etiquette of job-hunting which includes dressing appropriately, learning the importance of a good handshake, eye contact and thank you notes and emails. Take advantage of the plethora of career articles online which outline all the basic requirements of the job search process.

9. Network extensively and politely, professionally, but shamelessly, USE them!

You cannot have too many people in your corner when you are looking to secure a job, and networking plays a critical role in the process. Networking can be both formal and informal. Friends, family, neighbors, alumni, even people you meet on the bus or at a store are potential conduits in generating job openings.

10. Volunteering or taking an internship is good and good for you.

A great way to ‘test’ an area of interest and bolster your skills. These programs, some of which can be paid, are a valuable way to gather on-the-job training which can work to make your resume stronger and give you tangible experience. In some cases, if all goes well, many organizations will consider offering you a position on a permanent basis based on what they’ve seen. As a volunteer or intern, it can help put your finger on the pulse of an organization and you can position (see research above!) yourself immediately for interviews should job openings occur.

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What’s Missing in the College Experience? Part 3 of 4

A stands for 'average!'

A stands for ‘average!’

Part 3 of “What’s Missing in the College Experience” – Everyone’s Getting A’s

There has been an over-saturation of high grades in the academic world lately. I am not nearly the first to write about the subject; the phenomena has caught the attention of many school administrations as well. The truth is that, statistically, most people are average. Most people fall near the middle of a bell curve, but many college professors have been awarding a disproportionate number of A’s to students. The prevalent culture dictates that if you don’t have A’s across the board, you aren’t a good student. This plays heavily into an unrealistic expectation for students of how the world will react to them, and overall it hurts their levels of success in the working world.” (Eli Lisseck ’13)

I don’t think that it’s been any secret in terms how ‘academic creep’ has seeped into our educational institutions. It has certainly been not an isolated manifestation as democratization has worked its way into the fabric of many parts of society; trophies awarded for showing up, everyone on the field getting a ball, surveys (see below) really becoming a simple pass/fail response instead of recognizing shades of grey, etc.

In terms of academia, it has been an increasing trend creeping through the college campuses and taking over the academic culture in a slow, and steadily upward way. Even reaching the Ivy Leagues with the most recent, and perhaps the most publicized showcasing in the news being Harvard and how grade inflation, or the expectation thereof, has become the new rule. In Harvard’s case in particular, the ‘average’ grade is reported as being an ‘A’ with the median grade being an ‘A minus.’ Turns out one of the nation’s most ‘rigorous’ academic programs is also one of the nation’s most lenient graders.

Now how is this even possible you ask? In fact, it is, and should be, statistically impossible for if you were to look at a bell curve, there should be an appropriate distribution of each grade, A through F with the average award being somewhere in the middle near the C range. So, whatever the rumors were about C being average, apparently that’s not the case anymore.

Currently, as an A has become the new C on students’ transcripts, it brings the question to mind, what does earning an ‘A’ even mean anymore if they’re being given out like confetti? I wrote in a previous post about an increase in employer skepticism as they have the luxury in today’s economy to really put the lens of scrutiny on potential candidates in the hiring process. It has changed the hiring process in that there’s nothing really to differentiate a candidate today if you simply look at one’s transcript and academic history; everyone is stellar, spectacular and an A-level scholar. So when an A used to mean that a student was putting in the sweat-equity to earn that mark, now it is looked upon as merely an automatic, an expectation on the employer’s part, so, again, if everyone has one, what is its real value? And if it doesn’t reflect exceptionality, what does?

Further, according to a December Washington Post article, nearly 41 percent of undergraduates obtain a grade of A- or higher, while only 5 percent of undergraduates are receiving grades of C or less, nationally. Again, this is a statistical impossibility of the true bell curve’s measurement of students as a group and, what the grade inflation obviates is, that colleges are losing their grasp on how to gauge students’ work and the ramifications attached to that.

There is a two-fold factor that has contributed to grade inflation making its creep in our nation’s colleges and universities. One is mainly because employers want the ‘best’ students and so it stands to reason that they want to see A’s. If a student receives an A then they must be good. Secondly, in combination with this, generally professors want to help their students and in addition they simply want to be liked, which is perfectly understandable but in an overarching way, in helping, they are hurting.

For an employer who’s hiring on-campus, and A means exceptional, and that’s all they’ll see in the moment. They’ll just see that A, of that student, in that moment which, hypothetically, was awarded to that individual student for his/her perfect competence in Corporate Finance or something of that ilk. They are, or I should say were, unaware that the grade they coveting, could essentially be offered by any student they are to meet.

