Black Collegian Career Center

Get Out, Get Noticed, and Get a Job!

The fact that millions of people are getting college degrees these days, coupled with such a tight labor market due to low unemployment rates, makes getting a full-time job upon graduation quite a challenge. A college degree just isn’t enough to compete; it takes knowledge and work experience to stand out in the crowd. Have you decided what you’ll do to get noticed by employers? For starters, get a job!

That’s right, the old adage is true: you need work experience to get a job and you need a job to get work experience. Eighty-two percent of the employers surveyed in Michigan State University’s 1999-2000 Recruiting Trends ranked career-related work experience (such as internships, co-ops, and summer employment) at the top of their wish list for college graduates. Furthermore, in the 2000 Graduating Student & Alumni Survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), the vast majority of new and prospective college graduates have been employed in various capacities. Only 2.5 percent of the 1,218 respondents indicated that they had no work experience. So, when it comes to showing employers what you’ve got, obtaining meaningful work experience before you graduate will be your most effective marketing tool.

Experience Counts!

Many college students look for part-time work to pay tuition, meet living expenses and   have spending money. Then, when it comes time to sell themselves to employers for post-graduation work, they have an extensive work history, but no specific career-related skills. To avoid this predicament be selective about the part-time jobs you choose. Granted, a paycheck satisfies your immediate needs, but in the long run, meaningful work experience will go a lot further. Here are some strategies to locate jobs that will help you enhance your resume, get valuable contacts and gain opportunities for permanent full-time work.

Sign Up for Internships

Internships, paid or unpaid, give you credit where credit is due. In addition to getting academic credit for work, interns get credit for “real life” work experience when being evaluated for future job openings. Rich Chang (right) made an easy and immediate transition into the world of work thanks to doing an internship prior to his May 2000 graduation from the University of Florida, Levin College of Law.  “I gained hands on experience, confirmed my career interest and developed a rapport with my future co-workers. It gave me confidence in my ability to do the job and showed others the quality of my work,” said the Assistant State Attorney in Florida. Chang was offered a full-time job contingent upon passing the bar exam as a result of successfully completing a four-month, part-time internship.

Register With a Temporary Employment Agency

Temporary placement agencies are becoming an increasingly popular way for college students to gain meaningful work experience that is likely to result in job offers. “Tests show that 41% of all temporary employees are college students and 25-40% of temporary workers get permanent jobs,” says Earl Tate, president and CEO of Staffing Solutions, Inc. To avoid the appearance of an erratic work history on your resume, Tate recommends listing yourself as a full-time temporary employee with a variety of jobs, highlighting the most relevant ones and giving examples that demonstrate your skills. To make the most of your experiences, the Boston-based executive recommends you work in four to six different companies to see what environment best fits you. For example, an accounting student might work in an accounting firm, banking, a corporate environment and the non-profit arena. Even though you don’t have to conduct a job search when using a temp agency, you still need a plan.

“Focus on your career goals and make sure your assignments are in line with them. The more you plan, the better off you’ll be when working with recruiters. Their job is to help you manage your job search, not control your career,” advises Tate.  To further increase your network and employment prospects, get out and meet your market.

Network in the Right Circles

The campus Career Center should be your first stop and the core of your career planning process. It has almost everything you need: career advisors who give you one-on-one attention, workshops to build your job search skills (like self-assessment, resume writing, and interviewing), a library of print resources, and equipment, such as computers and copy machines. Also, it’s a great place to get connected with potential employers and other student job seekers with whom you can share information.

Patricia Nielsen, director of Career Services at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, advises students to utilize all the resources available to them, so why not visit your school’s Alumni Career Services Office, too? Although most activities are likely to be geared toward helping alumni, some programming or materials may be open to current students. “The Alumni Career Services Office gives students access to alumni volunteers who have agreed to help new grads. Young alumni who graduated a year or two before are a very important source for new grads. Though probably not in the position to hire, they will have developed contacts, and, more important, will remember what it is like to be starting out,” says Robert S. Gardella, assistant director, Alumni Career Services, Harvard Business School and author of The Harvard Business School’s Guide to Finding Your Next Job (HBS Press, 2000).

On-campus recruiting and job fairs are crucial to companies looking for qualified job candidates. In fact, on-campus recruiting was identified as the most commonly utilized strategy to recruit college graduates by 86% of the employers surveyed in Recruiting Trends. Furthermore, 25% and 19% named on-campus recruiting and job fairs, respectively, as their primary strategies.

