As you head into your final year or semester of college, you face a new challenge: the job search. The search to finding a job after college can feel like a job in itself, but there are resources to help guide you to success.
Here’s how to get organized to find the career of your dreams.
Know Your Resources
Before you graduate, get in touch with Hocking Career Services for personalized help with your job search. The staff here will help you write a knockout resume and polish your interviewing skills. They also sponsor career fairs throughout the year so you can meet potential employers and build your network.
They’ll even connect you with job placement agencies in your chosen field to streamline the job search for you when it is time to find a job after college.
There are also several online resources
for finding work. If you haven’t made a LinkedIn page for yourself yet, you should open an account to get your resume out there and to browse job postings in your field or region. Indeed and Monster are both big online job boards where employers from around the country post listings for open positions.
You can also research potential employers on Glassdoor to check salaries and read reviews from people who work at the places you’re considering.
Stay Organized
Your first task is to complete your resume so you’ll be ready to apply to jobs as they come up. You may also want to line up a few willing references and gather any recommendation letters. Once you’re prepared to apply, it’s time to search.
While you want to keep an open mind, you can begin with a search that’s focused on your ideal position and/or location — you can always widen your search parameters later. Once you begin to find jobs you’re interested in and are ready to apply, keep a spreadsheet of applications you send out. For starters, you’ll want to include the name of the company, location and the date you applied.
You can also add boxes later for interviews, offers, rejections and notes about how and when you’ve followed up on your application. This will keep you from applying to the same position twice and help you know when to send a friendly email asking about the status of your application.
Want to boost your resume before leaving school?
Learn about the benefits of an internship here.
Get Motivated
The process to find a job after college is a big one and it can grow repetitive as you tweak the same cover letter for multiple positions. To avoid feeling overwhelmed, don’t try to apply to every job you like in one day. You’ll stay motivated if you do just a few applications a day instead.
Once a week, you can scan job boards to see if there are any new opportunities to put on your application list, but don’t stress about keeping up with postings every day — you could burn out if you spend too much time on your job search each day.
Stay Positive
There will be times when you feel like you’re sending resumes out into a black hole. You may not hear back from some employers and you may be rejected by others.
It can be very discouraging to hear that someone doesn’t want you, but try not to take it personally. Instead, focus on finding new opportunities and keeping your grades up so you are the most qualified applicant you can be.
Learn From Rejections
If you go through an interview process only to be turned down for the job, try to turn the rejection into a learning experience. Thank the interviewer for their time and send an email asking for feedback. Be honest about your desire to learn from the experience and ask how you could improve your performance in the future.
The answers you receive will give you valuable insight as to what employers in your field are looking for, as well as giving you a leg up on the competition next time around.
