College Grads Launching Businesses

Faced with a brutal job market and a staggeringly high unemployment rate, some college and grad school graduates are taking matters into their own hands and turning to entrepreneurship.



The Wall Street Journal reports that according to a recent report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, about 7 percent fewer graduates from the class of 2010 are expected to be hired this year. Those who graduated in 2009 saw a 22 percent decrease in hiring from the year before. Meanwhile, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a global outplacement consulting group, entrepreneurship is on the rise: Job seekers starting their own businesses increased to 9 percent through the third quarter of 2009, compared to 5 percent at the end of 2008.



Another recent survey conducted by Michigan State University confirmed that hiring of new college graduates plummeted about 35 to 40 percent this year and is expected to drop an additional 2 percent next year. But Phil Gardner, director of the university's Collegiate Employment Research Institute, which conducted the survey, noted that entrepreneurship has become a much stronger field for college graduates.



"Given the state of the economy, and the state of the job market, many young people are getting the push they needed to become entrepreneurs," explained Bo Fishback, vice president of entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation, who was quoted in the Journal. "It's a lot easier to decide to launch your own company when there aren't a lot of c out there."



Drema Howard, director of the University of South Florida's Career Center, agreed. "In the past, the recessions have not impacted college students as much as this recession has," she told the Tampa Tribune. "I think we're seeing more students saying, 'Well, I'm not going to depend on someone else. I'm going to take care of my own career and be my own boss.'"



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4 Ways to Use Craigslist to Get a Job

Classifieds are an excellent resource when it comes to finding jobs – for this reason alone: employers that post in the classifieds are sure to be looking. However, it is also because of this fact and the wide availability of most classifieds (including online and newspapers) that there is bound to be a lot of competition when it comes to applying for jobs advertised in classifieds.



This goes double for any town that the Craigslist service works for; generally, Craigslist is pretty well-known and it’s a widely-visited site, and so there is a ton of traffic going towards Craigslist. And with this traffic comes a lot of applicants. And with a lot of applicants comes the difficulty of making oneself stand out from the rest of the applicants. What’s worse – Craigslist is done online, meaning that one will not be given the opportunity to appear in-person and make a statement to the manager (what’s the percentage of communication that’s done in body language?). This can be a benefit or a setback, depending on your people skills – but either way, it’s irrelevant in the “Expansion” phase of job-hunting.



So how does one set themselves apart from the rest of the herd?



1. Follow instructions



This one seems obvious, but it’s surprising how many applicants carelessly break requirements (or try to sneak past them). If the employer requests that the resume be in the body of the e-mail, then don’t send it as an attachment. If the employer requests certain experience, don’t bother applying if it’s not there. Get the drift? This saves trouble and time for both the applicant and the employer. Undoubtedly, not following a requirement will likely disqualify the applicant from the position.



2. With the e-mail...



Highlight pieces of the resume! Don’t be afraid to mention previous experience in the industry, or any relevant volunteering experiences. Because the e-mail is the first thing the Craigslist employers generally read (unless they request phoning in, which will be addressed in later points), hit ‘em hard with qualifications and past experiences.



For example, if it’s a bartending or restaurant job, mention the SmartServe qualification (for Canadian residents). (If one hasn’t completed it yet, please Google Smartserve and complete it; it opens up many possibilities).



If there’s no response within an hour, don’t panic. There have been times when responses took even a week or two to process and for the employer to reply; in this case, the key to getting more responses is simply to apply to more jobs (makes sense, right?)! Chances are one will receive more replies the more opportunities that he/she applies towards.



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Get Your Resume Noticed, Get The Job!

Regardless of the amount of education, experience or creative vision you think you can bring to that new job you’re going to apply for, none of it will get you in the door if your resume has all the earmarks of an amateur.



Adherence to the following six tips will ensure that you are putting your best foot forward and projecting a winning image that will get your bio and credits favorably noticed by those who are in a position to say “yes” to your career advancement.



BREVITY



A well done resume should not exceed one page in length. If it runs more than a page, you are either rambling or engaging in overkill to sell your talents. A rambling resume suggests to the reader that you don’t know how to pull your thoughts together and that you require a lot of words and time to get your point across. One that reiterates material which has already been set forth and/or includes copious attachments which were not requested has the effect of making a reader think that you are blowing smoke to pad out a spotty employment record, mask your deficiencies, or that you are just really desperate.



A hiring authority should be able to see at a quick glance what positions you have held and what types of skills you can bring to the table. It should also be remembered that today’s competitive job market means that an HR department will be inundated with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of resumes that need to be read, sorted, and whittled down to a manageable number of semi-finalists who can advance to the next level. If your submission reads more like a chatty Christmas newsletter than a succinct summary of your accomplishments, it is guaranteed not to make the first cut.



