Job Hunting

One question that every college graduate has on their mind is how they are going to find a job after graduation. With this economy, college graduates are now questioning if it is even possible to find one. Corporations are cutting thousands of jobs each quarter to strengthen their balance sheet. Moreover, small businesses are hiring fewer people because they do not have the capital or the credit needed to keep the extra worker. The economic crisis is affecting every industry in our economy. Low sales and tighter credit means that companies essentially have to let people go because they’re just not making enough revenue to support a large number of employees. EBay and Pepsi recently laid off thousands of workers because of low profits and lack of sales. Merrill Lynch is expected to lay off thousands of workers because of their recent merger with Bank of America. In addition, Chrysler announced that it will cut 5,000 salaried jobs and lay off 1,825 other workers because of low sales and tighter credit.

So the question now is, with these economic conditions, how are college graduates going to find a job?

Although it is going to be difficult, there are a few things that may help you find the job of your dream. For example, the University of California, Irvine, recently had their yearly "Fall Career Fair" where over a hundred different companies come onto campus to recruit prospective graduates. This is a great program and opportunity to meet recruiters and find out more information on what they are looking for. Moreover, it gives one a chance to connect with the recruiter and personally hand them their resume. Recruiters are there to seek potential workers, so making a good impression with them is a key to receiving a further interview. Here are a few things that you can look out for when meeting and talking to a recruiter:
1. Appearance- When you attend any kind of company recruiting event, you should always dress professionally and look clean. This means fixing your hair, shaving, etc. For men, they should have on a black/dark grey suit, white dress shirt, and a dark conservative tie. Women should have on a two piece suit, conservative blouse, dark shoes, and conservative jewelry.




2. Resume- The resume is a very important part of telling the recruiter who you are. Therefore, you should have a clean resume that is free of grammatical errors and formatted neatly. One thing that you should do is have someone proofread your resume. Moreover, you should use a lot of action words to describe your previous job functions/activities. For example, instead of saying, “I worked with my group member to create a marketing plan.” You can say, “Collaborated with a five member team to formulate a 15 page marketing plan for numerous corporate clients”



3. Greeting- When approaching a recruiter, always smile at them and give them a firm hand shake. Introduce yourself briefly and proceed with your questions. Try to make the conversation you have with the recruiter a two way conversation. At the end of your conversation hand them your resume, thank them for their time, and ask for their business card.

4. Business Card- After asking for their business card and thanking them for their time, write down 2- 3 things from your conversation on the back of their card. This is so that you can email them back after the event and mention the things that you talked about with the recruiter. It makes things a little more personal and makes you stand out above the others.


These are only a few things to remember when you have the opportunity to meet with different recruiters. Just remember these few advices and with hard work and determination, finding a job should be less stressful as you may think.