“When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going”

It's Time for the Student Job Seeker to Get Going

By Donna Beyer

Associate Director, Career Development

Stevens Institute of Technology

Motivating students to conduct their own career search can be difficult in good times. During a recession it gets harder. The bad news is there is no better time to be motivated. The old saying, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”, has an even deeper meaning when it comes to searching for that first entry level position in a tough economy.

In the good times, many opportunities were handed to students on a silver platter. Students with good GPAs, outstanding work accomplishments and a well-rounded activity-base became “hot tickets” for corporate recruiters and the only tough decision became what offer of employment to accept. The need to motivate these students to conduct a search outside of on-campus recruiting was really a mute issue. It isn't quite like that anymore.

Networking today is the key element of a successful career search. It is true that the student who has been actively involved with pre-professional development through cooperative education or internships has a decided advantage through their career network experience, yet they too, must enhance that network and build on it in this economy. Starting from scratch is even more difficult and requires a dedication and perseverance that is equal to the time spent on a full time job.

Companies still come to campuses to recruit, but they are scaling down their efforts in order to help ensure the rescinded offers and push-back start dates that occurred in the spring of 2001 will not happen again. The phrase heard most often during fall recruiting of 2001 was “we are proceeding with caution”.

Does this mean companies are not hiring? No. There are still needs for qualified entry-level students. Smart companies still need to reinvigorate themselves with fresh ideas from the entry-level population. They also know that a presence on campus is necessary to keep them in the fold as needs change because, “there is nothing permanent except change”. Yes, the opportunities exist, the needs are still there, but it is now up to the student to actively be involved in their own career search.

Companies dealing with lay-offs, downsizing and restructuring, or whatever they choose to call it, are unable to visibly activate their hiring techniques in the face of corporate changes. They now need the students to come to them.

In 2000, students were clearly in a Seller's Market. A report in BusinessWeek Online of May 8, 2000 stated “these days the anxiety seems to be on the side of overworked corporate recruiters as the always-grueling season has become even tougher”. Students now need to know that they are in a Buyer's Market and those formerly overworked corporate recruiters are currently reworking their job priorities with fewer campus visits and more direct and focused searches as the need arises.

In a Buyer's Market, it is up to the Seller to do the marketing. Students need to realize that today they need to market themselves.

This brings us to the question, what is marketing? According to a definition retrieved from http://www.learnthat.com/define/m/marketing.shtml , “marketing refers to the integrated and coordinated activities of research, product, price, promotion, distribution, customer relation, and environmental activity, among others, which are directed toward goals both inside and outside of the organization.”

Okay, this is people we are talking about. True, but once a person is in the job market, they become a commodity and, indeed, they need to sell themselves as a product. In these tough times it is time for