THE JOB MARKET IS CHAOTIC
Because they tend to believe that potential employers are wise and all-knowing and will "find them out," graduates fresh out of college are often quick to avoid the feared embarrassment of applying for a job in the wrong place. Those about to graduate or recently graduated may be saying to themselves:
I'm not qualified for that job; they'll laugh if I apply. I'll blow it even if I get the job.
There are better candidates for that job. I don't know how to break into this field.
The hiring process is a lot less scientific than you think. Scouting for athletes is, in some cases, many times more rational and systematic than job recruitment and hiring of college graduates. For one thing, the athletic variables that scouts focus on-speed, size and power-are more easily identifiable and measurable than variables that make for a productive employee. In both recruiting for college teams and drafting by professional teams, these measurable standard abilities are compared to select the best athletes available for the position. But even college and pro coaches make mistakes because they can't really measure your personal character traits and mental preparation. In the employment world at large, job interviewers are guessing at just about everything.
Unlike the pro sports drafts, hardly any research about you and your abilities or past experience is conducted. You have far more freedom in using personal initiative to make a case for yourself. And unlike sports, the best qualified are probably not selected for the job, strange as that may seem. Instead, the people who are best at making themselves available are often the ones who get hired.
Sounds like a terrible way to run a business, but since actual performance on the job may have a very low correlation with a person's background; employers are sometimes at a loss to predict who will turn out well and who won't. The act of hiring a college graduate to fill a job is often a wide-open process, and the following realities of the system can work to your advantage:
- Most new graduates do not have exactly the right qualifications for the job they are seeking, and it costs an employer far too much to find the ideal applicant; as a result, just being around at the right time and showing some measure of potential can be immensely important.
- Many hiring decisions are very subjective and personal; an interviewer may disregard objective criteria (absence or presence of experience, relevant course work, grades) if he or she chooses. This is because employers often unconsciously hire the applicants they like best, the ones they believe to be most motivated, and those with whom they share similar interests.
- Employees are sometimes hired on sheer potential and then taught everything they need to know about their job. In fact, some employers prefer to provide on-the-job training so they don't have to "un-teach" procedures new employees may have learned elsewhere.
- People who get hired are those who maximize their personal contact with people in places of work. This does not mean "you gotta know someone"; it means "you gotta get to know someone."
The general looseness in the system of hiring that we've been describing can work to the benefit of those who understand it. The system rewards handsomely the college graduate who does not eliminate himself or herself but instead goes after a field of work with determination, and is persistent enough to be in the right place at the right time.
To arrive in the right place at the right time, an athlete must first target his or her efforts at solving three basic problems: (1) "I don't know where the jobs are or what they are about"; (2) "I don't know anyone to contact about jobs"; and (3) "I don't know what I have to offer an employer." All three problems can be handled like an unprepared opponent if you take the following initiatives in response:
RESEARCHING WHERE THE JOBS ARE
Every job search begins with the task of finding where the jobs are and what they are about. "Research" refers to all those ways by which you can inform yourself of various types of occupations, employing organizations, entry requirements for particular jobs, labor market conditions, and the nature of the work itself. Research sounds like it is hard and tedious work, but mostly it is enjoyable and relatively easy.
Don't worry at this point about how you will find a specific job opening. Instead, do your research for any field of work that you like. A common mistake that college graduates make in the job search is to limit their research to one or two areas of potential employment to the exclusion of all others. The next two steps in the search-establishing contacts and identifying qualifications-will be most effective if you have a wide array of options from which to choose.
You'll make progress in finding out about where the jobs are if you exercise maximum curiosity about fields of work you have never heard of before. Do not disqualify yourself before discovering what an occupation is all about. Let your personal interests be your guide, and do your research without prejudging whether you can make it in that field. Round up a long list of possibilities and then choose among them.
Research would be difficult if you had to do it alone in a painstaking manner, as you would a research paper. Fortunately, there are many sources of help available to you. Use as many of the following approaches as you possibly can:
Go to the library: Read about a field of work in whatever books you can find in the college or local library. Consult a directory that lists organizations in your field of interest and note in what geographical areas they are located. Look up a corporation to see if it has been in the news lately.
Use the career planning and placement services at your college: Often your college or university Career Planning and Placement Office will have more reference material that is relevant to your career field than the library does. You can do much research there on a field of work and find many special directories that will identify places you can apply for employment. Often this office will also have a list of alumni contacts that are willing to help you as well as information on post-graduation work internships or other types of training opportunities.
Take a course in which career research is possible: If you are wondering how you might find time to do all this research we're talking about while still in college, see if your school offers courses in which you can investigate a field of work as part of the course requirements. Such courses are frequently offered in the business, sociology, anthropology, or economics department and are usually available to upper-division students.
Attend a professional meeting: Once you have identified your target field of work, one of the best ways to obtain inside information about the nature of the field is by attending a meeting of people who are active in the profession. At professional meetings and conferences, presentations are made and information is shared informally. Admission is generally open to anyone for a registration fee, and student fees are usually lower. Regional and local meetings of a professional group may be even more useful than national meetings, in terms of information potential and the chance for personal interaction with members. Contact local branches of professional organizations in your field of interest and inquire which meetings are recommended.
Write to an organization yourself: No matter how much general information you may gather about job opportunities, at some point you are likely to find that you want to know more about particular places where you'd like to work. To do this, you can write directly to the organization-c/o its Public Information or Public Relations Office and request that you be sent any available materials describing opportunities for college graduates. These publications are free.
Arrange information interviews on your own: Written sources will not tell you everything you'd like to know. Because much that is important about a job will not appear in print, you should supplement the above research methods by arranging informal talks with people employed in your intended field of work. In most cases, you will have to seek these informal interviews on your own; for this you will need to tap your contacts as effective sources of help.
