Advice to graduating students
As some of you will be graduating in 2015, you may know that the chance for getting a job is much better than last year as the global economy has recovered. But you must start early because opportunities do not wait. You must actively search now to find your dream job. My questions are: Are you ready? Are you actively looking in the right places? Do you know how to handle rejection?
As I often mentioned in this blog, waiting until graduate then looking for job is a big mistake as it is too late. You should start looking for job at the beginning of your last year in college because it is the best time when many jobs are opening and fewer people are looking. Before starting, you must ask yourself these questions to make sure that you are ready.
Do you know what you want? Of course you want a job but sometimes you are too busy with school works and lose sight of what kind of job will give you a meaningful career. What you need is to research the local job market to identify the job that will help you to build a career that last for many years. You need to broaden your job search by reading job descriptions within your field of study to see if you find something that fits your skills and interest.
Do you have the right skills? You should write a description of your dream job then list the skills that would be needed to pursue that job. By compare that list to the skills you currently have, you can see if there is a gap then taking courses to close the gap or improve your technical knowledge.
Are you actively looking for job? Looking for job is a full time job that means you should put as much time as possible to find job. If you are lazy then you just waste your time because others are active and they may get your dream job before you.
Are you ready for Job interview? As companies are hiring so you must be ready. Since the job market is highly competitive and rapidly growing, companies are expecting more out of college graduates than before. You must be prepared during the interview process to make sure that you will do well by really familiarizing yourself with the company's needs. Know something about their business, do a Google search on company news and know about the company’s direction and the technologies the company uses. If you can say, “I know that your company is using XYZ technology and I have taken two courses in that subject.” Then it helps you to shows that you care to work for them and it is a positive thing that distinguishes you from others.
No interview is perfect, especially the first few interviews as you may be nervous. It is OK if you did not do well but you must learn from these mistakes. You must ask yourself what is working. What is not? Review over your last few job interviews and identify your strengths as well as weaknesses. Did anything you did lead to a promising offer? Did anything you did lead to failure? Getting told that you have been turned down for a job is never a pleasant experience. It can be difficult when it happens over and over again. What is the best way to handle the rejection?
The first step in getting over not getting hired is sharing the frustration, disappointment with friends, an advisor, or family member. You must recognize that most job searches are competitive, and many good graduates are rejected since only one person can get the job. It is quite likely that the employer is not actually rejecting you, but rather saw another candidate as a better fit. Since hiring decisions are typically quite subjective, it is entirely possible that another recruiter might have chosen you.
You need to reflect upon your approach to the hiring process to see if there is anything you could improve upon in the future. Take a step backwards and review your resume, cover letter, interview, and follow up activity. If you got an interview it means your resume was good then reviews the interview process to determine what went wrong. Given what you learned about the job interview and people involved, ask yourself if you could have done something differently in order to present yourself more effectively. Remember that each failure in interview will get you closer to the successful interview next time as you gained more confident.
Many students often lose momentum with their search while waiting to hear if they got an offer. However, it’s not a good idea to stop looking until you have accepted an offer. You only stop looking AFTER you accept a job offer.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