It reminds me of a recent (analogous) interaction I had when bringing a Volvo in for service. I had the work done, paid the bill and left. Afterwards, I was asked to complete a survey on my ‘experience’ as everything is now an experience. I agreed and the survey was a typical 1-10 sort, meaning 1’s get everyone fired and 10 is exceptional!

Or so I had assumed. In thinking about my ‘experience’ and also thinking it good; I’ll give 7’s & 8’s as I thought it fair and representative of their work. For reference, to me a 1 is either losing the car I came in with or breaking something, making it worse AND charging me for it, while a 10, on the other hand, would be when the work is done for free along with a paid trip to Tahiti!

In any case, shortly after seeing the 7’s & 8’s I recorded on the survey I received a call from the dealer’s “Crisis Team” to mitigate this catastrophe….

They asked me “what was wrong and why was I dissatisfied?”

I said “I wasn’t at all.”

They said “well if that’s the case, then we really aspire to receive 10’s on the survey.”

So, I asked, “if that’s the case, why did you not qualify that to begin with and if so, then what does the 1-9 on your survey really even mean?”

They told me that “anything below a 10 was a failure and they would seek to rectify such.”

That didn’t really answer my question so I again said, “essentially what’s the point of 1-9 then? Shouldn’t it just be pass/fail instead if you’re not allowing for an gradation in the evaluative process? I stated that I was happy with the work, it wasn’t a binary situation of either a 10 (happy) or everything else (sad). I wasn’t willing to just simply give 10’s and if you’re wanting to view this as a ‘failure’ then that is your option to do so.”

Getting back to the issue at hand, academics, the real solution, and the more difficult one, like the service issue I just reflected on, is to deflate the grade nationally across the spectrum. Allow for the shades in between a simple pass or fail structure. Faculty, managers, supervisors, whatever the case may be, must grade throughout the spectrum and be willing to give D’s and C’s for average work, and students must once again feel the need and work hard for the almighty A. If this is the case then the A can once again achieve something in it’s real meaning; being exceptional!

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The Buzz Words are Killing Me!

Overheard from the planet, umm, table next to me recently while sitting at a café; 

Academic Buzz Words

Buzzwords of Academia

“Often I see a common core representation of the information exposure delivery model with an achievable outcome of deliverables that best fits our pedagogy in increasing students’ knowledge of self and of work and learning options. These best practices in increasing student’s understanding of hegemony in the process of engaging incoming students in major exploration prior to their arrival on a college campus and allowing us to blend the marginalized into a better acknowledgement of cultural acceptance and awareness…”

Huh?  I could feel the headache starting to come on…. 

I was, in fact, minding my own business for the most part, but the unintelligible pretension next to me was too much to ignore so I started to tune in.  On an intellectual level I understood each and every word.  I was able to process what was said; “dog,” “staircase,” “banana,” each word I knew, but while understanding such, when strung together, what the hell did I just hear?  What are you meaning to say?  It makes absolutely no sense!  Is it even English? 

So, it got me to thinking as I live in a college town and these sorts of discussions are pretty commonplace.  Enough so, that it’s almost the norm and it’s easy to forget what simple, normal, regular, refreshing laymen’s speak is like.  I looked around a bit and actually found there’s a coined term for this alternative form of English; “Academese.”

“Academese” – An artificial form of communication commonly used in institutes of higher education designed to make small, irrelevant ideas appear important and original. Proficiency in academese is achieved when you begin inventing your own words and no one can understand what you are writing or saying (as defined by the “Tameri Guide for Writers”).  A “new language” used to communicate amongst each other that is so patronizingly littered with industry jargon, that it can only elicit two possible responses; the quizzical head-shaking of one who hears it, doesn’t get it, and feels they may be missing something, OR the nodding of heads in Jim Jones like, ‘drink-the-Kool-Aid,’ admiration by the very loyal followers that commit to such.

Now let me just qualify that this writing is in no way meant to be a condemnation of the academic institutions in our nation, nor those that work within.  Bear in mind that it is written somewhat tongue-in-cheek, and that this may be seen as an attempt to take away people’s ‘boxes’ that they like to work within, but there is cause for something to think about.  What’s said and communicated in the academic ranks today is a far different way of speaking, literally a different form of communication than in the ‘work place’ of America. 

This may not be ‘news’ as it’s really nothing new, but what IS new is how divergent in recent years the language chasm has evolved?  Realizing this, and that it is our nation’s preparation of a new generation for the work force, does bring to mind the question, are the college grads indeed being best served by those who steward?

