By Ron McGowan
An estimated 25 percent of recent college graduates have not been able to find a job. These are a few tips to help college grads and other job hunters standout in the crowd.
- Clean up your online presence. The first thing employers will do is to see what they can find out about you on the Internet. Are you ready for that? They may look at your Facebook page during the interview. Are you ready for that?
- Look for WORK, not a JOB. Don’t scare off employers by communicating that you’re looking for a job and all the traditional benefits that go with it. Make it easy for them to hire you by making it clear that you are happy to accept part-time, temporary, or contract work. If you are equipped to work from home, tell them that too. It may appeal to them.
- Ditch the resume. EVERYBODY is using a resume. In your initial contact with employers, make yourself stand out in a positive way with more creative tools that are marketing oriented and focused on the employer’s needs. It’s OK to have a resume to take to the interview. But first you have to get there.
- Think. Put yourself in the shoes of any employer you plan to contact. Why would they be interested in you? What exactly do you have to offer them? Show them in your first contact with them that you know about them, the type of work they do and the industry they’re in. NEVER send out lots of resumes in a shotgun fashion.
- Why should we hire you? Assume you’ll be asked this question during the interview and be ready to answer it. Focus on the key points you made in the material you sent to them. Those are what got you the interview.
- Bite your tongue. Talking too much in the interview is among the biggest mistakes graduates make according to employers and recruiters. The more prepared you are for the interview, the less inclined you’ll be to ramble on.
- Do your homework. There’s a wealth of information available on the employer’s web site. Amazingly, many graduates never take the time to thoroughly analyze this information and be ready to answer questions about it in the interview. It will also help if you can talk about some of the key issues going on in their industry.
- Create your own job. Instead of waiting for someone to offer you a job, consider what millions of graduates around the world have been doing for years; i.e. operate as a freelancer. The following will give you an overview of the world of freelancing: http://www.elance.com http://www.odesk.com http://www.vworker.com
Finally, you may get some business ideas at: http://www.springwise.com
Ron McGowan is the author of the international bestseller “How to Find WORK in the 21st Century”, currently in use at over 400 colleges and universities worldwide. http://www.self-counsel.com/default/how-to-find-work.html
