How To Get Your First Job After Graduating

Don’t want to go through the effort of finding a job and just expect something to fall in your lap? I’m sure you’re right. I think they’re hiring at thern burger joint down the street. Hey, a lot of important people started out that way. I think the lesson most of them learned flipping burgers was, ‘thisrn never again.’ So give it a shot! Go on. I can wait.

Didn’t go and fill in that application? Good for you. Let’s focus on what you can do instead to make your life a little better and your income a littlern bigger.

Play the odds

Getting a job is a full time occupation. I’m not kidding. You really have to hit the trail and campaign to get a good job. This is because every singlern application you send out is a long shot. That’s just how it is.

That shouldn’t discourage you, however. Because if you add together enough long shots, eventually you get a near certain thing. All you’ve got to do isrn take enough long shots. And not get stressed out every time you get rejected.

Because those rejections won’t matter anymore once you’ve got the job you want. All of that will fall away and you’ll only look back at this period of jobrn seeking as something that you had to get through and got through successfully.

Work on your Resume

Yup, every single time you read one of these articles they talk about your resume. That’s because so many people still think it’s alright to send inrn something handwritten that smells of lavender. That’s not okay. So take the advice that is out there about how to write one of these things and get writing! Resume writing isn’t easy, but it’s one of those skills that will stand you in good stead forrn the rest of your life – not just when you’re trying to write resumes for another job, but when you’re trying to sell yourself at other times as well.

Your resume is not a life story

We don’t need to hear everything you’ve done. Instead, you’ve got to edit your life story so that it is as appealing as possible. Does that mean you shouldrn lie? No, never lie. Lying is just going torn get you into trouble and might even end up getting you sent to jailrn . So don’t do that.

But that doesn’t mean you need to explain to HR managers how you wet the bed when you were 6 years old. Leave that for the family stories and thern embarrassing moments when your mom meets your new partner.

Struggling to figure out what you should put on your resume? There are resume experts that you can try talking to. They can make a huge difference.

It’s not all about you

The moment you leave college something changes and that is that the focus shifts away from you and your achievements to those of the company you arern applying for. Make certain that your resume and your cover letter represent this shift in focus.

So that means you don’t want to talk about how awesome you are, you want to talk about how that awesomeness will help the company you’re working for. Sorn focus on what the job application says you need to be able to do and then show off how you are fantastic at doing those things.

And then reiterate those points during the interview. Now, don’t rehearse them and repeat them verbatim from your resume. The HR people have already readrn your resume. They don’t need you to explain it to them.

It is who you know

Don’t just rely on the official channels either. With that I mean the official job postings and the official application sites. A great deal of life isrn accomplished behind the scenes. People like to think of them as smoky back offices. Think of them as you like, but that’s where you want to do yourrn business, because if you’ve got a foot in the door somewhere, a long shot can be turned into a shoe in.

So make certain you get in touch with everybody you know. And don’t just write them all in a group email either. Write them individually and ask them ifrn they know anything. If they don’t, nothing lost. If they do, well then the entire game has just changed.

Then suddenly you can name drop and that can make a massive difference.

But I don’t know anybody that knows anybody, you cry. Are you sure? Do you know all the friends of your friends and acquaintances? Yes, it’s very possiblern that they don’t actually know anybody. But you can never really be sure. And as long as you’re not sure, you have to try.

After all, you only have to hit the ball out of the park once and that’s bound to happen eventually if you take enough swings at it.