The Best Plan for Finding a Job After Graduation

Are you still looking to finding a job after graduation? It has been a month and you have filled out a dozen applications and have not heard back from any potential employers. What are you doing right and what are you doing wrong?Do you feel like you can’t wait to finally start your life and your career but there are external forces beyond your control preventing you from being successful in your job hunt? Maybe you are feeling scared and apprehensive to start adulting now. No matter how you feel about it, one thing is for sure–You have to do it!

You’ve been preparing for this your whole life ( or at least, the last few years in college) up to this point. Here are some tips on how to conduct the best job search, no matter where you are in your career. The same practice applies whether you are just starting out or looking for that corner office.

Have a Professional Look at your Resume

Once you have a good rough draft of your resume or CV, consider having a professional look at it. They will be able to help you polish and finalize it.

(Psssst! I offer FREE resume critiques!)

Don’t forget that you will need to tailor your resume for each job you apply for. Basically, this means you need to edit or adjust and rearrange your content so that the most relevant information for the specific job you are applying for is easy to find.

Limited experiences does not mean that your resume will look amateurish. You can tailor a resume (without lying) to highlight your strengths and downplay your lack of real world experience. This is one of the toughest tasks I encounter when writing resumes. When I speak to recruiters, they tell me how they can look at a resume and within 10 seconds, they can tell if the candidate used an internet template or cut and paste a job description. Amateur resumes rarely get a second look.

Develop a Routine for Checking Job Postings

Finding a job is a job. You have to work at it every day. Block out time every day to work on your job search. Find some great job boards and sites with job postings and check them every day.

Don’t forget to use social media platforms to find job postings as well. Indeed is a great website, but I strongly suggest going to company websites that you may have an interest in working for. Not every available job is in search engines.

Use Your Network and Reach out to Alumni

Most people find a new job through someone they know–it’s true! Tap into the alumni network while you are still full of school spirit. One of the best ways to do that is through LinkedIn. It is easy to search people who have graduated from the same school as you. Then you can see what fields they work in and where they work. Narrow it down a bit and then reach out to those who may be able to help you. It’s all about who you know.

Social Media: friend and foe

You should be using social media to your advantage, however, you need to take a good hard look at what you have on your personal pages that are visible to the public. The pics of the keg stands at your spring formal are hilarious and look like a lot of fun, but if a potential employer is snooping around to see if your character would be a good fit for the company, they may be turned off by all of the alcohol centered pictures that you post. I once asked a client to clean up her Facebook and Instagram page since it was littered with a lot of inflammatory political rhetoric, 420 references and group selfies with beers in hand and bars in backgrounds. She thought it was painful to erase her social identity, but the payoff was well worth it.

Keep up with industry news

According to Monster.com, even though you don’t have a job yet, you need to stay on top of what’s going on in your field. There are three basic things you should be doing to keep up with industry news:

1. Read trade publications and industry journals 2. Join professional social media groups 3. Follow social media feeds of companies and industry influencers

The news can clue you in to trends in hiring, companies on the rise, and companies going through rough patches.

Prepare for Interviews

Practice, practice, practice. See my other blog entries about interviewing techniques and how to answer questions effectively.

If you have not already done so, please like, follow, comment and share my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/NYMinuteResume

If you are actively looking for work or you are preparing for an interview, I strongly recommend you bookmark and regularly read my blog at: http://richardfruscione.wixsite.com/newyorkminuteresume