RANDOM THOUGHTS #97
Steve Cole muses: Over the last couple of weeks, Joel (our graphics intern for the last 30 months) has graduated from college and gone looking for a full-time job. (He recently found one, but will continue to work for us a few hours a week because he likes us so much.) We all pitched in to help him get his resume in shape, track down leads, and dress for interviews. Here is some advice we gave him in job hunting.
1. Hunt for a job with a shotgun, not a rifle. In this economy, any job that uses your skills, even if not the industry you wanted, is a good thing. (Joel was at a loss as to where to hunt for a job in graphics, web design, or drafting. We pulled out the phone book and pointed to engineering companies, advertising companies, printing companies, web design companies, graphic design companies, construction companies, and more. He eventually got a job as the one graphics person working for a big organization.) Call everybody and ask if they'll accept a resume. Call back a week later to politely ask if they had any questions (which gives them a chance to tell you if they have any interest at all). Be very nice to the person at the front desk whom you hand the resume to, as that person just might say something nice about you to the boss. (If you're rude to them, they absolutely will mention it to the boss, assuming they don't just toss your resume in the trash and give the boss the resumes by people who knew how to behave. Can you blame the receptionist for not wanting to see the boss hire someone who is rude, arrogant, sloppy, or smelly?)
2. Use your network to find job leads, and start two years before you graduate building a network. (We got Joel interviews at some printing companies we knew that employed people of his skill, but none had full-time work. I also reached out to engineers I know, but none of them were hiring. I took Joel along on every pre-press conference with printing companies just so he could collect names, faces, and business cards and have people he could ask for leads. Joel actually got a lead on the job he took from someone at his church who heard of an unadvertised opening at a trade association.)
3. If you start looking for a job the day after you graduate from college, you're looking at a very thin job market because your classmates who started passing out resumes a month before graduation already snatched up the best jobs. (Joel, who waited too long, found many great jobs that were already filled. When I graduated and the Army said "the war is over, go home" I was suddenly on the civilian job market months behind my classmates. I took a job at a public utility, something other engineer graduates considered insufficiently glorious.) I hate to tell you this, but your classmate buddies who worked on school projects with you are now competing with you for a limited number of good jobs.
4. Build your resume before you graduate. Getting part-time work in your field means you have a resume of actual work you actually did for actual companies, something your competition might not have. (Joel was in good shape there with actually published retail product packaging.) Even if you cannot get a job in your field, you can establish proof that you're willing to work hard, have good work habits, and that you can keep a job if you have one. Nothing looks worse than a series of short-term jobs that you got fired from for bad work habits.
5. While in school, collect as many related skills as you can. (Joel has degrees as a graphic designer, draftsman, and web designer. When I was in engineering school, I qualified for potential work as a surveyor and map maker, plus I took ROTC.)
6. If you cannot find a job in your field, don't whine about it. Take any job you can get that makes a paycheck and keep looking for a job in your own field. If you cannot get a full-time job in your field, get a part-time job in your own field to keep building up that resume.
7. Companies might tolerate as employees people who show up in a T-shirt and jeans with a two-week growth of facial hair, but they're far less likely to HIRE such a person off the street. The fact that you went to the effort to clean up and look like you were on your way to church actually does help.
8. If you get called for an interview, do your research. Thanks to Google, you can walk into a company knowing a lot about their products, goals, policies, and people. It impresses the boss if you do that. It's a big black mark if you walk into the company with no clue what the company does. And be on time. Nobody wants to hire an employee who cannot show up on time.
9. I have read that resumes are the key to a job, and I have read that they don't matter at all. I think they matter and I think you need to have grown-up friends who run businesses read them and tell you what looks good to an employer and what raises a red flag.
10. I guess it goes without saying that there are some things you do not want to take with you into a job hunt or a job interview. A criminal record has to be first on that list. Drug habits, restraining orders from old girlfriends, and lawsuits you filed against former employers over trivial stuff would also be on the list of things not to take along. I am too old to think that way, but you might want to take a look at a Google search of yourself. If some ex-girlfriend is ranting about you, maybe you want to make peace with her and get her to take that down? Better yet, treat everyone you are around with respect and don't give any (sane) person a reason to rant about what a jerk you are on their blogs.
