Nothing is scarier than getting your diploma in the middle of an "economic downturn." Oh, wait...getting your diploma in the middle of an economic downturn during a period in history where news follows you everywhere. Years ago, before many readers were born, there was no such things as 24 hour news. You heard what you heard on the radio, 1/2 an hour of nightly news, and the local newspaper. So you focused a lot less on the global economy and more on your economics final. Life has changed.
Now you are faced with DOOOOOM written in big headlines on your cell phone, websites, and TVs running in every coffee house.
Not that having lots of information about the Fed, the market, and Warren Buffett isn't grand. But it can leave you feeling a bit desperate at a time that is, let's face it, already emotionally turbulent.
So the question I get asked is this: Do I have a prayer of getting hired in this economy?
First the bad news: yes, there are likely to be fewer really high paying entry level jobs out there as companies cut back. Also, current employees are more likely to hang on to the jobs they have in uncertain times making for less turnover and again, fewer available jobs.
One more piece of bad news for those applying to graduate schools. Times of turbulence tend to increase applications to graduate school. Graduate school is often seen as a type of resume shelter. You can gain skills, change careers, and explain gaps in your employment history all by heading off for a BA or PhD. So be aware of some stiff competition.
So is there any good news? Some.
First, your experience being poor will serve you well. If you have followed the economic advice given in this blog (and from your parents, teachers, and well, everyone) then you will graduate with the ability to live fairly economically. You are used to sharing living quarters, using public transportation, eating carbs from a box, and looking for discounted entrainment opportunities. You don't have a mortgage (perhaps some student loans), and hopefully not a large credit card payment or car payment.
This makes you available to companies that are looking to reduce their payroll expenses. New graduates are cheap and readily available. Why pay someone with 3 years experience $35,000 when you can pay a new grad $25,000. This lets you get your foot in the door, gain experience, and be poised to jump when the economy gets back on its feet.
A second opportunity can be found in doing contract or temp work for firms. Many companies don't want to put full-time employees on their books. They are expensive resources with the benefits and fringe. So instead they hire contractors through firms at a reduced rate. Even with the firms fees, this hire is still cheaper than hiring a full-time employee. The benefit to you? You can get experience and maybe even get hired full-time if you show your value to the company.
Remember that the economy is both real and not real. Money is a real thing that you need to buy stuff, but it's also emotional. Fear about whether or not you will have a job when you graduate can itself impact your search. You need to conitnue hunting for a job without the words of the economic demons rattling around in your head. You need to avoid naysayers who will ask you how you plan to handle a job hunt in such a tough economy. You need to keep your emotional equilibrium and not let fear take over your search.
Now is the time when you need all of your resources to get hired. You need to have a positive attitude about your product (YOU) and what you can offer a company. You need to have confidence in your ability to find a job. You need to promote yourself. You need to network. You need your career center. You need alumni. You need to be prepared to take a job that will get you experience and buy you food, even if it isn't the dream career .
Protecting Your Image
As you begin crafting your professional image, it's important to recognize that pieces of your old reality are still out there. In the age of the Internet, you can never be fully free of your past.
Rule #1: Pictures, videos, letters, email can all appear at any time. Avoid being in truly compromising positions to begin with. Back in the 80's and 90's, students who knew they were going into politics were always advised to stay away from illegal drugs. Now with the ubiquitous nature of cell phones with cameras and video, I would take it a step further. Always assume that everything you are doing is being filmed. Especially if it's really sleazy or ridiculous. College is a great time to let loose, but try to think more than a hangover away about the consequences.
Rule #2: If you haven't already done so, now is the time to put your name in a search engine and see what comes up. Did an ex-girlfriend write a diatribe about your cheating ways? Did a well-intentioned sorority friend put your shirtless picture up as "hottie of the month?" Is your social networking information up for all the world to see? if it's too late to follow Rule #1, contact friends and ask them to take down photos and mentions of you so as to clean up your search engine hits.
Rule #3: Pay attention to your credit. Credit isn't just about buying a new car or applying for a new credit card. Credit is a part of your professional image. Many organizations will do a credit check before hiring to ensure that you are not in any type of financial jeopardy that could cause you to do things that might adversely affect the organization. Heavy credit card debt, unpaid bills, or no credit at all can cost you a job.
Rule #4: Stay away from illegal drugs. Many of the best jobs will require you jump through one final hoop prior to employment: a drug test. A hair folicle test can check for drugs as far back as 90 days. Just being around marijuana prior to a urine test could bring a positive result, so you may want to ask your Harold and Kumar worshipping roommate to ease up until you get a gig.
Rule #5: Set up a professional networking page to share. Site like LinkedIn can help you put a resume, work history, and recommendations online as well as network with other professionals in your field. When your name comes up in a search engine, your professional website can be front and center, and you can send the link to your contacts when you tell them you are looking for a job.
You can only control what is out in the world to a certain degree. But the more you scrub your image clean, the easier it will be to create a new one.
Rule #1: Pictures, videos, letters, email can all appear at any time. Avoid being in truly compromising positions to begin with. Back in the 80's and 90's, students who knew they were going into politics were always advised to stay away from illegal drugs. Now with the ubiquitous nature of cell phones with cameras and video, I would take it a step further. Always assume that everything you are doing is being filmed. Especially if it's really sleazy or ridiculous. College is a great time to let loose, but try to think more than a hangover away about the consequences.
Rule #2: If you haven't already done so, now is the time to put your name in a search engine and see what comes up. Did an ex-girlfriend write a diatribe about your cheating ways? Did a well-intentioned sorority friend put your shirtless picture up as "hottie of the month?" Is your social networking information up for all the world to see? if it's too late to follow Rule #1, contact friends and ask them to take down photos and mentions of you so as to clean up your search engine hits.
