Senior-Year Job Search: 10 Steps to Launch Your Senior-Year Job Search Campaign

Black Collegian, Oct 2004 by Wells, Kim R

Congratulations! You are finally a graduating senior who has successfully navigated the hallowed halls of your soon to be alma mater. You have worked hard to conquer the academic and personal demands of college life, and during your journey have become a budding scholar, professional, and leader ready to make your mark on today's exciting job market and world !

But it's not time to start the celebration just yet... It's time to "close the deal!" If you are like many college students today, you probably entered college with the lofty goals to become educated in the arts and sciences, grow as a responsible, productive, and informed citizen of the world, or to prepare for graduate or professional school. Finally you probably have entered college, whether clearly planned or simply just assumed, with the goal of developing critical professional skills and networks to transition into a successful and satisfying career. The problem is that sometimes after the years of academic toil and hard work, some students lose focus and neglect to invest the necessary time and planning to successfully close the deal.

The following 10 steps are designed to equip you with key strategies and principles that will assist you in designing and executing your effective job search campaign during your senior year.

Step #1: Manage Your Time to Maximize Opportunities!

This may sound rudimentary to some of you, but for some, its time to stop trying to keep up with every friend and activity on campus and to lake charge over your personal time and schedule. Effective time management is critical if you are going to have the necessary time to plan and execute a successful job-search campaign. Even those of you who are accomplished student leaders and are great at balancing many duties and responsibilities must not forget to invest the time necessary to prepare yourself to successfully enter into the job market after graduation. You owe it to yourself.

The following are tips to assist you in managing your time:

Discover the power of saying no! You can't be all things to all people. Take back the control of your time and life by cutting out all commitments (and unfortunately in some cases people) that represent "fluff" or unnecessary and weighty demands on your time, especially if these demands are not in your best interest in pursuing your personal and professional goals. As the clock continues to tick towards your graduation day, consider carefully the long-term impact on your academic or career goals if you allow certain disruptions of your time to continue. The disruptions may not even be intended, but it is your responsibility to look beyond the immediate circumstances, to protect your dreams, and take the necessary final steps to make them a reality.

Get yourself organized by investing in a quality time-planner, palm pilot, or scheduling software, any one of which will assist you in planning and scheduling and maximizing your time.

Map out a realistic time line for completing specific career and professional development tasks such as writing your resume, attending interviewing workshops, registering for oii-campus interviewing, etc. see a career-services professional for some assistance and guidance if needed.

Commit to personal time weekly or monthly to research career opportunities, attend career development workshops or related networking activities.

Establish an "accountability partner" or "success team." This could be a current study-partner, advisor, faculty member, career-services professional or group of your peers who are willing to provide support and frequent "pulse checks" to encourage you in keeping your commitment to your career development goals.

A Few Points for Procrastinators!

If you start your job search after graduation, remember it will more than likely still take you 3-6 months or more to find a quality job opportunity. Entering the market in the spring will also involve the additional challenge of competing with millions of other recent graduates in what will be a much more competitive Spring/Summer "recent graduate market."

Step # 2: Examine Yourself

One of the toughest, and yet most liberating, steps in developing your job search campaign is to take the time to thoroughly and honestly examine who your are and what you want to accomplish in today's job market. This step can be extremely empowering as you explore and begin to define your own brand of personal and professional success.

While examining yourself ask the following questions:

How do I define success?

How will my career fit into my life purpose?

What kinds of people, places, and things will I need in my life to honestly be satisfied?

What is my leadership or personal style, and what kinds of professional environments and groups are the best match for me?

What issues, values, and experiences drive me to achieve?

What are my goals for the immediate future?

For assistance in this self-examination or assessment process contact your career-services office and schedule an appointment with a career services professional to assist you in reflecting on the above questions and to offer additional insight assessment-instruments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and other potential instruments in the office or on-line. Remember that self-examination is a life long process, as you grow and develop as a person and professional, it is always a healthy practice to reflect on you developing values and aspirations.