Who Is In Your Network? (and we’re not talking Verizon)

As the program director at Beyond Graduation, I believe the most important element of a successful job hunt is a strong network.  

These are some of the people and places where you can begin to build your network:

1.  Your Parents

2.  Your Parents’ Friends

3.  Friends’ Parents

4.  Professors

5.  Former Employers

6.  Join LinkedIn

7.  Alumni Clubs

8.  Fraternity/Sorority

For advice regarding making the connection with people, check out one of our previous posts: Throwing a Network Dinner

If you consider yourself a nervous person, read this post.   It offers some great advice for breaking the ice and making the networking experience an enjoyable one.

When Is It Okay To Take A Job You’re Too Qualified For?

I was contacted by a friend from college last week, who told me that he’d been out of work since January.  This young man had been in the real world for several years, had a bachelors degree from a great university, but found himself unemployed when the company he worked for went out of business.  

That was six months ago.  He still hasn’t secured a job.  

In years past, I’ve heard that the average job search usually takes around 100 days.  Well, while I am hopeful that the job market is improving, it appears like the job search in 2009 may be double, if not triple, the length of years past.  

My friend, who has become somewhat desperate, is currently interviewing for a $10/hr job that probably requires the skills of someone with a high school diploma.  So when is it okay to take jobs that you’re too qualified for?  One word:  Potential.

If you are willing to take a job that is below your pay grade, make sure there is significant potential in terms of growth, education and opportunity.  Be strategic and view every job as an opportunity to take the next step.  If you just graduated from college and you’re looking for a job at the local ice cream store, I’d say that you need to spend some more time looking.  

View your first jobs as “stepping stones” and make sure that each stone always has it’s purpose.

Save Money On Resume Reviews

If you’ve never had someone look at your resume….let’s get on it.  At Beyond Graduation, we’ve done a bit of work to look for some of the best free resume reviews available on the internet.  While some resume designers charge hundreds of $$$ for new resumes, there are a ton of services out there that will either review, design or rate your resume for little to no cost at all.  Take the time to check out some of the links below and see if they provide you with some positive advice.  

1.  FreeResumeReview.org

2.  Reach Branding Club

3.  The Lorenc Group

4.  Path 101

5.  Beyond Graduation (we had to include ourselves!!!)

 

Take the time to search through the internet and find some resume services that will provide you with free or low-cost reviews.  While we’re not knocking the more expensive services, we personally believe that you can make some seriously positive changes to your resume using some of the services mentioned above.  Good Luck!!!

When Moving Home Can Make All The Difference In The Job Hunt

For many from the Class of 2009, this weekend was the last “hoorah!”  College is over.  While some of you may have great jobs and apartments to move into, most students return home to live with the ‘rents to get over the culture shock of the real world.  If you’re moving back home, don’t feel bad.  Here’s a statistic for you:

 

65% of College Graduates Return Home To Live With Their Parents

While moving home may seem to be a situation just worse of moving in with your weird Uncle, it can be a great way to build a foundation for a successful life after college.  First, use this as an opportunity to cut some major costs in your life…primarily: RENT.  Unless your parents are on the “tough” side of things, most of you will be able to get away living with your parents rent-free for a period of time.  Second, moving back home usually includes home-cooked meals.  Not only will this be a great way to trim your food budget, it’s also a great way to trim your waist.  College students tend to subject themselves to mass amounts of Wendys, McDonalds and Burger Kings over the course of their four or five years.  Finances can be a very difficult arena for young adults and maintaining a relatively debt-free life is a huge plus for any college graduate.  If you think about it this way, the less debt you have, the longer it is acceptable to look for a job that really meets your needs.  While that doesn’t mean you should go jobless for years at a time, it does mean that limited debt will give you the flexibility to look a bit longer for that job that really meets your needs.

In terms of networking, use the “at home” time as a chance to get to know your parents, their profession and their friends.  Whether your parents are super social or intense introverts, there’s a strong chance that they’ll have a contact or two that may prove to be beneficial.  Keep your parents updated about your job search and request assistance when you feel it’s necessary.

