Marketing to a new grad, from a new grad.
More than 53% of recent college graduates are unemployed. Yikes! Isn’t college supposed to set us up for success and make it easier to attain a job after school? Students spend four years vamping up their resumes with extra-curriculars, internships, side jobs, and service. Is it ever enough, though? What is it about today’s job search that makes it so difficult for recent graduates to attain jobs? I feel like this is a topic that is not discussed enough before students graduate. They go into the real world unprepared and unknowing of the rejection they are about to face by a multitude of companies.
Students with weak resumes feel that they have no chance of getting the job, so they continuously make excuses for avoiding that job application. However, students with strong resumes obsess over making their resumes stronger and better. Let’s talk about this! Isn’t it strange to possess the idea of hyper focusing on a piece of paper to define your accomplishments and skills versus analyzing all you have achieved? I wish my college career facility helped prepare me for the interview process and job search itself versus working hours on end to revamp my already up-to-date resume. I felt like every time I went into the career counselor office, I was told my resume needed some tweaks and that was the reason I wasn’t receiving responses.
But the truth is, I wasn’t prepared for any of this by my university classes, or the career counselling office.
I’ve come to learn that there is more to the job search than tweaking and adjusting your resume, there’s building connections, there’s getting the experience that will lead to achievements on the resume and stories to tell in the interview.
Because the resume is important and it will open doors, obsessing over it won’t solve anything.
There’s the actual interview process and the ability to leave an impression as a candidate on the employer. This realization helped me to let go of my obsession with my resume, and actually focus on my interview skills. I realized the goal is to feel confident that your resume will assist you in getting the jobs you want. Your resume won’t get you the job; you will get yourself the job.
Focus on how you will grow your interviewing skills versus putting too much emphasis on a piece of paper. The resume gets you the interview, but its up to you to ultimately seal the deal and get the job.
My lessons learned as I exit the world of college and enter the world of recruitment marketing has helped me see that it’s not only the career counselling office that could help me prepare for the world of work, it’s the actual companies that need me to be productive out of school. Through this lens, I have some ideas on how companies can partner with students and career offices to bridge this very wide, deep, and stark chasm.
Help us help you!
Give us context
As companies who interview students and experienced hires all the time, you know what we don’t. Tell us what you’re looking for in the resume. Tell us how your company interviews. Give us tips and tricks and remember, we don’t know any of this yet. We’re rookies. We need your experience to make this better for everyone.
Make it concrete
We all know everyone likes examples. Share some examples with us. What questions do you typically ask in the interview? Show us examples of things we don’t need on our resume. If you have a video of a recruiter walking us through how they review new grad resumes, please share. We literally don’t know what’s important to you and what isn’t.
Tell us about people who are successful with you
It’s hard to know what work will be like when you get out of college. Tell us some of the characteristics of successful new grads at your company. Are they curious? Are they rule followers? Are they quiet or do they over actively ask questions? Who makes a good impression and who stands out to move to the next level? This will help us screen ourselves into the job or out of the job better.
Why are we making this all so hard and such a treacherous process?
Students spend four years dedicated to studying every aspect of their major to receive a job after college. However, no one talks about how actually hard it is to get a job after college!
Expect to see a series from me as we go forward. I think the perspective of new grads and the future of work align brilliantly. In series, we will tackle the struggle of recent college graduates, the lack of communication and transparency employers provide on their job application sites, and the issues with companies’ absence of a response after a candidate applies.
All that being said, I'd love to hear from my peers! Have you been rejected from a bunch of jobs? Are you constantly tweaking your resume, and never feel like it’s any good enough? Do you feel that you qualify for the jobs you are applying for, but are continuously “ghosted” by companies? Let’s talk, I think the world needs to hear this point of view.