David Foster Wallace is quoted as saying;  “I regard Academic English not as a dialectal variation but as a grotesque debasement of Standard Written English, and loathe it even more than the stilted incoherencies of Presidental English… or the mangled pieties of ‘Business Speak….’  and in support of this utter contempt and intolerance I cite no less an authority than Mr. G. Orwell, who 50 years ago had Academic English pegged as a ‘mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence’ in which ‘it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.’”  – Harper’s Magazine, April 2001

Time in college & university is frequently some of the most intellectually stimulating years of one’s life.  Unfortunately, it also means navigating an exhausting and expansive gauntlet of ever increasing pretense and jargon that is a verbal exercise of intellectual leap-frog, if you will.  Let’s examine a few of the now ubiquitous linguistic words & phrases of the academic elite, in no particular order;

“Giving 110%” – When you hear this said, you’re basically hearing someone yelling that they’ve failed 3rd grade math!  Effort’s certainly measurable but 100% is everything!  You can give no more!  Your ‘everything,’ no matter what it consists of, is 100%, that’s it!  Such a cliché expression and because ‘everything’ is ALL you can give, if you’re claiming it, you’ve essentially duped someone into expecting less so that anything more can be perceived as that ‘110%!’  If that’s the case, you’ve still only given, at most, ‘everything,’ or 100%!  Even if you were to clone yourself, then you’d be expected to give 100% x 2.  At 110% you’ve then failed by 45%.  See the maths!?

“Reach Out” – this has become a mainstay in the language of wanting or needing to include others.  Jargon for, “let’s set up a meeting” or “let’s contact this person.”  Just say that.  Use your words people! 

“Leverage” – This is the granddaddy of all when it comes to nouns converted to verbs, second only to Facebook as in, ‘facebook me!’  ‘Leverage’ is sweepingly used as a pseudo-verb to describe how manipulation can be applied to a situation.  Should be a noun and remain such.

“Think Outside the Box” – This is a ridiculous and overly used phrase coined by the consulting industry and then adopted by academia long after it had already become cliché.  No one thinks ‘inside’ the box anymore!  They’re not allowed to!  This tired cliché means to approach a problem or situation in an unconventional fashion.  How about this?  Just think!  Get rid of the box!!!

“Best Practice(s)” – Ugh!  I can’t go an hour without seeing or reading about someone asking for best practices!  This refers to a method or technique that is supposed to deliver ‘superior results’ compared with other methods and techniques.  But who knowingly uses ‘mediocre practices’ and who defines what’s ‘best?’  Singularly one of the most pompous linguistic confections sprinkled over the industry.  Particularly annoying is the fact that it flows like cocaine in ‘Tony Montana’s’ house in the movie “Scarface.”

“Deliverables” – Deliverables?  Really?  How and when did this become the term for a finished product?  Granted, it does sound sexy in the meeting; “why yes, the student deliverables are in the final stages.”  Proposals, workshops, brochures, whatever the case may be, just say what you mean instead of trying to make it sound more important than it is.

“Multi-Tasker”Let’s give this one its LONG overdue resting place.  Multi-tasking is doing a lot, poorly.  Simple.  Sadly, it’s used waaay too often as a badge of honor; “I’m so busy but I’m multi-tasking to get the job done.”  In saying such, you’re telling people two things; 1) that your time management is essentially poor so you’re scratching at a lot of things at once, and 2) you may be ‘getting a lot done’ but nothing particularly well done!  No matter the accolades for your heroic undertakings, quantity kills quality.  This phrase really needs to be sent to the dust-bin.

“Empower” – Everything and everyone is always being ’empowered.’  Sounds good on the surface but what’s not realized is that this overly used verb basically says “you’re allowed do a little bit of this, but I’m still in charge here.  I am empowering you.”  Essentially tasked by someone above you in pay grade when they would like you to do a job of some importance. It’s also called the ‘most condescending transitive verb’ ever.  If ever you hear this platitudinous request directed your way, duck, ’cause you’re being talked down to but you’re NOT supposed to realize such….

“Irregardless” – This is the only ‘word’ on this list that isn’t actually a word!  Please; if you mean ‘regardless’ or ‘irrespective,’ say such!  All too often, these are now combined, so much to the point that somehow this bastardized amalgam of the English language seems to have made a place in our vocabulary.  Once, at a campus-wide meeting, I listened to the Dean of the School of Education let this one fly in the presentation.  No one said anything but you could hear the collective gasp!

