Newsflash! Finding your first real job after college is not that big a deal. It’s finding the 2nd, 3rd or 4th job that’s really challenging. If you scored your first job pretty easily, then chances are you didn’t learn the critical job search skills you’ll need to advance your career. Here are three things you can do to make sure your career keeps moving forward.
1. Schedule informational interviews regularly
Whether you’re working full time or stuck in your parent’s basement, chances are you’re not meeting enough new people to have the productive informational interviews that are so critical to your next move. Two years after college, Victor moved from Chicago to Denver to be with his girlfriend. He continued working remotely for the logistics firm that had hired him after graduating from Denison University. But he wanted to move on from his “churn and burn” sales job.
Unfortunately, Victor had no network in Denver and he was isolated working from home. “It took me three months before I got my initial interview,” he recalled. “Then the hiring process took another month before I landed my new job.”
To be an effective candidate today, you’ve got to show you’re focused on applying your skills in a particular field and that you’ve done your homework about the industry. Informational interviews are the most effective tool for learning where there is a good match between your interests and skills. These conversations also help you learn more about a specific field, e.g. advertising, working for non-profits, healthcare positions. And they are also likely to help you uncover specific openings to pursue.
2. Take full advantage of your job search network
Even if you’ve just moved to a new city, your job search network is always bigger than you realize. For starters, everyone who graduated from your university is fair game. Use LinkedIn to identify local alums, or contact your school’s career center to see if they can give you access to a list of older grads in your area. Colleges are becoming much more proactive about supporting young alumni in launching their careers. Be sure to contact your school’s career center to see what kinds of services they offer to alumni.
This is also the time to tap into your parent’s networks. Do they know anybody in the fields you’re trying to explore? And what about your former roommate’s parents, or friends and family of your significant other?
A recent Colorado College grad, Carl didn’t know anyone when he started looking for a banking job in his girlfriend’s hometown of Minneapolis. But her parents introduced him to a neighbor, who became one of his most important networking contacts. After a yearlong search finally landed him the position he wanted, Carl said:
“If I was starting another job search today, I’d immediately open as many channels as I could. My initial mistake was focusing too much on one contact, when I should have reached out to alumni from my college and other connections much earlier.”
You never know where those key contacts are going to come from!
3. Identify & communicate the skills you’re gained
Victor reflected on his first job after graduating from Denison:
“I never expected to be doing something like sales in a logistics company. Sometimes it was a mind-numbing job, but there were also a lot of aspects I enjoyed. I learned how to sell and had a lot of autonomy to negotiate rates with trucking companies. That was cool. I learned how to work long days and be part of a team. And how to balance being competitive in the workplace, but also how to be a good co-worker. That’s a fine line.”
Even if your first post-college job wasn’t something exciting, you’ve undoubtedly picked up and demonstrated some important skills that you need to convey to potential employers. Did you:
- Work productively under considerable pressure?
- Learn fast on the job and work independently?
- Collaborate effectively as part of a team?
- Bring some valued technology skills to your group?
- Add value to your organization in other ways?
Whether you’ve worked somewhere for six months or three years since graduating, you’ve acquired important skills and demonstrated traits employers will really value. Your task is to identify those and be prepared to talk about them in future interviews. Even if you’re planning to change fields completely, you’ve got some generic skills others will value.
Looking for a new job may seem daunting if you don’t have much experience doing it. But developing strong job search skills is an increasingly essential capability for successful careers today. Gaining those skills once you’ve left college isn’t easy, but it is another right of passage for those who are going to succeed in a fast changing job market. Make this the year you soar into a new and exciting work opportunity!
For more specific tactics on how to land a post-college job you’ll love, check out my book Graduate to a Great Job: Make Your College Degree Pay Off in Today’s Market. (It even has a chapter for parents! If your parents are bugging you, buy it for them. It’s sure to calm them down.)