Entry-Level Job Seeker’s Definitive Guide to Interviewing: We would love for you to get that job! We know a thing or two about what will make you stand out–we help connect about 2.5 million students and grads to entry-level jobs every year. Don’t make the mistake of showing up unprepared for your interview. This guide includes tips for researching the organization, answering common questions, preparing your success stories, what to wear, and more. Read the guide.

Getting Your Resume Past the Machines and Landing a Job You Love: You might know that most employers use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to scan your resume before any humans lay eyes on it. These machines filter out a crazy amount of resumes, many of which are from qualified candidates. We get how frustrating this is for job seekers, and this guide helps you get past that first step in the process. Read the guide.

Definitive Guide to Resume Writing for Students and Grads: We have so much advice for improving your resume, and we did our best to boil it down. In this guide you’ll find tips for being specific on your resume, formatting, tailoring it for each job, and specific tips for women, veterans and engineers. Read the guide.

Entry-Level Job Seeker’s Definitive Guide to Salary Negotiation: We want you to get paid fairly almost as much as you do! We believe every student and grad deserves a great career, so we put together this guide that includes tips on doing salary research, keeping the conversation open, talking points, how to articulate your value and more. Read the guide.

Networking: A Definitive Guide for Students and Grads to Succeed in the Job Search: Where do you even start networking? This guide takes you from the very beginning, and gives you a sample elevator pitch, shows you how to conduct an informational interview, how to engage authentically, mistakes to avoid, and many other tips for connecting with the right people who will help you find a job. Read the guide.

Internship Do’s and Don’ts: Everyone’s career starts somewhere. If you want to start on the right foot, read this guide with lessons from two employers who hire a lot of interns. We frame their stories into do’s and don’ts to guide you as you search for an internship.  Read the guide.

7 Things College Seniors Should Do Now to Land a Job by Graduation [infographic]:It takes hard work to get hired. Prepare for a marathon, not a sprint. First, know your core skills. Make a list of great things going for you. Narrow down your list to where you are most competent and what you enjoy most. Next, update your resume. See more.

The Right Questions to Ask in a Job Interview [infographic]: Here we provide about twenty sample questions that would reveal genuine information about the employer and show that you’re enthusiastic and interested in the job. Don’t make the mistake of not asking any questions during or at the end of your interview. You’re interviewing them too, to see whether they’re a good fit. Check out our suggestions.

 10 Reasons Why College Grads Should Consider Entry-Level Sales Jobs [infographic]:Entry-level sales jobs are a great opportunity for recent grads to learn professional skills that last a lifetime. For starters, sales jobs aren’t limited to certain degrees and even if you never work in sales again, you’ll practice using psychology and negotiation. That will help you advance and create partnerships. Here are nine more reasons.

4 Reasons Why College Grads Should Consider Work and Travel Jobs [infographic]:First of all, international experience will help you get to the top of the ladder eventually. Senior leadership roles are especially open to those with international experience because today’s organizations need leaders with a global mindset. That’s not the only reason–here are three more.

Jobs Related to Aviation, Airlines and Airports, and How to Grow Your Career [infographic]: There are more opportunities than becoming a pilot or flight attendant. Many jobs in this industry offer great pay and travel benefits. Luckily, recruiters are actively seeking students and grads for roles in research and  development, airport operations, hospitality and tourism, aviation management, travel agents, and more. 

Graduating? These People in Your Network Can Help You Find a Job [infographic]:Faculty, campus career counselors, alumni, your parents (and their friends), and even your college president can all be helpful in your job search. It’s up to you to reach out, both in person and online. Expand your activities–new experiences will not only introduce you to new people but you’ll also learn more about yourself. Let us explain…

5 Common Cover Letter Mistakes [infographic]:First, don’t reword everything from your resume into your cover letter. You have to describe more of your story than what someone can easily scan on your resume. Second, don’t use a general cover letter–it has to be tailored to each job. Make sure it’s all about you, not what someone else wrote. See more.

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Majoring in English and unsure of where to go after college? Vicky Oliver, author of 301 Smart Answers to Tough Interview Questions (Sourcebooks, 2005) has great advice for English students and grads. Having studied English herself, she knows firsthand how the degree is worth it and where it can take you. Here we hope her tips help you learn how to use your degree and unique experiences to get you the job of your dreams.

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Applying for jobs can be incredibly frustrating. Does this sound familiar: you’ve submitted your resume online for dozens (hundreds?) of jobs and no one has called for an interview. You have decent experience and a college education but you’re not getting anywhere. Not finding the right job is negatively affecting every aspect of your life.

