Recent Grads: Do you need a pep talk?

Last week I had a meeting with a recent grad with whom I've been working for the past two years. When she walked into my office, her facial expression said it all. She was clearly feeling dejected and unmotivated because she hadn't landed a job before graduation. I could certainly understand why she was feeling this way because she is the type of person who, all throughout her life, was able to set goals for herself and readily implement a plan to achieve those goals. Her industrious, ambitious nature had paid off nicely for her...until now. So it was understandable that she was having a difficult time with what she perceived as failure.

However, at the end of our meeting I noticed that her facial expression had changed...she seemed more relaxed and was actually smiling and joking. In our meeting, I had strategized with her to develop new job search options and, more importantly, had reminded her of the many ways she was a superior and competitive job applicant. I was able to boost her morale and her confidence, and she was able to leave my office feeling re-energized about her job search. Just a week later, I received a very upbeat email from her informing me of her networking activity and upcoming interview...she feels positive that something will come out her renewed efforts. And that makes me feel great because my job is to be a supportive coach who cheerleads my students onto success.

So, if you're like my student and haven't landed a job yet, please don't give up...even if you've applied for 50 jobs...or 100 jobs! Maybe you too need a pep talk from a career counselor to motivate you and get you back on track. Most colleges continue to offer career services for recent graduates and alumni, and they're usually not that busy in the summer so they'll have lots of time to devote to you.

Even though you may feel that you're doing everything right in your job search, your career counselor may be able to identify a minor thing that you hadn't even noticed. For example, one of my students came in and said she wasn't getting any interviews. It turned out that she had her New Jersey address on her resume while she was applying for jobs in the Boston area. Other students have told me that they don't move onto second round interviews, and I always suggest that they come in to do a mock interview with me where I can provide constructive feedback on what they can do better. Or other times, I just reassure students that they are doing a great job at interviewing, and this gives them the confidence they need to go in and ace the real interview.

So, don't just sit in your room feeling downhearted. Get out and go visit your school's career counseling office and get the pep talk you need to keep you going! I would recommend going to see them on a weekly basis to keep you on track and to keep you motivated. A job search can be a grueling, emotionally draining process so why not enlist the support of a career counselor who can coach you along the way?

The resume is always greener on the other side

Have you ever had a job where you had to say, "Can I take your order please" 50 times a day?" Or a job where you had to tie the shoelaces and wipe the runny noses of 25 young campers on a daily basis? If so, you're not alone. Most freshmen and sophomores with whom I meet have had similar job experiences, and many of them feel that these jobs aren't significant enough to be put on a resume. They seem to think that every other student's resume is brimming over with high-level internships at major companies. Most often, that is not the case.

"So, who will want to hire me as an intern?" you might be asking, "if all I have on my resume are retail jobs, life guarding and camp counseling." The answer is "a lot of companies." Employers are seeking candidates who have the transferable skills they are seeking, NOT the direct experience, especially in regard to internship hiring. According to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the most common transferable skills required by employers are communication skills, strong work ethic, teamwork skills, initiative, analytical skills, computer skills, flexibility/adaptability, interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills and technical skills. I'm sure that most of you reading this post have many, if not all of these skills.

Remember too that transferable skills can be developed and honed in any kind of situation, not just in a work-related situation. Have you been involved in community service projects or taken on a leadership role in a school club or organization? Have you worked on a team project where you had to use your analytical skills? It's doesn't matter how or where you have developed your transferable skills, just that you have them.

So, think about which transferable skills you have and which ones you still need to work on. Then try to find an internship/job or extracurricular activity where you can improve those skills. Although internships are invaluable in terms of gaining experience and building your resume, a job can be equally as good. Sometimes students get hung up on the terminology, thinking internships are better than jobs, but a job where you are working on important projects is much better than an internship where all you are doing is fetching coffee and making photocopies.

Sometimes less is more on a resume

With many things in life, more is better. However, this is not the case with regard to resumes. I think it is human nature for most people to want to put everything they have ever done in their lives onto their resume. This reminds me of a cartoon I saw that said a resume is not an autobiography. How true! What good is a resume that is chock full of information that is totally irrelevant to the position? If you went into a store to buy a laptop, would it make any sense if the salesperson started talking about the features of the newest cell phone or iPod?

