You know that’s how I roll.
My midday meal included a goat cheese and carrot sandwich (don’t knock it ’til you try it), served with cucumber slices and a cup of strawberry banana Chobani for some sweetness and protein.
I used my lover, Chavrie goat cheese in the sandwich because it’s fantastically creamy and mild enough not to overtake the entire sandwich.
Before I run off and marry this goat cheese, perhaps we should move on?
Job talk!
How to Find Your First Job
I remember when I was about to graduate from college in 2007. I never doubted that I would find a job. My main worry was whether or not I would find the right job and whether or not it would pay well. Today it seems that the sentiment is a bit different.
With fewer jobs available, many students are concerned about finding a job at all, not just finding a job in their field of study or a job that pays well.
My sister will graduate in the spring of 2011. Last night I spoke with her a bit about her post-graduation plans. It brought a lot of feelings back. I remember feeling so frustrated that every job that interested me required 3 – 5 years of experience. How do I get three to five years of experience if no one wants to hire someone fresh out of college?
Over the past couple of months I’ve received several emails from readers asking me about finding a job right after graduation. (In case you didn’t know, I majored in public relations and advertising and worked as a PR and marketing assistant after graduation. I then worked as a marketing manager before beginning my current – and favorite – job as a writer and editor.)
Below I’ve compiled a list of tips that proved successful for me when I searched for my first job. These may be more applicable to those searching for a job in public relations, marketing or general communication, but hopefully they will also prove useful to those in other fields:
- Utilize Your Professors: I had a fairly close relationship with some of my college professors. I met with them to discuss my career interests and goals to make them aware of the direction I was hoping to head post-graduation. Our professors were often approached by companies who were interested in educated and impressionable employees. Since my professors knew who I was and what my goals were, they were able to refer me to some of these organizations. I actually got my first paid internship in college working for one of my professor’s husbands!
- Apply, Apply, Apply: I must have applied for 50 positions before I had someone express interest in me. I sent out a billion cover letters and resumes and heard back from such a small percentage. But all you need is one! Don’t apply for one job that’s your “dream job” and wait around to see if they contact you. Most companies will not follow up with people they are not interested in, and you’ll be left waiting for a long time.
- Use the Websites of Professional Organizations: Yes, Careerbuilder.com and Monster.com have a ton of job postings, but it can be hard to sort through the junk and find a decent job on these sites. I constantly scanned the websites of professional organizations in my field for jobs. The Public Relations Society of America has an entire section of their website dedicated to jobs. I found my first job as the Public Relations and Marketing Assistant for the Orlando Museum of Art on the Florida Public Relations Association’s website.
- Let People Know You’re Looking: I cannot tell you how many people I know who found their current job through a friend, a relative or an acquaintance. By letting people know you’re in the market for a job in a certain field, they can let you know of an open position they may know of, or a job that will open up soon. Ryan is constantly contacted by friends and random acquaintances from college who know he works for a large company. Most of the time there aren’t any openings, but occasionally someone reaches out to him at the perfect time and he can help them get a foot in the door.
- Have Another Person Look Over Your Resume: Having someone look over your resume will not only help you identify any spelling or grammatical errors, but they can alert you to sentences that may need further explanation or descriptions of jobs that don’t make sense to an outsider. This person can also tell you what they find most impressive, so you may better highlight these statements.
Good luck in the job search, kids! It’s a crazy world out there! 😀
Questions of the Afternoon
- If you’re already in the working world, how did you find your first “big kid” job?
- If you’re still in school, what field of work do you hope to end up in after graduation?
Leave a Reply