“Buy-In” – This means agreement on a course of action.  Sadly, it is laced with a disingenuous undertone.  Notes David Logan, professor of management and organization at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business: “Asking for someone’s ‘buy-in’ says, ‘I have an idea.  I didn’t involve you because I didn’t value you enough to discuss it with you.  I want you to embrace it as if you were in on it from the beginning, because that would make me feel really good.’”  

“Cultural” – Sure, “cultural” is already a relatively common word, but academics tend to let it flow as freely as a Porsche on the German Autobahn.  Presumably, this is because they want their oft-captive audiences to think them ever so worldly and knowledgeable.  Its use is never ending as a shameless inclusion and plug; “we’re off for a cultural meal!”  “I have a cultural meeting to attend.”  “The get together was so cultural in nature…!”

“Dichotomy” – The ubiquity of “dichotomy” understandably happens due to its near-universal relevance as conveniently it can be made to have context in anything & everything.  Every class and degree path guarantees studying at least one!  That being said, the good thing is that once you’re done with your degree and have graduated, you’ll not hear the word again and can forget it exists. 

“Diaspora” – As a concept, it is entirely necessary for students to understand the social, political, anthropological, sociological, psychological, geo-political and economic elements of the word and how it relates to the world around them.  Just don’t confuse it with ‘diorama’ as the art majors have a hold on that one!

“Empirical” – Visible, tangible, simple as that!  No matter one’s major, he or she will likely encounter “empirical” over and over and over and over and over and over and probably over again until you’re using it everywhere unbeknownst as we do in the word “like;” “hold on, I’m going to get my empirical example of a sandwich.”  Granted, it can be an essential component of debate and rhetoric, but would it kill professors to use a few synonyms for variety’s sake?

“Hegemony” – There exists no aesthetically sexier term than “hegemony.” But college students know all too well that even hotness with a touch of Marxism gets tiresome after repeated exposure, especially if it keeps hammering out the exact same points.  We get it!  (Wikipedia definition) “Cultural Hegemony describes the domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class, who manipulate the culture of the society — the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores — so that their ruling-class worldview becomes the worldview that is imposed and accepted as the cultural norm; as the universally valid dominant ideology that justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural, inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.”  Huh?

“Collaborate” – If your department head or supervisor says ‘you need to collaborate,’ they are telling you, without telling you, that they are not entrusting you on you own to handle the task at hand and there remains better or more credible sources elsewhere so “reach out” (see above) and get them involved!

“Marginalized” – Marginalized and education walk arm-in-arm on the way home every night.  Like plenty of other terms highlighted here, few will deny that “marginalized” doesn’t have its place at the table too.  The fringes of society should be heard and have a place but with the frequency of its application, students also have the right to hear the idea relayed with different words, and there’s a numbness growing to its use as ‘everything is now in the margins.’

“Pedagogy” – Good luck getting those first-years (remember, “freshman” is a tired, old anachronism) to listen to anything attached to this in a sentence.  While it actually sports a simple, straightforward definition; one more easily conveyed using layman’s terms, people will spend more time wondering if the second ‘g’ is pronounced ‘gee’ or not?

Very few classrooms, not to mention the institutions themselves, around the nation provide effective career readiness curriculum and understanding that actually demonstrate career decision-making models that show students how to analyze, evaluate, decide, set career plans while in the midst of their studies and then tangibly put them into action. There is a huge gap, a chasm if you will, between academic institutions and what they provide, and what the employment market on the other side of the fence is actually looking for? 

The interesting thing is that the institutions don’t see this or see it in varying degrees of acceptance and, as the saying goes; ‘they don’t know what they don’t know?’  The language, as mentioned in this writing, is part & parcel to the divide.  You might even say “empirical” evidence, from the list above. 

People don’t communicate like this off campus, after graduation.  Not recognizing such shows a great anachronism in the teaching, the preparing of our nation’s youth, the college grad, for their next endeavor; adulthood and the employment that comes packaged with such. 

Until ‘life after college’ connection permeates every department and academic major on the nation’s campuses, this divide will be evident and students leaving with their degrees in hand, wet-behind-the-ears being told, “You’re going to be great!  Do great things!  You’re you!” and other such cliché and empty accolades, the divide will continue in its evidence and the students, now graduates, will be looking back asking “why did I pay for that!?    

So the next time you hear someone mentioning the need to “reach out,” “touch base,” “shift a paradigm,” “leverage a best practice” or worse “join a tiger team,” please kindly lean in and tell them to ‘do it!’  Just don’t let them say they’re doing it!

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