1. Hunt for a job with a shotgun, not a rifle. In this economy, any job that uses your skills, even if not the industry you wanted, is a good thing. (Joel was at a loss as to where to hunt for a job in graphics, web design, or drafting. We pulled out the phone book and pointed to engineering companies, advertising companies, printing companies, web design companies, graphic design companies, construction companies, and more. He eventually got a job as the one graphics person working for a big organization.) Call everybody and ask if they'll accept a resume. Call back a week later to politely ask if they had any questions (which gives them a chance to tell you if they have any interest at all). Be very nice to the person at the front desk whom you hand the resume to, as that person just might say something nice about you to the boss. (If you're rude to them, they absolutely will mention it to the boss, assuming they don't just toss your resume in the trash and give the boss the resumes by people who knew how to behave. Can you blame the receptionist for not wanting to see the boss hire someone who is rude, arrogant, sloppy, or smelly?)
2. Use your network to find job leads, and start two years before you graduate building a network. (We got Joel interviews at some printing companies we knew that employed people of his skill, but none had full-time work. I also reached out to engineers I know, but none of them were hiring. I took Joel along on every pre-press conference with printing companies just so he could collect names, faces, and business cards and have people he could ask for leads. Joel actually got a lead on the job he took from someone at his church who heard of an unadvertised opening at a trade association.)
3. If you start looking for a job the day after you graduate from college, you're looking at a very thin job market because your classmates who started passing out resumes a month before graduation already snatched up the best jobs. (Joel, who waited too long, found many great jobs that were already filled. When I graduated and the Army said "the war is over, go home" I was suddenly on the civilian job market months behind my classmates. I took a job at a public utility, something other engineer graduates considered insufficiently glorious.) I hate to tell you this, but your classmate buddies who worked on school projects with you are now competing with you for a limited number of good jobs.
4. Build your resume before you graduate. Getting part-time work in your field means you have a resume of actual work you actually did for actual companies, something your competition might not have. (Joel was in good shape there with actually published retail product packaging.) Even if you cannot get a job in your field, you can establish proof that you're willing to work hard, have good work habits, and that you can keep a job if you have one. Nothing looks worse than a series of short-term jobs that you got fired from for bad work habits.
5. While in school, collect as many related skills as you can. (Joel has degrees as a graphic designer, draftsman, and web designer. When I was in engineering school, I qualified for potential work as a surveyor and map maker, plus I took ROTC.)
6. If you cannot find a job in your field, don't whine about it. Take any job you can get that makes a paycheck and keep looking for a job in your own field. If you cannot get a full-time job in your field, get a part-time job in your own field to keep building up that resume.
7. Companies might tolerate as employees people who show up in a T-shirt and jeans with a two-week growth of facial hair, but they're far less likely to HIRE such a person off the street. The fact that you went to the effort to clean up and look like you were on your way to church actually does help.
8. If you get called for an interview, do your research. Thanks to Google, you can walk into a company knowing a lot about their products, goals, policies, and people. It impresses the boss if you do that. It's a big black mark if you walk into the company with no clue what the company does. And be on time. Nobody wants to hire an employee who cannot show up on time.
9. I have read that resumes are the key to a job, and I have read that they don't matter at all. I think they matter and I think you need to have grown-up friends who run businesses read them and tell you what looks good to an employer and what raises a red flag.
10. I guess it goes without saying that there are some things you do not want to take with you into a job hunt or a job interview. A criminal record has to be first on that list. Drug habits, restraining orders from old girlfriends, and lawsuits you filed against former employers over trivial stuff would also be on the list of things not to take along. I am too old to think that way, but you might want to take a look at a Google search of yourself. If some ex-girlfriend is ranting about you, maybe you want to make peace with her and get her to take that down? Better yet, treat everyone you are around with respect and don't give any (sane) person a reason to rant about what a jerk you are on their blogs.
posted by Federation Commander at 8:07 AM
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