Finally, enjoy spending some time with your family.  While most of you have spent the last four years away, this will most likely be the last time you get to really spend a significant amount of time with your parents.  Cherish the opportunity and enjoy it while you still can.  I guarantee you…paying bills isn’t that much fun.

Top 10 Career Advice Tweeple That You Need To Be Following

It’s that time of year again…Caps, Gowns, Diplomas.  The Class of 2009 is preparing to join the rest of us in this wonderful place called “The Real World.”  At Beyond Graduation, we have been preparing many of our clients for perhaps one of the most challenging job markets this side of the Great Depression. While we believe our resources and experts are top notch, we certainly realize that there are hundreds and thousands of wonderful career-advising minds throughout this great land.  With that in mind, we motivate our clients to follow people on Twitter who we feel provide great advice for college-age job applicants.  Over the past few months, we have created a list of the top 10 Twitter people (Tweeple) who regularly provide amazing content and advice.  In no particular order, we have put together this list as a thanks to those who have helped to motivate the young adults with whom we work.  Keep up the good work!!!

Top 10 Career Advice Tweeples (in no particular order)

1.  CAREEREALISM (www.careerealism.com)

Using their T.A.P. (Twitter Advice Project), CAREEREALISM and it’s founder, J.T. O’Donnell, are revolutionizing interactive career advising through Twitter.  With television episodes, compelling articles and a staff of young adults, Careerealism.com is sure to be a major player in College Career Advising.

2.  DanSchawbel (http://personalbrandingblog.com)

A personal branding expert for Generation Y and the author of Me 2.0, Schawbel commands an impressive following as a result of the great content he provides and directs his followers to.  With a television show, book and blog, it’s impressive to see a young adult with such an understanding of marketing in the job market.

3.  HeatherHuhman (http://www.heatherhuhman.com)

The editor of Entry-Level Careers at Examiner.com, Huhman has written about every topic a college student could potentially face in beginning their job search.  As a frequent contributor to T.A.P., Huhman isn’t afraid to speak her mind when she disagrees about a topic.  Her ability to incorporate career advisers and her own expertise into her publications is just another example of her journalistic excellence.

4.  SweetCareers (http://sweetcareers.blogspot.com)

Grace Kutney is a career advisor and one of our favorites at Beyond Graduation.  With over ten years of experience, Kutney utilizes both Twitter and her blog to discuss areas of career advising specifically relevant to college students.  Her blog features video tutorials and job board reviews, which are a huge hit with our clients.

5.  Gradspot (www.gradspot.com)

While Gradspot.com is not solely dedicated to providing career advice to college students, their comprehensive approach to transition college students into the Real World is something that we believe is extremely important.  Founder Stuart Schultz provides students with advice ranging from roommates to health insurance, 401K’s to using your Student ID after college.  This is a great resource for any college student and recent college grad.

6.  onlineresume (http://www.resumebear.com/blog/)

Offering a free online resume builder, Resume Bear offers some of the most comprehensive resume and cover letter advice on the internet.  Don’t let the name fool you, onlineresume offers advice in almost every area of career planning and their frequent updates on Twitter provide all of us with great food for thought.

7.  JobHuntOrg (http://Job-Hunt.org)

With career advising, career planning and the job search moving to the internet, how can you not include a woman who is the foremost expert on online job hunting?  With over 13 years of experience and a website that boasts over 12,000 employer contacts, JobHuntOrg is a great resource for college students, graduates or transitional careers.

8.  rgilles (http://www.renelgilles.com)

Renel Gilles has a lot on his plate.  From providing career advice through his blog and Twitter account, to overseeing both ahlumni.com and zabajobs.com, Renel is another one of our favorite sources for career advice.  As his blog will illustrate, his focus may be in the medial and IT fields; however, that has prevented any of the Beyond Graduation clients from following his daily advice.  While he may not have the following of some of the others on our list, we think it’s only a matter of time before people start realizing what type of content Mr. Gilles is putting out there.