But again, you must have a plan for action. “It's more than signing up for an information session. You should have conversations [with recruiters], attend dinner functions and go to interview preparation sessions sponsored by employers,” advises Tiffany Rockette, a June 1999 graduate of the University of Chicago. The systems analyst who began her job at Deloitte Consulting in August 1999 further suggests, “Don’t spend all of your time trying to speak with upper management ---entry-level participants (particularly alumni) have a say in who goes into the resume pile, too.

Alanna Thompson (left), a May 2000 graduate of Quinnipiac University, started meeting her soon-to-be colleagues and potential employers in her junior year. “I went to massive career fairs at different colleges, went on Accounting Club trips to the city (New York), attended business banquets and volunteered at the Greater Hartford Open to make contacts,” recalls Thompson, who began her job in financial services at PricewaterhouseCoopers immediately upon graduation. “I always followed up my contacts by sending a resume within one or two days of the event, while I was still fresh in their minds,” says Thompson. 

Joining professional associations has its privileges, too. However, they can be costly, so join only one or two of them and ask for student rates. Moreover, take advantage of what you pay for. Read the publications, journals and newsletters, use member directories to find contacts, particularly when relocating, and volunteer as a student representative. Be on the look out for job openings, internship opportunities, mentors, and chances to publish research papers or further develop and present class projects.

Paula Brien, Career Planning and Placement Advisor at Columbia College in Chicago, suggests going one step further. “A trip to a national professional conference can be a huge boon to an [African-American] student’s job search.”  When attending one, make the most of it by attending career coaching sessions, job fairs, networking parties, special programming and orientations for new professionals, and workshop sessions that give you a good sense of important issues and emerging trends in the profession.

“Some of these conferences can be very expensive,” Nielsen warns. “Pick and choose them carefully, or offer to trade your volunteer services at the conference for access to some of the programs.” Finally, remember to list professional affiliations on your resume. “People of color should join professional associations that are predominantly white as well as similar associations that cater to people of their ethnic group. Recruiters typically advertise with and select from groups with which they are most familiar, says Ollie Stevenson, author of Career Success is Colorblind (JIST Works, 2000).

Minority networking and employment Web sites are a necessary addition to every job hunter's repertoire. These sites allow candidates to post resumes online, contain career centers that feature articles with career advice, have searchable job listings and provide links to other sites with employment information. Some of them include THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online at www.black-collegian.com and IMDiversity.com. Recruiters even use resume data banks on minority Web sites as a technique to diversify their work places.

Nielsen believes these sites have a lot to offer if used correctly. “Job search sites are good but are not only one way to use the Internet for a job search. That would be like searching for a job in the newspaper and reading only the classifieds. You miss a lot! Job seekers can use the Internet to research specific employers, many of whom post jobs on their Web sites, and research professional associations, conferences, chambers of commerce and other business organizations that have helpful information for job seekers. Look beyond the obvious,” she adds.

“Although the Web is playing a more important role in job search…I caution new grads or any job seeker against spending too much time online. It pays to get on the phone and in front of people,” advises Gardella.

Profit from Your Work

Once you have acquired meaningful work experience and contacts in your chosen profession, it’s time to find the jobs for which you will apply. According to Gardella, “There are four primary ways to find jobs: job postings (in print and online), search firms, networking, and targeting (identifying what companies you want to work for and networking your way in).

The main thing to remember is that no matter which methods you use to find jobs, you must market yourself effectively by communicating your strengths, accomplishments and work experience.  “When I screen resumes of college graduates, I understand they will not have a lot of job experience. I look for other ways the student has learned the ‘soft skills’ (communication, time management, budgeting, problem solving, presentation skills),” says Kari Schmidt, a Washington-based Human Resource manager. “If they can describe their everyday activities, with an emphasis on how they have utilized their soft skills, they will have an advantage when marketing themselves,” Schmidt advises.

“Go after what you want,” urges Nielsen. “Know that, in spite of the great job market we have right now, the job still is not going to come up to you and tap you on the shoulder and say ‘Here I am!’”  So, get out, get noticed, and get a job!

Pamela M. McBride has been in the career counseling field for over 10 years and has had over 40 nationally published articles.