RESULTS



Anyone can say that he or she has held a job as a salesperson, a machinist, or an executive assistant. What a prospective employer looks for, however, is whether the candidate did more than just take up space and draw a weekly paycheck for it. Did your salesmanship skills consistently top the quarterly expectations for your division? Did you invent a device that made an existing piece of equipment operate more efficiently? Did your powers of persuasion convince Sting to make a personal appearance at your company’s ribbon cutting ceremony? A results oriented resume will put you ahead of the competition because it conveys more than just a litany of tasks; it demonstrates a sense of initiative to improve upon the status quo and a commitment to giving 110% as a team player with the company’s best interests at heart.



Don’t forget that volunteer and community service activities are pertinent to list on your resume as well, especially if your efforts were instrumental in raising funds, passing an initiative, saving an historic landmark, teaching at-risk kids to read, etc.



RELEVANCE



Yes, it’s fascinating that you took a year off after college to meditate with monks in Tibet but what, exactly, does it have to do with being a hostess at a steakhouse? While one’s life experiences are certainly contributing factors to a job seeker’s work ethic and sense of self, your future employer’s bottom line will always get back to, “That’s nice but what does all of this mean to me?”



To that end, savvy job applicants don’t limit themselves to just one all-purpose resume but, rather, several which respectively emphasize those details that have the most direct bearing on the positions they are seeking. For instance, let’s say that you have experience as a freelance writer, an accountant and a graphic designer. The job you are applying for is in the accounting office. Thus, the accounting background will be the one rotated into the most prominent slot. Seasoned interviewees also know to incorporate buzz words in their resume that subtly mirror the specifications of a particular job and, accordingly, create a sense of familiarity to which an employer will easily gravitate.



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Are You Really "Networking"?

Today it seems we’re all “networking” all the time. Whether you’re on LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or another social networking site, you’ve entered your identity into an online forum because you hope to connect with other human beings. These sites can be fantastic ways to renew friendships, build business, find jobs after graduation, further your career, or espouse your point of view, but having a login to any of these accounts does not make you successful at networking.



What is Networking?



The term “networking” has become popular and is used throughout the business world. Unfortunately, it gives itself a bad name. What networking is really all about is building good relationships.



Build Industry-Specific Relationships: Good networkers may know hundreds of people, but do they have to? No. Networking isn’t about how many people you connect to on LinkedIn or how many friends you have on Facebook. It’s not how many people you know, but how strong your relationships are with the right people. Let’s say you’re looking for a job, should you be networking with friends and family? Absolutely. Opportunities can originate from anywhere. However, wouldn’t your chances be better if you’ve also developed relationships with people in your field? If you are on a finance job search but most of your personal friends work in retail sales jobs, you’re going to want to steer most of your career communication efforts in a different direction. Graduating students should keep in touch with classmates and professors in their major and join industry organizations. Volunteering and interning are also great ways to build relationships.



Create Real Relationships: People often think of networking as schmoozing --that is, connecting with others for your own benefit without any real interest in the other person. While we’ve all seen examples of successful schmoozing, you should avoid doing it at all costs. The results are short-term and can often backfire. Do you want to be schmoozed? No. No one does. You feel like you’ve been taken, used, suckered. Are you more than happy to help someone you genuinely like? Of course. All relationships are about give and take and the giving part is actually easier and more satisfying (try it)! If you want to network successfully, be genuine, find shared interests. Also, remember that online social networking (approving someone’s connection request) isn’t real networking. It can be part of it, but simply getting access to someone’s site isn’t a true relationship anymore than handing someone a business card would be. Take and show an interest in the other person. Networking isn’t about you….it’s about them.



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Job Aggregators Continue to Wow, While Job Boards Wallow

Job boards are in a predicament — evolve to stay useful and relevant, or jobseekers will set their sights elsewhere.



Competing with boards are aggregators — certainly taking attention away from smaller, less established job boards are meta-search engines that congregate job openings from a multitude of sources; i.e. job boards, newspaper and classified listings, associations, social networks, content sites and company career sites.



But aggregators allow companies to post and sponsor job listings, which takes advertising dollars away from others. For example, Monster has seen continuous declines in revenue between 2008 and 2009, while CareerBuilder North America has seen its own losses.



Aggregators undoubtedly seem more in tune with jobseekers, and just may be leaving older, but not wiser, sites like Monster and CareerBuilder in the dust. Take SimplyHired, for example. A virtual newcomer, going beta in 2005, SimplyHired is no stranger to providing jobseekers with what they want and need, which probably accounts for the company’s continued revenue growth — while job boards struggle.



Some believe job boards have one fundamental flaw. While they focus too heavily on job delivery, sponsored ads, visual presentation, and resume collection, jobseekers are shifting to social platforms. Although job boards are using social media to promote their boards, they are missing that jobseekers need social networking functionality too as part of the job-search experience — not a separate entity, but an inclusive entity. Simply put, one way for job boards to compete is to embrace social media into their fold of offerings.



SimplyHired’s recent addition of LinkedIn into its offerings is certainly a feature that puts job-search on a new level. Take the following example for instance. Conducting a basic search for a Chief Executive Officer position within New York City returns a number of sponsored and organic jobs to peruse.

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