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When you’re in school, you’re told that you need to attend college to get a good job. You are faced with College Prep trainings, ACT’s and the long college selection process. Its a long road, but in the end it’ll all be worth it, right?
Not always. Lots of college graduates face a common hurdle while looking for a job: finding that first job. Too many companies want too much from applicants, while other companies aren’t specific enough about what they need. Most college graduates turn to internships or a referral from colleagues to get a job, but many of them end up working for less money than what they’re worth. While this can be annoying, the job search after college doesn’t have to be a failure.
Lets have a look at Samantha. She went to college for four years. She has two degrees in Business and Finance. She has some experience from a summer internship, but not much. She graduated last January, and has sent her resume out to dozens of companies in the past few weeks. Shes taken classes on job search and resume writing. She has even talked to the career counselors at her college to ensure she will be prepared to enter the working world when the time comes. Still, she hasn’t gotten any response from anyone who wants to hire her.
This is frustrating for her because she worked so hard to be prepared for a career and be successful in the real world. Its dually difficult for her because her uncle works in the automotive Department at a big box retailer and makes almost $55,000 a year, with no college education. She can’t even find an entry level office job for $20,000 where she can work her way up. Is she doing anything wrong?
For starters, she is sending the same resume to every employer. In addition, she has a generic cover letter that she sends with her resume. She matches everything that a position would require in her resume and cover letter, but she isn’t directing her words to each employer.
Employers need to know what you can do for them and every job listing is going to be different. As a result its essential that you change your resume and cover letter to reflect each job opening that you apply to. She needs to look at keywords that are in the job announcements and use them in her resume. She also needs to look specifically for minimal experience jobs, because she only has a couple internships as experience.
Another helpful tool that she can use is to use her inexperience to her advantage. By this, we simply mean she can take the time to emphasize her lack of experience, and give it a positive spin. For example, because of this lack of experience, shes completely able to be trained to a company’s specific needs. Shes not set in her ways, and has no routine that has to be broken. That sounds much better than “Ive never worked in this field before.”
Resume writing can be a challenging endeavor, as much as looking for a job. However, as long as you provide a unique resume that makes you stand out, you can ensure that your phone will be ringing in no time.
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