“8-month-old Micah laughs hysterically while daddy rips up a job rejection letter.”
“What,” you may ask, “is so complicated about Applying for Jobs?” Well, applying for jobs and internships is more than seeing a job posted on Indeed.com, sending off a resume & cover letter and then waiting for a response. If that’s all you’re doing, you could be in for a long wait.
The primary problem is that that method, by itself, doesn’t often yield the results you are looking for. According to many sources, at least 75% of jobs aren’t even advertised. How do you find these hidden jobs? Check out Techniques for Tapping Into the Hidden Job Market on JobHuntersBible, a great resource for your job search. This process is mostly about building relationships with people in your field of interest. Think: volunteering, networking, informational interviewing, and more! (Please see earlier Savvy Senior posts for tips on networking and informational interviewing.)
Another challenging issue, is that when you apply for jobs, you open yourself up to rejection. It’s not unusual to get discouraged when those first few resumes you send out don’t yield any phone calls asking you to come in for an interview. Once you get discouraged, it can be hard to keep putting yourself out there, to keep networking and applying for jobs with enthusiasm.
When disappointment strikes, it’s important to figure out how to maintain your positive energy and continue with your search. Check out this article for some ideas: Top 10 Ways to Deal with Job Rejection. Then, examine how you are going about the job search. Get a fresh perspective, reenergize, and try something new. Also, make sure you aren’t making these 20 Avoidable Job Search Mistakes.
Remember, when you are looking for that first job out of college, it just takes one “Yes.”
See the Senior Checklist for more tips and resources under the Apply section.
Many marathoners will agree that mile 21 is a tough one. You’ve come so far, yet you still have a ways to go. You are almost finished with your college career, almost but not quite.
Where do you find the energy to push through until the end? To sit down and polish your resume, create a professional Linked-In profile, attend networking events, make professional connections and apply and interview for jobs? Not to mention, homework and tests.
Whew! Just reading through the list could make you tired.
Let us consider advice from the Marathon pros to help you finish the year strong!
• Pace yourself: This isn’t a quick sprint. Keep taking steady, sustainable steps forward
• Take care of yourself throughout the process: rest and good food are your friends
• Pay attention to your mind-set and self-talk: success is mainly in the mind
• Set reasonable outcome and process goals: think of things you can easily achieve, as well as ultimate goals
To help you keep moving forward and meeting your goals, step-by-step, the focus this month is on Resumes and your Professional Presentation.
Check out the resources on the Senior Checklist for Career Success to create or improve your resume and create a professional Linked In Profile.
The keystone of your job search is your resume. You will need it to network and job search effectively. If you don’t have one yet, now’s the time!
If you already have a fabulous resume, please consider your on-line presence. Are you Linked-In? Have you checked your Facebook Privacy settings? Have you Googled yourself lately? Now is the time to create a positive, professional on-line presence.
Ryan Hall, on running a marathon:
“I don’t think about the miles that are coming down the road, I don’t think about the mile I’m on right now, I don’t think about the miles I’ve already covered. I think about what I’m doing right now, just being lost in the moment.”
You’re entering the home stretch.
Wishing you well!
Marshall McLuhan famously wrote that “the medium is the message.” When you list your blog on your resume, the message you send to a potential employer is that you understand the importance of modern media and its role in society. As a medium, a blog is very much an extension of yourself; it allows you to express a fuller version of yourself beyond your resume.
A blog is not just for writers and artists to advertise their portfolios, it’s a tool for all jobseekers to demonstrate their ability to analyze, synthesize and communicate information in their field. By blogging about professional and academic experiences, jobseekers can animate those bullet points on their resume, bringing to life a semester abroad, a service-learning course, or an internship. Here is a good example.
Like anything else you include on your resume, you must carefully consider whether or not your blog promotes you as a candidate. Poorly organized, infrequently updated, incredibly personal or irrelevant blogs can work against you! Also keep in mind that a blog can be a compliment to a resume but it is not a substitute.
Other Advantages of Blogging
-A blog can reveal hard-to-communicate personal qualities: passion, creativity, imagination, etc.
-Blogging allows you to come across as an individual before the interview.
We get lots of questions about how, and whether, to list campus activities and leadership on resumes. The answer is almost always, “it depends.” We’ve put together this brief online presentation to go through examples of some of the most common types of involvements we see.
The presentation below is called a Prezi; to navigate the presentation, click the forward arrow at the bottom of the presentation. You can zoom in or out on a particular section by clicking on the blue plus or minus buttons that appear on the right side when you bring the cursor to the right side. If you don’t see the presentation, try re-loading the page. We recommend viewing the presentation in full-screen mode; hover over the “More” button on the bottom right, and click “Fullscreen.”
To start the presentation, press the play button; to advance the presentation, keep pressing the arrows (or in fullscreen mode, you can advance by pressing the right arrow key).
If you’d like to see the sample resume included in this presentation in full, it’s available on our website. Here are some other resume resources:
Remember, if you’d like help working on your resume, check out our upcoming events including resume jumpstarts, make an appointment with a counselor or come to our drop-in counseling hours. See you soon!