Rule #3: Pay attention to your credit. Credit isn't just about buying a new car or applying for a new credit card. Credit is a part of your professional image. Many organizations will do a credit check before hiring to ensure that you are not in any type of financial jeopardy that could cause you to do things that might adversely affect the organization. Heavy credit card debt, unpaid bills, or no credit at all can cost you a job.
Rule #4: Stay away from illegal drugs. Many of the best jobs will require you jump through one final hoop prior to employment: a drug test. A hair folicle test can check for drugs as far back as 90 days. Just being around marijuana prior to a urine test could bring a positive result, so you may want to ask your Harold and Kumar worshipping roommate to ease up until you get a gig.
Rule #5: Set up a professional networking page to share. Site like LinkedIn can help you put a resume, work history, and recommendations online as well as network with other professionals in your field. When your name comes up in a search engine, your professional website can be front and center, and you can send the link to your contacts when you tell them you are looking for a job.
You can only control what is out in the world to a certain degree. But the more you scrub your image clean, the easier it will be to create a new one.
The Elephant (and Donkey) in the room: sexism in hiring
As the Republican and Democratic National Conventions come to a close, it's a good time to take what we've seen and heard and translate it into business wisdom.
If you listened to the speeches of the two candidates for vice president, you might have noticed a distinct difference in tone. Joseph Biden spent a whole lot less time introducing his family and talking about his personal experience as a father and husband.
Why then did Govenor Palin feel the need to spend so much time talking about hers? Because the reality is, people still question whether a woman with a family can manage a full-time career.
Unfair! Sexist! Wrong!
Yes. Yes. Yes. But, if we simply decry the injustice without looking at the root, we learn nothing that can benefit women.
Employers are, for the most part, pragmatic people. They want workers who will devote all of their energy to making the organization more successful. If you have a split focus, you simply are less likely to be the best value in terms of hire. It is still believed by society that no matter how much life has changed, women will end up having to devote more of their brain power and time to home making act ivies. There is, unfortunately, both anecdotal and scientific research to back this up and it only gets worse as they have children. (http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111458).
Women also like to talk about their private life. To back this up I spent an hour on a hike and bike trail walking near pairs of people as they jogged. I listen to 10 conversations from two men and then from two women. My observation was that men were more often talking about work, sports, gadgets, or news. Women were more likely to be talking about relationships (at work or at home) or family.
Having interviewed hundreds of men and women, I can assure you the same is true of interview situations. When interviewing men, the conversation tends to stay on work with the occasional drift into leisure. Occasionally men will mention that they have children. Significant others are rarely brought into the conversation unless it is in relation to their work or a recent move that brought them to the city.
Women on the other hand chat about their families, their engagements, recent weddings, ages and stages of children, and boyfriends. It is very rare to have an interview with a female candidate who does not talk about their personal lives.
Sexism in the work place tends to backfire on employers because they miss out on fantastic employees. But as a female candidate, that really isn't much consolation for not getting a job for which you are qualified.
So what can you do. Think about how you communicate and how you answer questions:
So we return to Sarah Palin. Palin is a capable professional woman. She is also a mother, wife, and public servant. But Palin has to take the lead in directing the conversation in this most important of all job interviews. As the campaign progresses, my hope is that she will take the lead in encouraging people to stop examining the life she lives in her house and helps them focus on the things she would do in the White House.
If you listened to the speeches of the two candidates for vice president, you might have noticed a distinct difference in tone. Joseph Biden spent a whole lot less time introducing his family and talking about his personal experience as a father and husband.
Why then did Govenor Palin feel the need to spend so much time talking about hers? Because the reality is, people still question whether a woman with a family can manage a full-time career.
Unfair! Sexist! Wrong!
Yes. Yes. Yes. But, if we simply decry the injustice without looking at the root, we learn nothing that can benefit women.
Employers are, for the most part, pragmatic people. They want workers who will devote all of their energy to making the organization more successful. If you have a split focus, you simply are less likely to be the best value in terms of hire. It is still believed by society that no matter how much life has changed, women will end up having to devote more of their brain power and time to home making act ivies. There is, unfortunately, both anecdotal and scientific research to back this up and it only gets worse as they have children. (http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111458).
Women also like to talk about their private life. To back this up I spent an hour on a hike and bike trail walking near pairs of people as they jogged. I listen to 10 conversations from two men and then from two women. My observation was that men were more often talking about work, sports, gadgets, or news. Women were more likely to be talking about relationships (at work or at home) or family.
Having interviewed hundreds of men and women, I can assure you the same is true of interview situations. When interviewing men, the conversation tends to stay on work with the occasional drift into leisure. Occasionally men will mention that they have children. Significant others are rarely brought into the conversation unless it is in relation to their work or a recent move that brought them to the city.
Women on the other hand chat about their families, their engagements, recent weddings, ages and stages of children, and boyfriends. It is very rare to have an interview with a female candidate who does not talk about their personal lives.
Sexism in the work place tends to backfire on employers because they miss out on fantastic employees. But as a female candidate, that really isn't much consolation for not getting a job for which you are qualified.
So what can you do. Think about how you communicate and how you answer questions:
- You don't need to tell an interviewer why you moved.
- You don't need to tell an interviewer about your personal life.
- You don't need to mention weddings, engagements or family plans.
- You don't need to talk about your children.
So we return to Sarah Palin. Palin is a capable professional woman. She is also a mother, wife, and public servant. But Palin has to take the lead in directing the conversation in this most important of all job interviews. As the campaign progresses, my hope is that she will take the lead in encouraging people to stop examining the life she lives in her house and helps them focus on the things she would do in the White House.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
