Chris Crum just wrote on the way LinkedIn looks at the ‘State of Student Recruiting’ and says, “there are over 39 million students and recent grads on LinkedIn, and thousands of companies waiting to recruit them.” Of course, there’s a nice infographic and lots of numbers with visual imagery to help you see what the majority of students are looking for in employment goals.
Not surprisingly, the top things that matter to the 18-30 year old category is work/life balance, compensation/benefits, and a strong career path. They are least interested in company vision, flexible work arrangements, and being valued by their employer. I think that if you did similar surveys in different age groups, they’d come up with different priorities because the things you look for in a job depend on what is happening in the rest of your life.
Flexible work arrangements, for instance, are prioritized by people who have responsibilities at home that cannot be delegated. Being valued by your employer starts looking big when you spend years at a job where your contributions are not appreciated. Company vision might not matter at the beginning of your career, but after a while you think about a bigger picture and where your values align. These things don’t necessarily overtake the work/life, compensation/benefit, career path priorities, but they might.
Job recruiters should target your priorities
If you are looking for a job with certain priorities in mind, working with a recruiter who is going on the majority vote can be frustrating. You are on different wavelengths and the recruiter will not be connecting you to the right jobs for you.
This is why Professional Resume Services does things differently with our Recruiter Resume Distributions. Our process targets your preferences and we match you to the recruiters who meet your requirements in industry, position, salary, etc. The database we use is consistently updated and capable of filtering to your unique parameters.
If LinkedIn has over 39 million students and recent grads competing for a job in thousands of companies waiting to recruit them, there’s a lot of stuff to wade through to find the job that has what you are looking for. Recruiters help narrow things down, but they will keep the majority’s goals in mind. We can connect you to the recruiter who will target your priorities.
You’ve just graduated and now the future looms. You worked at a minimum wage job through school, so you are already past an ‘entry level’ resume, right? Wrong. An Entry-Level resume goes past the job history in the school cafeteria and coffee shop to include everything that makes YOU a good candidate for a career with the company you are hoping to join. It combines your coursework, skill sets, internships, and all your experience to showcase the benefits you bring to the hiring table. One example would be your probable expertise with technology, and the ability to multi-task. You might not realize that being able to use Photoshop and being unintimidated by computer programs can be assets, but they are useful skills. A generation that has grown up with smartphones has the ability to go on to other technologies with ease. A good resume can turn that into a point in your favor during the interview (assuming you have turned off that smartphone to give your full attention to what is happening!) Did you show up on time without fail at that school job? Did you have any good reviews? Your research paper on Medieval French Literature might not apply to the job you are seeking, but the skills you developed and used will. Most employers will appreciate a worker who can research what needs to be done, break it down intelligently, and explain the steps coherently in lucid writing. You could figure out this resume writing all by yourself because you do have the research skills. But it might be a good investment to see what a professional service can do for you. A lot of the time, a graduate doesn’t have the time or the understanding of what employers are looking for. It’s difficult to figure out which skills are assets if you don’t know how to look at the whole picture. In today’s job market, you need expert advice to make your entry level resume showcase your skills and education and get you started on your career path with confidence.
The experience problem is one that many new graduates and those reentering the workforce both face. Not only do employers want experience, they want recent experience. No one is more desired than one who is already trained and already working. When you are looking for a job from a position of unemployment, then you have to make yourself seem even more desirable than the other candidates. But how do you get experience when no one will give you a job so you can get experience? One way of doing this is to volunteer. No, you will not get paid but many volunteer opportunities lead to jobs and they can certainly lead to contacts. More importantly, they are something to put on your resume under ‘experience’ and that is a category that needs to be completed. No matter how much education you have, no matter how impressive your degrees or your university, experience trumps all of that. When including volunteer work you don’t have to specify that it was volunteer unless asked. It’s quite easy to calculate how much your position as a volunteer was worth by exploring one of the online salary calculators. Another way to get experience is as an unpaid intern. Few companies are going to turn away someone who is qualified and wants to work for free even if it is only part time. The bonus in this is that not only will you gain experience and networking contacts, you could also land a job. If a position in your area opens up the company is going to be more inclined to hire someone who already knows the job and how the company itself operates.
There are ways around the lack of experience issue. It just requires a little creativity and ingenuity.
Getting a job is hard. It is even harder when you have just graduated and have little or no work experience. In this case your education and your skills will say more to your potential employers than your small amount of work experience.
The skills you gain at a job are very useful in other jobs and therefore are good to put on your resume, but what about the skills you have gained while at school? Well, there are many that are just as useful in the work field and you should let your potential employers know that you have those skills. Here are some examples of skills that will help improve your resume:
Computer Skills: Knowing how to use a computer is pretty much a necessity nowadays. Luckily, you can learn those computer skills at most schools and therefore you can put those skills on your resume. It will make your employer’s life easier if they don’t have to teach you the basics of computers when they hire you.
Teamwork and Leadership Skills: Whether you were on a sports team, student council, choir, band, or involved in theater, you probably gained some very good skills in working with other people and being a leader. This is important because you will be working with all sorts of new people and eventually leading people and the fact that you know how to work with and lead people is important to your potential employers.
Various Field Specific Skills: Depending on what you are applying for you may have some skills that are more specific to that job. That will be up to you to decide which skills are applicable and helpful in landing the job.
Now you have an idea of what skills you have and which ones you can bring to the table even with little or no work experience.
Everyone starts their career in an entry level position. A basic resume is great for entry level positions but will not work for executive positions as your experience grows. And, experience does grow. There is a young lady who started out as a cashier in a motorcycle accessory store. She did not have a college education and so she didn’t make much money. But she stayed there, went above and beyond the scope of her job and got raises and more responsibility.
After a couple of years, she moved on. This time, it was still a customer service job, but it paid more and it gave her the freedom to go to school to get a degree.
She has since gotten her degree after 3 years and in this current position she just got a promotion to manage two of the stores. It can be done. Many people work hard to climb this ladder of success. But you then have to change your resume to reflect you now, not the you from several years ago. It’s important to keep your entry level resume up to date. As you progress in the job field, keep adding new skills, new responsibilities, etc. You will also need to adjust your career outlook so that it reflects your work ethic and beliefs and how you can better a company with your experience.
As your resume turns into an executive resume, you will be able to recognize more things you can add to the resume so that it is tailored correctly, tastefully and will encompass everything you know. After all, if a resume is a reflection of you, don’t you want to be presented in the best possible light?
