Not all of us were fortunate enough to find that first career position during our last semester. For some, their majors were in such high demand that they were able to find a job right away - looking at you, Engineering. For others, such as myself, a general Business degree didn't appear to offer much at first glance. I struggled for a little while when trying to land my first role out of college, so I figured that I'd offer up some advice here to any prospective grads in a panic.
These principles below don't only apply to recent grads, but may also apply to those who are still in the middle of their degree program. I work as a professional recruiter for a publicly held company with very high standards. People like me look at resumes and speak with candidates all day long; it's literally our job. Below are the easiest tips for landing that internship or job.
1. Choose the right role to apply to:
Make sure that when you're applying to jobs, that you're applying for roles that realistically meet your skill set and that you can see yourself working in for at least one year's time. Why at least one year? One of the most common questions I get from a Hiring Manager about a resume is why a candidate moved around a lot during their employment. No manager wants to hire someone who is just going to be trained and then leave within one year's time. Simply put, moving around a lot will be a detriment unless you have a highly desirable skill set that other candidates do not.
2. Customize your resume to tailor fit the industry that you're looking to get into:
No. That does not mean lie about your experience! I mean that you should take the most pertinent experience that you have and somehow manage to push it to the forefront of your resume. Recruiters scan resumes, we don't read the full novel that is your experience. Unfortunately, if we cannot get that you have the experience that our hiring managers need with more than a cursory glance, sometimes your resume will just not make the cut. This is especially true in higher volume spaces where we see 100+ applications.
Are you looking to get into Finance? Try making the internship that you had at an Accounting or Finance firm stand out. Push that to the top of your resume in your "Professional Experience" section. You were in school and therefore don't have much experience? Well, were you involved in any extra-curricular activities? Try adding a "Leadership" or "Community Involvement" or "Volunteer Activities" section to your resume. I was the President of a Club Sport Team and for the longest time, that was the only bit of "work" experience that I was able to showcase. I also happen to be involved in a Practice Interview Program with the business resource center at my school. I helped students prepare for real life interviews - neither were paid positions. I actually found a passion for Human Resources and developing others through both of those positions and that was something that I was able to speak about during interviews. I think that my passion really came through and gave me the edge over some other candidates with a bit more experience.
3. Save a copy of the job description for any position that you are interviewing for!
This might just be one of the best tips for anyone taking on a new position. Always save a copy. Why? That's essentially what you are going to translate into your resume when you do update it. The language that is used in a Job Description has typically been curated by a Human Resources Business Partner, the Hiring Manager, and sometimes the Recruiter. All 3 make sure that it makes sense for the role and encapsulates the entirety of the role.
Well, you should then be able to - in your own words - summarize that information and use it to paint the picture of what it is that you did on a daily basis through your resume. I'm not telling you to plagiarize, I'm telling you to use it as a basis for understanding how the description of a role is professionally represented to the average candidate.
4. Proofread!
It's always important that you take another look at your resume to make sure that there are no spelling mistakes or errors in grammar. Here's a quick checklist:
- Make sure that the dates on your resume are correct for the timeline that you were in the position. If you are currently in a role, the date should be represented as "(Date started position) - Present". Because this is your current role, make sure that you use the Present tense when describing the work. "Responsible for..." as opposed to "Was responsible for..."
- Former positions must be in the past tense: "Was responsible for..."
- Make sure that Job Title and Employer names are clearly visible and bold - sometimes we are looking for a specific title or even company.
- Look at the job that you're applying for and try to sift through the many things that you did in each role and include the things that are most relevant to that job.
- Obviously spelling errors are a no-no. I've had hiring managers reject resumes with typos because they felt their roles required a greater attention to detail.
- Your resume is the FIRST indication into your written communication skills that a company will receive. If your resume cannot be understood, your corporate emails might not be able to be understood either.
5. Cover letters mostly go unread.
I know, I know. In college they told you that it was important to write these cover letters, as sometimes it is the difference between getting the job and not getting the job. Realistically, I never read cover letters unless they're in the way of the resume. So far, I have not read a cover letter that has made me think a candidate was more qualified for the role than their resume would have made them seem. The cover letter becomes useless if the resume is solid enough. Why? We are going to call you if your resume sparks any intrigue. From that phone call, we will learn more about you and then send you on to speak with the hiring manager.
6. Don't take the call right away!
Sometimes you aren't prepared for the phone call from a recruiter. Typically we will need about 20 minutes to assess fit over the phone. If you aren't ready for that, you may become nervous and mess something up. Personally, I cannot for the life of me interview under that kind of pressure. I am the type who needs to prepare himself for those kinds of conversations. Even if you are great at those on-the-fly conversations, take a moment. Politely inform the recruiter or hiring manager that you are unable to speak right now, but that you'd love to set something up for later in the day (keep within business hours) or even the following morning. Take the time to prepare!
If you let it go to voicemail and then realize it's the recruiter for your dream job, call them back immediately and schedule something for the following day. If they are calling you, they see something worth exploring.
That's all that I've got for now, but I promise to be back with more. If there are any topics that you'd like me to explore, please feel free to let me know in the comments and I can make that our next topic!
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