9.  JobSearchNinja (http://www.integritycareertransitions.com/blog/)

Aside from loving the name, the JobSearchNinja (Todd Bavol) was one of the first career experts that we began following at Beyond Graduation.  While his advice may not always be geared towards college students, it is certainly applicable and important to take note of.  His website, much like most of our tweeple, contains innovative content and is updated daily.

10.  JillTipograph (http://www.everythingsummer.com)

Jill Tipograph made the list because of a program that she is spearheading this summer known as The College Career Bootcamp (www.careerbootcampnyc.com).  As something that Beyond Graduation has dreamed about doing, Jill is bringing our dreams to reality.  The opportunity for college students from around the country to meet, interact and learn from some of the top executives in the country.  Her cutting-edge approach to career planning will certainly be something to look out for.

From Beyond Graduation, I want to thank all of you for the wonderful career advice that you’ve provided through your websites and Twitter.  While I hope the next few months offer continued improvement in the job market, continue to remember that millions of young adults are going to be entering a very challenging time in their lives, and it is our job to give them the advice and resources necessary for success.

Is Your Resume Viewable On Your Recruiter’s Computer?

Over the past few weeks, Beond Graduation has been reviewing numbers of resumes for the Class of 2009.  We like to think of it as our little gift to this year’s graduates.  With that being said, something crossed my mind as our staff began downloading submitted resumes. 

Many of these resumes change format on different computers. 

Whether it’s a Word Doc. or Docx. or PDF, it was apparent that the structure and design of many resumes were not downloading as they should.  I bring up this point because many of our clients have been submitting to jobs through employer websites and/or e-mail.  If you are sending your resume as a Microsoft Word document and the recruiter is using a Macintosh, there is a small chance that your resume isn’t going to format and therefore it won’t be nearly as visually stimulating as when you sent it.

So how can you prevent this from happening?

At Beyond Graduation, we suggest that you always save the “e-mail” copy of your resume in PDF form.  The majority of computers have the software necessary to read .pdf files and it is highly unlikely that your format will be altered in any way.  If you decide to do this, just make sure that any changes you make to your resume are also saved as a PDF.  This small piece of advice could easily prevent your resume from being discarded. 

Good Luck.

Google Your Employer Because You Better Believe They’re Googling You

In past posts, we’ve discussed the importance of maintaining a clean and respectable online image.  Whether it’s through facebook, myspace, twitter or your blog, it’s often perplexing some of the stuff people think is appropriate for the public forum . The purpose of this post isn’t to continue to hammer down the point of maintaining a solid online image, but rather give you a few suggestions on searchable information that may benefit you in the interview.   

Whether you’re googling a company or an individual, searching the web for background information can lay a strong foundation for a great interview.  Here are a few things we suggest you look for:  

If you’re interviewing with a company, your focus should be on illustrating a strong understanding of both the company and industry.  In your Google search, make sure to focus on the following:

1.  The Company History

2.  Recent Company News

3.  Recent Industry News

4.  Competitors

If you know that you will be interviewing with a specific individual, here are some of the areas of interest that you should be looking for:

1.  Alma Mater 

2.  Career History

3.  Publications/Quotations (Check to see if you’re interviewer has been published or featured in recent articles)

4.  Personal Areas of Interest (Political, recreational and social affiliations can be found easily online.)

5.  Leadership/Management Experience In The Company

6.  Blogs/Twitter Feeds (You’d be surprised how many high level executives are twittering as well.)  

Once you’ve found some great information, your work isn’t finished yet.  Now prepare to incorporate all of your new knowledge into the interview.  If you’re interested in more information regarding researching potential employers, here’s a great article by Heather Huhman at the Examiner.  Good Luck!

Paying For Internships? Your Thoughts.

While I’m sure this topic has been discussed in other blog posts, I have been amazed at the manner in which it has started to grow in college career planning.  It all started about three months ago when I read an article about parents in NYC paying $8,000 for their daughter to have an unpaid internship at a marketing company in the city.  Is it just me or is there something inherently wrong with this picture?  While I understand the frustrations of the market have left many stellar young adults scrambling for internships, the idea of access through finances rather than merit can be tough to swallow. 

