Job Opportunities After College: You Must Create Them Yourself!

What is a job opportunity after college? Is it a job posting on Monster.com or on your school career services site? I would consider these all job possibilities, not opportunities. There is a chance or a small possibility that you may get a job with the company you want in the position you love, but the odds are slim to none. You may have an excellent resume, a phenomenal cover letter, and the answer to every interview question in the book, but what you don’t have are serious job opportunities after college because of all of this. There are several reasons why the odds are completely against you when you are applying for a position blindfolded, which is when you don’t know anyone in the company and/or have never worked or interned with the company.

The reasons are obvious, but people try to put them to the side while looking for job opportunities after college. Let me divulge.

Your buddies (your competition) dad works for the company- Come time for the first round of interviews, this guy will get one, which is one less spot for you. Your chances have declined.

Another one of your classmates just met a high level executive for this organization at a networking event last week- One more spot gone, wow this is getting ugly, but how many people could actually have connections like this? Way more than you think

The slacker in your Finance class has a fraternity brother who interned with this company last summer, due to his brothers internship the year before that. He knows exactly what the recruiters are looking for in a candidate.- That is not fair! Um…yes it is. This person is playing the game and you are sitting on the bench waiting for people to hand you a job opportunities after college on a silver platter, via a web site that everyone in the college uses.

Unfortunately, this is the reality of the situation. Most of my buddies who had a full-time job offer after college either interned with that company the year before or knew someone who knew somebody in the company. These people had legitimate job opportunities. Okay, so it is now the time in your life to create these opportunities out of thin air. Here are some helpful hints on how to create meaningful job opportunities after college and the recurring theme will be networking.

Talk to as many people as you can about your dreams or goals- Talk to your parents friends, your friends parents, your teachers, the guy your playing golf with on Saturday, chances are these people will know somebody who could help you out. Be careful though; do not come across like you are using them. Just let them know what you want accomplish and if they think they can help you out, they will bring it up.

Use your schools alumni network- Alumni love to help out people from their school, so contact the alumni association and ask them if they know of anyone in the field that you are shooting for. Contact them and ask them if you could pick their brain and ask them some questions about their career path. Do not ask for a job.

Everyone you meet is a potential job opportunity in disguise; if you can distinguish the opportunities from the possibilities you will be able to increase the chances of working in a field you are truly passionate about. Get into the game and start creating your job opportunities after college today.

Your Online Presence: Are you “That Guy”?

I realize that you are a great human being and have accomplished more than most people at the ripe old age of 22, but please cool it on the status updates, tweets, and photo albums. There is a point where it is simply too much and you will be looked at more of a “tool” than someone who is well accomplished. We discuss our personal brand and online presence all of the time and this is just one more piece of that total brand you should be shooting for.

Just as in the real world, you need to be completely cognizant of what you are posting or uploading on to websites. You may think that something as innocent as updating your status 10 times a day as something that will not impact your career, but lets just say four years down the road, you just so happen to be interviewing with someone who was your “friend” on Facebook and all they can remember about you is your constant status updates and your obsession with commenting on photos. Do you think they want an employee who is constantly going to be on a social-networking site while they are at work or an employee who is going to tweet about his struggles with the organization? These are certainly extreme examples, but not being “That Guy” is pretty easy, so here is a list of questions to ask yourself before you let the world know what is going on in your life.

Does this relate to work? Unless it is your job to speak about your organization on the web please use your discretion before you go tweeting about XYZ Company. Some people are paid to do this type of marketing and most likely you are no that person.

How personal is this? Honestly, no one wants to hear about your struggles. It’s simple. Life is hard for everybody. You are not the only one that had a rough week, so please don’t bring everyone else down with you.

Am I bragging? Yes, the thought of owning a brand-new BMW is pleasant, but guess what, no one else cares about your new ride. In the eyes of your followers or your friends you basically just said, “I am either very spoiled or make a lot of money”. Both of which, no one cares about.

You can have too strong of an online presence and it is a very fine line, but do me a favor and play it on the safe side, because you will never know who is taking inventory of the content you release into the web. By eliminating the little mistakes that your peers are consistently making, you will be able to separate yourself from the pack and continue to make strides toward becoming remarkable

Brendan Wales is a co-founder of StarvingFreelancers,com, a site dedicated to bringing together talent and opportunity.  He studied Finance at the University of Georgia and enjoys working with small-businesses.  Two of his favorite authors are Jack Kerouac and Ayn Rand.  Wales’ goal in life is to wake up in the morning and be excited about going to work.

