Where Your Career And Business Always Gets The Royal Treatment

This post is particularly important for college graduates at all levels, yet applies to any job seeker. Prior to commencement and/or a starting a dedicated job search, there should be a mandatory session focused on helping new job seekers with acquiring skills to help others help them find job opportunities.  Often job seekers ask others to help them find job opportunities but those people may not have knowledge of the industry the job seeker is looking to work in, nor context of the type of skills, education or knowledge the job seeker has earned. However, those individuals can still lend a hand by looking out for specific job titles when opportunities arise.  This specific knowledge drives clarity with an understanding of job titles (and job descriptions for that matter) that are most commonly advertised and would potentially be the perfect match for the type of work they are looking for. 

When we work with clients, we often use a job target marketing document to assist clients with building a profile of the types of jobs, industries and companies they are looking for and use this document to help articulate and even share with others that assist job seekers with finding positions.  The more specific you can be, the greater your chances of finding a position.  This document works for those that have been in the workforce for one year or more as well. We often find that job seekers are not targeting their job search efforts and are using more of a “spray and pray” approach which wastes a lot of time and effort. They send out resumes to any and every job listing with the hope to land somewhere to get their foot in the door. This is obviously not the best approach to getting a job, especially for a new college graduate and leaves them more frustrated and discouraged after a while. The target marketing document gives the client a strategy and helps them really think about the type of work, industry and company they want to work for and helps them to show others what they are looking for in their first (or next) position.

The following tips and strategies can be used to assist new graduates (or others in the job market) to find opportunities if they are unsure on how to market themselves or not exactly sure about what they are looking for:

Leadership Development Programs

Graduates should apply to Management Training Programs or Leadership Development Programs often offered at large fortune 500 companies.  Many times these programs offer a comprehensive experience to learn different branches/business segments of the company, with the understanding that participants may have to move to different cities (or countries) for a specific amount of time to gain the experience.  It’s a great opportunity because the company pays for everything, participants get a decent salary and gain so many different skills in various areas of operations.  Companies do require a commitment of dedicated employment after the training program is over, but I haven’t heard any person that I’ve known that was a part of one of these programs have a complaint about it.  It’s pretty much a guaranteed job after extensive on the job training.  Usually there is a culminating activity once each assignment is completed and the person moves on to the next area of the operation to learn. The company doesn’t want to lose the investment it made in the participant so this employment commitment is to be expected.

When I worked with a large telecommunications firm, I knew someone who participated in the company’s leadership development program and she came to our department after moving from her hometown in New Jersey.  As a participant in the program, she had to keep moving around to different cities within the country to fulfill the requirements of the program.  I wished I’d known about those opportunities, because I would have done it especially as a single young woman just graduating from college.  Here is a website that can provide more insight into what these leadership development programs are all about: https://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/resources/leadership-development-rotational-programs – Consider that a development program can be huge for someone just graduating from college right now.

Local Business Publications

If the person will be local to a large city, I would encourage looking at the local business publication because they provide details about the companies in the area, and maybe even the state.  For example, in the metro Atlanta area, the Atlanta Business Chronicle is an excellent resource for researching companies in the graduate’s career field and industry they are interested in. Start searching on those websites BEFORE you graduate. 

Linkedin

Also, being on Linked is a priority in large cities like Atlanta.  There is no way around it. Building a great profile is necessary.  Joining groups associated with the graduate’s major on Linkedin is also a good strategy because networking and acquiring contacts is crucially important before graduation.

Headhunters, Contract/Temporary Placement Agencies, etc.

I would not discount opportunities through headhunters and large, reputable staffing companies like Volt, Robert Half, Kelly and Randstad (Corporate division).  There are certainly others to research, depending on the city and the industry. For example, there are a lot of tech-specific divisions in these specific companies dedicated to a specific field.  Also, signing up for contract opportunities is another way to get your foot into a big company in large cities.  You may not necessarily get the salary you are looking for right out of the gate particularly if you don’t have enough experience, however you can make some great connections for getting a permanent placement at a company you love and a salary and benefits package you can live with.    Early in my career, this is how I landed several AWESOME opportunities and acquired skills and knowledge that was transferrable to permanent positions.

In Part 2, we’ll talk about 5 additional ways to assist others with helping you find a job.

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