College Grad Job Search – Are You Prepared?

If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.

- Vince Lombardi

Is it almost time to graduate already? Four years felt like a long way off and, unless you are on the 5 year plan, in a few months you will be looking to start your new job. What, you don’t have a job lined up yet? Time is running short! If you’ve been listening to the advice of your professors, college career center and yes, even your parents, you’ve been preparing for your job search and should already be looking for a job. If you participated in Internship Programs over you college career you already have some great experience and may even have a job (or some leads). But even if you’ve done everything you should have you may not yet have a job lined up.

Preparing for the Job Hunt: The first part of any endeavor is preparation – knowing what you need, knowing what to do and knowing where to start.

• College Graduation Checklist – Okay, so you know what you need to do to graduate (hopefully), but this article gives you a checklist of things you need to do to prepare for your job search – references, recommendation letters, resumes, cover letters – the usual suspects. This article is a great place to start to ensure you have a list of what you need. There are additional links on the left hand side of the page with relevant information on this topic.

• How to Prepare for Work After College – This article, from ehow.com, has some great information and advice. The article has eight points, all of them are worth a read. Some of these points apply to earlier in your college career, but can certainly be leveraged now as well. In addition to the 8 points of advice, there are related links on the right hand side of the page.

The Tools You Will Need: Every trade and profession has tools. In this case I am talking about the tools of your job search.

• Entry Level Resumes – The first and most important thing you will need is a resume. Take your time with this as your ability to “get your foot in the door” is heavily dependent on the content and “look and feel” of your resume. There are so many choices these days. This resource, from Collegegrad.com, provides a list of links to help you get started (or to improve on what you already have).

• References: The Keys to Choosing and Using the Best Job References in Your Job Search – You will need references in your job search and the best time to get them is before you graduate college. Letters from professors or Internship employers carry a lot of weight. This article, from Quintcareers.com, will help you make the best choices when choosing who you will ask for references. Just having reference letters is not enough, you need to have the right letters. In addition to the great information offered in this article, there is a list of questions that employers might ask your references. Definitely worth a read.

• Guide to Researching Companies, Industries, and Countries – Okay, you have your tools, where do you start? This article, also from Quintcareers.com, provides some great background and an amazing list of links to resources for your job research. You do want to balance the amount of time you spend on research with actually looking for a job (you could spend months just making your list), but this article should be your list of where to look and how to look for companies that interest you.

Good luck in your search.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.