Personal Branding: What do you represent?

Are you an aspiring artist?  Is entrepreneurship your passion?  Do you have trouble sleeping at night while thinking about your next great idea?  The answers to questions like this will give you the insight to create your personal brand.  The great thing about the Internet today is that you can become anything you want to be, whether it is your profession or just something on the side.  During the days of most of our parents, Mom and Dad were strictly known for what they did for a living, what they looked liked, and how they interacted with their contemporaries.  This is no longer the situation.

For the first time in history we are able to become whatever we want and there is absolutely no one there to stop us.   Personal Branding is the way to become the person you have always wanted to be, whether it be on Twitter or on the congested streets of Manhattan.  The problem is that it can also stop you from becoming what it is you have always dreamed about.  My question for you is simply what do you represent?  Are you a struggling architectural visionary, barely paying your bills?  If you are then live that.  Do not be afraid to display your designs on your Facebook page or Tweet about your innovative approach to gravity-powered water-collection.

The question what do you represent is vital to your future success and happiness.  Here is what goes through a recruiter’s head when they see your Facebook picture of your recent record-setting keg-stand?

“Nice form, but is his unique ability to drink 50 fluid ounces of ice cold Natty Light really going to make him a great Financial Analyst?” (Midway through the thought, your beautiful resume on bone-colored 32 lb. paper with a barely visible watermark falls into the trash-can, never to be seen again by that organization)

This picture may be good for a beer-tap inventor, but not for a financial analyst applicant for Goldman Sachs. You are representing your ability to party, not your potential to become an industry-leading business executive.

We must take the actions to create a personal brand that is completely representative of what we want.  Take five-minutes and browse through a friend of yours Facebook or Linkedin page and write down some of the characteristics that come to your mind when you are checking them out.  Is that what they are really like?  They could be an aspiring minister or a driven lobbyist, but if they are representing something different, then unfortunately that is what they are.  There is no escaping it.

Your Personal Branding efforts will pay off huge dividends and your social status on Facebook will not falter due to your lack of drunken images.

What do you represent?  Whatever you want.

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Brendan Wales is a co-founder of StarvingFreelancers,com, a site dedicated to bringing together talent and opportunity.  He studied Finance at the University of Georgia and enjoys working with small-businesses.  Two of his favorite authors are Jack Kerouac and Ayn Rand.  Wales’ goal in life is to wake up in the morning and be excited about going to work.

The Thank You Note: Your Final Shot

You just walked out of that long-awaited interview, you rocked the difficult questions, and asked even better ones, but unfortunately your work is not done.  I know that the last thing you want to do is walk out of an interview and hand-write a thank you note to someone from Human Resources; no one enjoys doing this. Well, it is time to change your view on the dreaded thank you note.  We are going to look at the thank you note as an opportunity to set yourself apart from your competition, because that is what the job search is, a competition.

Think about it, you have a blank card and you can write anything you want on it.  This is your last opportunity to win over your interviewer and you are going to rock it.

Here are the essentials of a thank you note:

Do not send an email! If you want to look lazy, then send a thank you note by email.  You will not get the job.

Focus on how you can make an impact The company you are interviewing for wants someone to step in and play an integral role in the operations, so express in the note how you are going to accomplish this.  If you can’t think of anything, then this job is probably not the right fit.

Be an outlier Your interviewer will receive an enormous amount of thank you notes, so you must separate yourself.  Definitely thank her for her time and the opportunity, but also add something that makes you different.  This interviewer is not going to remember every aspect of your conversation, so be sure to reiterate how and why you are a perfect fit for the position.  Also, if you remember anything specific about the interviewer, such as his/her College then mention it.  People love for things to be centered on themselves.

Perfection If you misspell a word or write the wrong phrase, please do not cross through it and continue.  Get a fresh card and start-over.  Yes, it is horrible and incredibly time-consuming, but think of this thank you note as an investment in your future.  Do not let your brief moment of laziness effect yours.

By putting the right amount of time and energy into your thank you note, you will have a much greater chance of getting a second interview, which is really the ultimate goal of the thank you note.

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Brendan Wales is a co-founder of StarvingFreelancers,com, a site dedicated to bringing together talent and opportunity.  He studied Finance at the University of Georgia and enjoys working with small-businesses.  Two of his favorite authors are Jack Kerouac and Ayn Rand.  Wales’ goal in life is to wake up in the morning and be excited about going to work.

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