Successful Job-Search Strategies

Black Collegian, Oct 2004 by Bruce, Calvin

Unless you plan on attending graduate or professional school immediately following graduation, your focus will likely be on finding gainful employment in your field of study and starting work as soon as possible. Even though the economy is on the rebound and companies are planning to add to their payrolls, finding a suitable, well-paying job is not always an easy task.

Given the keen competition even for entry-level positions, what is the best approach to job-hunting? There is no simple, clear-cut pathway to finding that ideal job leading to fame and fortune. However, having a multi-faceted search strategy can result in your obtaining a job that you can be proud of-one that is challenging, financially rewarding, and offering advancement potential.

The key to landing a good job is to be creative and persistent in developing a multi-pronged approach to investigating employment opportunities. Some specific suggestions for doing this follow.

Define your employment goals.

Before beginning a comprehensive job search, you must answer a number of key questions:

* What are your relocation parameters? The ideal job may not be down the street or in a neighboring town. Relocation might involve moving out of state or across the country. Before exploring job opportunities that require a major relocation move, think carefully of the impact this decision will have on you, your family, and whatever plans you have for marriage and starting your own family.

* Do you plan to pursue a post-baccalaureate degree? If your career growth depends on attaining additional education-such as earning a master's degree-or receiving professional certification, include that important goal in your job-search plans. In particular, targeting companies that fully support professional development is a wise decision-such as firms that pay for employees to earn an MBA or other advanced degrees.

* What are your most important job-related goals? Obviously, earning a comfortable salary, with a good benefits package, tops the list. But aside from that, think of the importance you attach to such job features as opportunity to travel, well-defined mentoring, advancement potential, and management grooming. Most young professionals would agree: It's important to focus on opportunities that can propel your career, not just offer an adequate starting income.

Once you have established clear-cut parameters and goals related to job hunting, your next step is to devise the search strategies that will enable you to attain your professional objectives.

Make effective use of college placement resources.

The starting point for any well-designed job-search strategy is to make proper use of the resources offered by your office of career services. After all, career-services officers work full time assisting students in preparing to launch their careers following graduation. Here are some specific tips for making the most of career- services resources:

Get to know the career-services officials before your senior year. Too often, students wait until their last year in college to get serious about finding suitable employment. Almost in a state of panic, they introduce themselves to their career-services officials and practically plead for assistance. A smarter approach is to introduce yourself to them earlier in your academic career (once you have decided on a major) and familiarize yourself with the resources they offer. This may include workshops on resume preparation, dress-for-success, interview tips, salary negotiation, and so on. As you take advantage of such resources, develop your own "career library" of handout material, recruitment literature, and on-line information on the kind of companies by which you would like to be employed.

Take advantage of interview signups. Most career services offices allow only juniors and seniors to sign up to speak with campus recruiters. If you're in that category, then take advantage of interviewing with companies that would likely have an interest in your background. On the other hand, if you're a freshman or sophomore, take note of the employers that schedule campus visits and learn as much as you can about them prior to interviewing with them in the future. Also pay attention to new employers that are beginning to visit your campus. They may be employers experiencing exceptional organizational growth, offering tremendous ground-floor opportunities for college grads.

Learn all you can about prospective employers. As mentioned, a great deal of information about prospective employers is available on the Internet. In addition, career-services offices have files of information on companies that regularly schedule campus visits. Make sure that before you interview with campus recruiters, you carefully review all the information provided on the career opportunities they offer new college grads. By learning as much as you can about a prospective employer, you can better sell yourself as someone that they need to hire.

Selectively respond to employment ads.