One of the most common frustrations for job seekers is getting past the applicant tracking machines (ATS) in their job search. An ATS is a machine that scans your resume before a human even lays eyes on it. We teamed up with Intry to create a guide to navigating ATS’s so you can get your resume past the machines and land a job you love.

Read the Guide:

Get Your Resume Past the Machines and Land a Job Your Love

At College Recruiter, we believe that every student and recent grad deserves a great career, and we also believe you deserve a high-quality job search experience. Our friends at Intry feel wholeheartedly that everyone deserves to be happy in their jobs. We combined our own expertise of what helps entry-level candidates stand out, with Intry’s deep knowledge of how ATS filters are blocking your resume.

In the guide we describe eight steps you can take:

1. How to focus your job search
2. Doing self-reflection to become more aware of where you fit
3. Networking
4. One-click applications–beware!
5. Staying employed at your day job
6. Tailoring your resume for each job application
7. How font and format matter
8. Managing your emotions

Read the guide: Get Your Resume Past the Machines and Land a Job You Love

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If there is one person who knows about how HR leaders can and should choose the right technology tools, it is Sarah Brennan. Brennan is Founder and Chief Advisor at Accelir, where she dedicates herself to improving the impact of technology on people, business and the future of work. She partners with the companies that build the technology and she educates the companies that use that technology. Brennan was also selected to be an official SHRM 2018 blogger. I interviewed Brennan about how she is seeing the impact of the growing gig economy, and how HR leaders should be using (and not using) technology to engage their contracted and gig workers.  Continue Reading

Andrew Marcotte knows how to improve the performance of entry-level retail employees. He is an HR Business Partner at Blain’s Farm and Fleet, a specialty discount retailer with 38 locations. Marcotte supports store operations and store management teams across all locations. He shared with us what they do to motivate, grow and develop entry-level employees and we have shared his insight below. Marcotte was selected as an official SHRM 2018 blogger.  Continue Reading

When talent acquisition leaders select their own recruitment team members who will fill their organization’s entry-level roles, what kind of people should they look for? Specifically, given generational changes and changes to HR technology, do you know what qualities will serve your college or campus recruiters best? I spoke with Paula Harvey, who is VP of Human Resources at Schulte Building Systems. In addition to championing strategic, fun, and global HR, she is Board Director at the SHRM Foundation, and was selected to be an official SHRM 2018 blogger. She gave her insight into what makes a great university relations recruiter.  Continue Reading

If you are starting a summer internship you’re most likely very excited, but also nervous. Here we offer some expert advice from Dr. Robert Shindell, President & CEO of Intern Bridge and Pam Baker, Founder & CEO of Journeous. These experts want to help you get the most out of your internship. In our interview with them, we discussed how you should approach the program, how to overcome the trickiest parts of getting started, how to avoid some of the most common mistakes, and what you can learn from even a poor internship experience.

Watch the full half-hour interview with Shindell and Baker at https://youtu.be/WGS-1apIpCA. 

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“It’s an increasingly tough marketplace out there on both sides, and that customer understanding can go a long way for the company’s recruiting and all these applicants who want to land a great place to be.” That is from Nancie Ruder, owner of Noetic Consultants, a marketing consulting firm that specializes in brand strategy, research and training. Ruder will speak at SHRM 2018, presenting “Unlocking Marketing Strategy to Optimize Recruitment.” I spoke with Ruder to get her insight into effective recruitment marketing to college students and recent grads. We chatted about measuring success, what Gen Z wants, and non-traditional student recruitment. Here are the takeaways from our conversation. Continue Reading

Younger workers, or those with only 0-2 years of experience, are 42 percent more likely to be underpaid (Paysa study).

Negotiating salary at the point of a job offer is when you will have the most leverage. Once you take the job, you won’t have as much to bargain with. If you don’t ask, you won’t get it!

We want you to get paid fairly almost as much as you do! At College Recruiter we believe that every student and grad deserves a great career. Every year we help thousands of entry-level  candidates find jobs, so we know a thing or two about how you can stand out to a potential employer. We gathered our insight, and included a lot of advice from our friend and expert career coach Marky Stein, into a full guide for entry-level job seekers.

Read the Entry-Level Job Seeker’s Guide to Salary Negotiation

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By day, Dan Cross is the Talent Acquisition Strategy Manager at Capital One. But a role he always embraces night and day is disability advocate. We posed a few questions to him and he gave some insightful tips for students and grads with disabilities who are job seeking. We share his advice below. Cross is outspoken about HR issues and trends (find him on Twitter @CrossOverHR), and was named an official SHRM 2018 blogger.  Continue Reading