We have a strict rule in our career center that students' resumes must fit onto one page and often my counseling meetings revolve around helping students determine what to leave on their resume and what to take off. For some, this is a painful process because they have a deep attachment to their high school leadership activities and experiences and are reluctant to delete them from their resume. While I can certainly understand why students feel this way about their proudest accomplishments, they should begin phasing out some things from their resumes as they embark upon their internship or job search.

Students need to remember that a resume is a dynamic document, a constant work in progress. I always remind them that they will be adding and subtracting to their resumes during their entire career so they might as well get used to it. Even though I'm sure you laboriously perfected the resume you submitted with your college applications, that resume served a specific purpose and should not be the same resume you submit for job or internship opportunities. While you may have been the Captain of your football team or the Editor-in-Chief of your high school yearbook, there comes a point when you can no longer bask in the glory of prior accomplishments but need to move on to developing leadership activities in college and adding internship experiences to your resume.

When writing or reviewing your resume for a specific position, take a good hard look at EVERYTHING on your resume to determine if it is relevant for the position. This is similar to a company designing an advertising campaign to meet the specific needs of its target audience. If they do a good job of this, their customers will want to read the ad and buy the product. Likewise, if you carefully craft a targeted resume, the employer will be more apt to read it and bring you in for an interview. If something on your resume is totally irrelevant to the position, then you should take it off. Irrelevant items actually dilute and weaken a resume.

It's okay to brag...sometimes

We've all met annoying, egotistical people who love to brag about themselves. Most college students seem to be particularly sensitive to this and would never brag to their peers. However, they carry this same attitude into the interview. Students frequently tell me that they are hesitant to brag about themselves in the interview for fear of being viewed as arrogant or egotistical. Sometimes this is a reflection of having been brought up in a different culture than the U.S. but I also see it in students who were born here. I always tell them that, while humility is a virtue, the interview is not a place to be humble. Bragging to your friends about your accomplishments is, well, bragging. But bragging in an interview is "selling yourself" in order to get the internship or job.

When you go on an interview, the objective is to present yourself in the best possible light to the employer so that they will want to hire you. So you need to feel confident about talking about yourself, highlighting your strengths and skills that would be relevant for the position and expressing your significant accomplishments. Believe me, the interviewer will not perceive this as bragging! Interviewers want to hire confident people, so they will be quite impressed that you are a person who can speak confidently about yourself! They are also investing a lot of time and money in the hiring process and need to make sure they are getting an optimal return on investment by hiring the best candidate. And how would they know you're the best candidate unless you tell them!

If you're still feeling reluctant about selling yourself during the interview, conduct mock interviews with counselors at your career center who will be able to coach you on how to present your key skills, strengths and accomplishments in a confident, polished manner. And, if you're concerned at all about coming across as arrogant, no need to worry! Chances are that you are far from being arrogant, but if you are, your counselor will let you know it.

The odds are NOT 1 in 175,000,000

I hardly ever play the lottery, but the jackpot for the Mass Mega Millions game last Friday night was beckoning me at $144,000,000, not because of the sheer number of millions I could potentially win but because 4's and 1's are "my numbers," and I felt it was a sign that I should play. The next day I eagerly went to the Mass State Lottery website and discovered I hadn't matched any numbers out of five quick picks. That wasn't the worst of it. Right below the winning numbers I saw that the probability of winning the jackpot was 1 in 175,711,536! Wow! But you know the saying, "If you don't play, you can't win."

So, you're probably wondering...what does playing the lottery have to do with career counseling? Well, if you win the Mega Millions, you won't ever need to look for a job again! Just kidding! Some students I meet with seem to believe that the odds of getting a job are as slim as winning the Mega Millions jackpot and make a decision to not even apply to some positions based on their pre-conceived suppositions. They say things like, "that job is so competitive," or "so many people are going to be applying for that job," or "I bet the other candidates have better GPA's than me." It's amazing to me how many students create myths in their minds about why they won't get the job. I always say to them, "Why are YOU taking yourself out of the running without even applying? Let the company make the decision as to whether or not you're a good candidate." Just like you can't win the lottery if you don't play, you can't get the job if you don't apply! But unlike playing the lottery, the odds are much, much greater that you'll get an interview and land the job, and you don't even have to pay any money!

Also, the odds of landing a job greatly increase the more jobs you apply to so don't just sit back after applying for 10, or 15 or 20 jobs and think you're done. And please don't give up if you haven't heard anything from those first companies you applied to. Keep on applying! What have you got to lose? The odds are in your favor.