Here’s Your Wake Up Call: Want a job when you graduate? Prove it!

I’ve decided it’s time for a little wake up call.  If you don’t want tough love, don’t read any further.  If you do, fasten your seatbelt.

We all know the headlines:  “The Job Market is Tight,” “The economy is the worst it’s been in years,” etc., etc., etc.

You’d think a tough employment market would really motivate students, particularly graduating seniors, to be proactive in their job search, to apply for more jobs, to take full advantage of recruiting opportunities, to flock to employer information sessions, to submit their resumes and cover letters in greater volume for on-campus interviewing opportunities, to research and explore their career options so that they will have career options . . . .  I could go on.

The reality is this – far too few students are genuinely proactive when it comes to seeking employment upon graduation.  Far too many students wait until the last minute (or wait until after that last minute has past) to address life after graduation.

So, if you really want a job when you graduate; prove it!  Take action!  Step up to the plate and start your search.  Don’t assume it will all take care of itself . . . eventually.  And, don’t be too quick to play the “I think I’ll go to graduate school” card.

In short, get in the game!

Prepare! If you don’t know what you want to do when you graduate – that’s okay.  It’s just not okay to sit back and do nothing about it.  It’s not the employers’ job to figure out why you will be a good fit for their job opportunities; it’s your job to tell employers why you will be a good fit. You have to be prepared to tell employers (in your networking, cover letters, resumes and interviews) why you want their jobs and why you are a good fit for them.  You have to be prepared to make your case.  Just showing up isn’t enough, but you do have to show up.

Show up! College students seeking employment have some great advantages over other job seekers.  You can be public about your job search. Many employers will come to see you on campus. Even though you don’t currently have a job, employers aren’t going to ask you why you are unemployed. Alumni and others are eager to give you career advice. And if you start early, you aren’t under any undue pressure to accept a job just to have a job.  In fact, you can start laying the foundation for your job search early, and you might actually have a job (or be close to one) by the time you graduate.

So why do relatively few students show up for employer information sessions?  Why do relatively few students submit applications for opportunities to interview with companies on campus?  Why do so many students find so many reasons to not apply?  Believe it or not, to get a job, you actually have to apply for jobs!

Apply for jobs! Be honest, now.  How many jobs have you actually applied for?  How many more have you not applied for because you weren’t certain you wanted to do that kind of work or work for that specific company?  When you aren’t wholly certain about what you want to do, how can you be so absolutely certain about what you don’t want to do?    Be selective and smart in your job search, but don’t be so picky that you rule just about every possible job out.

If you are a Journalism major and you want to be a reporter, apply for every entry-level reporting opportunities you can find – big and small.  What’s the worst thing that can happen?  They say no or you say no.  To get the opportunity to say “yes” to a job offer, you have to risk the possibility of hearing “no”.

If you want to work in business, apply for all the management trainee positions you can find. If you’re not sure what you want to do, attend every employer information session, job fair and networking event you can find so that you will have the opportunity to learn about what you might do and visit with people doing those very things.  The only way to learn it by gathering and processing information.

You are probably not just going to wake up one day and suddenly know what you want to do with your life.  It’s a process of discovery, so start discovering. Don’t wait for it to get easier, because chances are it will only get more challenging.

Don’t just punt and opt for grad school. “The job market is tight right now; I might as well go to grad school so that I can wait out the economy.  It’s bound to get better, and a grad degree is almost a requirement these days to get ahead.”  I hear comments like these a lot from graduating seniors.  On the surface they seem to make sense, but they are fundamentally flawed.

More education is not necessarily better.  A graduate degree will not, in and of itself, make you more employable; make you worth more on the job market; cause employers to seek you out; help you figure out what you are going to do when you graduate.  All of these things can happen, given the right circumstances, but they are not going to happen just because you go to grad school. If you are considering graduate school immediately after completing your undergraduate degree, you had better be able to give good answers to the following questions:

• What do I want to study and why?  How will this field of study better prepare me for a career?
• What is the job market for graduates in this field?  What can I expect to earn/what types of jobs can I expect to pursue upon completing this degree?
• What proof do I have that a graduate degree is necessary to advance in my chosen profession? (Hint:  If you don’t have a chosen profession or at least a target profession, you probably shouldn’t be considering graduate school at this time.)
• How will this graduate degree make me more marketable than I am with just a bachelor’s degree? (Be honest with yourself in answering this one.)

Some people can afford to go to graduate school for the simple joy of learning; to become more educated.  Most of us have to be a lot more intentional than that.  We will have student loans to repay.  If you are going to invest the time and money necessary to get a graduate degree, make sure you are making a sound investment.

So, here is your Wake-up Call!

Starting now, look in the mirror at least once a week and ask yourself the following questions (and demand some answers):

• What did I do this week to explore my career options?
• Who did I contact this week that might be able to give me advice or assistance in my career exploration and job search?
• What did I do this week to learn more about the fields/industries I want to enter?
• Where did I look this week to find job opportunities and what did I find?
• Am I looking in the right places to find the kinds of opportunities I want?  Where else can I look?
• How much time did I invest this week in my career exploration and job search?

You can’t just “want to” find a job.  You have to take action.  You have to hold yourself accountable.  You have to take ownership of the process.

I cannot guarantee you will find a perfect job, but I can guarantee you a few things:

• If you don’t apply for jobs, you won’t get a job. It really is that simple.
• If you don’t explore your opportunities, you won’t know what opportunities exist.
• If you don’t reach out to people, they will assume you don’t need or want their help or advice.
• If you don’t measure the progress you are making in your job search, you won’t know if you are making any progress.

Sure, looking for a job is hard – just don’t make it any harder than it already is.  Get in the game!