The reason why I bring this topic up today is because I have recently discovered several companies that are basically selling  college students “access” to companies and executives.  Most of these companies pair a student with an executive at a particular company with the ultimate goal providing the young adult with a “mentor”.  While I believe mentoring can be the strongest foundational brick in a great career, most of these companies are charging several hundred dollars a day for this “access”.  My personal beliefs are that mentors should provide guidance and advice as a result of their desire to help pave the way for a young boy or girl.  Giving someone a financial incentive to mentor a student seems to contradict the purpose of mentoring.   While I think it’s time for me to get off my soap box, I’d love to get your comments about this practice.  Do you think it is an industry that will be here today, gone tomorrow?  Or is this something that may be the next big thing in college career planning?  Let me know.

When Your Personal Interests Can Make Your Resume

I’ve always been amused by the “objective statements”.  Does anyone really talk like that, and if they do, would anyone really want to hire them?  While an objective statement can be a great way for people transitioning from career to career, I have a hard time believing that it is instrumental in the success of college graduates and their first entry-level job.  If you are a college graduate and you LOVE your objective statement, by all means stick with it, but today I want to give a bit of insight into the far less common “Personal Interests” section.

As a college graduate, your objective is to find a job.  You don’t have enough work experience to really show true efficiency, management skills and/or other topics often discussed in these statements.  What you do have are “interests.”   The idea behind providing your potential employer with a one line section discussing your interests is that it becomes two things:

1.  A talking point.

2.  Something that humanizes the resume.

If your special interests indicates your interest in Asian cultures or Political history, there’s a great chance that you may strike a chord with one of your interviewers.  From my own personal experience, I can say that on several occasions, my interest section has become the foundation for a wonderful interview.  

Now, while they are important, don’t provide your interviewer with a biography.  Pick a few topics, activities, hobbies and hope for the best.  A strong “personal interests” section would look something like this:

Strong interest in Mandarin, fly fishing, political theory and baseball.  

While it may seem all over the place, imagine the conversation you’ll have if your employer has spent time in China or is an avid angler.  The idea is that you’ve humanized yourself and the resume is no longer just a piece of paper.  Take the time to put together a “personal interests” section and let it be the last thing your potential employer reads, which means PUT IT AT THE BOTTOM.  We wish you the best of luck and Beyond Graduation is still available for free resume reviews for the Class of 2009.  E-mail your resumes to info@beyond-graduation.com.   Good Luck!

When Not Posting Your GPA Can Hurt You

I will be the first to tell you that GPA isn’t everything.  While it can be a great indicator of your success in college, I am of the mindset that employers are looking for applicants with a lot more than just good grades.  After reviewing countless resumes for graduating college students, I’m still not sure if students have a general understanding of when it is and isn’t in their best interest to provide their GPA.  This short post will discuss some of the reasons and rules associated with the College GPA.  

First of all, most employers have a “cut off” for their application process.  This means that if you’re GPA is below a certain point…..sorry.  While many hiring managers won’t admit that they have an “official” GPA requirement, there tends to be a stigma associated with anything below a 3.0.   Which brings us to our Rule Of The Day:  

ONLY PROVIDE YOUR GPA IF IT IS ABOVE A 3.0

While some of those “B” and “C” students out there are probably very angry at me, let me explain.  There is nothing wrong with having a GPA below 3.0 and many of the most impressive young talent that I’ve ever met have not been “stars” in the classroom, but that doesn’t mean that others (especially employers) may have preconceived notions about certain GPA’s.  Here is the rationale.  The majority of hiring managers will be looking for students with a GPA above a 3.0.  So, if you’re above a 3.0, you’re safe.  You’ve made the cut.  

Now, what if you graduated with a 2.9, but you were President of the School?  Wouldn’t you rather explain to the employer that you spent the majority of your college years making the university a better place for your colleagues?  The mentality is that once you’re in the interview, it’s a lot easier to explain your grades.  Don’t take yourself out of the race because an employer has set their own standard.  

In just the last two weeks, I’ve seen students with 3.8’s who didn’t think to include their GPA and students with 2.2’s who displayed it proudly next to their major.  Be smart…include credentials that will keep you in the application pool and remove those that will take you out of it.