Job Search and other stuff
Hi, I'm James. I recently graduated in the Fall of 2005 from Temple university In Philadelphia. My degree is in communications, which apparently means very little. I started applying for jobs in October of my final semester. I have no idea how many times I sent my resume out, Probably around 4.6 billion Out of all the jobs I applied for I think I walked away with about four interviews.My first few were complete train wrecks.Besides looking good in a suit I brought very little to the table. I was nervous, tripping over my words, when I got asked "If I had any questions?" I replied "No". All in All, I had no chance of getting the job but the experiences weren't a complete waste. After my second or third horrifc interview,I knew it was time dry clean the wrinkles out of my only suit, and get some books or information on how to perform well interviews. Luckily, I was working at a book store that had a real relaxed policy with their employees receiving stuff for free. So, I picked up some books on the top answers for interview questions. After that, I pretty much developed a script of answers for the general questions you get asked in an interview. I was on point. I landed two jobs after that. I know you don't really learn this in college but studying can really help you do significantly better with things. If you're struggling with interviews I strongly suggest picking up a book or two to help you out. They can really help you word the information on your resume into something that sounds alot sexier to the potential employer.
James,
Great advice. CollegeRecruiter.com offers a series of free job hunting books to all registered users. If you have not yet registered, go to http://jobs.CollegeRecruiter.com/Free/GetStarted.asp . Takes about five minutes. You'll be asked if you want to subscribe to our career newsletter. Indicate yes. You'll then receive an email from our newsletter system asking you to confirm your desire to subscribe. Confirm that and then you'll receive instructions on how to download the books. They're written specifically for college students and recent graduates, so they're short, sweet, and to the point. There isn't a bunch of information in there that is applicable to executives with 30 years of experiences and Rolodexes that need to be transported by 18 wheelers.
In addition to getting a toe hold on what to say during the interview, how to answer questions, there's something else you can do to get a better start. For example, you say your degree is in Communications. As with writing, there are a lot of aspects to communications. You may want to be a speech writer or the company spokesperson. You may be the one who writes the press releases or is the one who publishes the public announcement that explains the Exxon Valdez. And there are all the various avenues of communications.
So another part of preparing for the interview is determining what aspect of the general topic is what you want to pursue. What part of the rainbow holds your ambition?