How To Get Your First Job After Graduating College

Employment and career advice isn't my normal area of expertise, but as someone who has interviewed hundreds of candidates for jobs I've developed something of an eye for good resumes and successful career arcs. What got me thinking about this particular idea (first job after college) was my nephew, who is currently a college freshman. Last night he asked me to review his resume, which he has put together in order to secure a summer internship -- and it really clarified a few concepts for me about how he could improve his prospects.

1. Sell yourself. This seems obvious, but I see a lot of resumes that are really focused on selling how good the job would be for the candidate, not how good the candidate would be for the job. In my nephew's "Objective" section, he said something to the effect that he wanted to go into business and was looking for a job that would prepare him for this. As an employer, I don't care (much) how good my job is for your resume, I care about what you bring to the table, how you're going to provide me a return on my investment in you.

2. Don't narrate. The form of the resume tells the story already: it's generally produced in reverse chronological order, and is focused on contributions. Employers don't need to hear the story of how you got each job, or why it was meaningful to your development -- that should be obvious from the context.

3. You are the architect of your own success. If you don't have an employment history, don't grasp at straws to fill out your resume -- figure out what your resume should say by the time you graduate and start filling it in with real world experience. As a freshman in college, my nephew has plenty of opportunity to add meaningful items to his resume, and it's never too early to start. For example, he's interested in a career in business, so I'd like to see that he joined or formed the University Chapter of a Young Entrepreneur's Organization, or that he developed a small business around one of his interests like Video Games or Football (a community web site? a blog? a data analysis service for fantasy sports?), or that he worked with the local soup kitchen to develop a cheaper source of fresh ingredients. The possibilities are endless, and the choices you make will also help future employers think about you in a more rounded way. Also, negative space on your resume says a lot: if you don't have a lot of relevant extra-curricular activities while you're in college, that says a lot about you too.

4. Be intentional. There is a principal I strive to instill in my programmers: program intentionally -- which basically means, if you don't know how to get the program to draw a circle on the screen, don't keep trying to add lines of code until a circle appears -- research how to get the code to draw a circle -- and then write the program. The same principal applies in building a career. Not a lot of students know exactly what jobs they want when they graduate -- but that's not an excuse to be uninformed. For example, a friend of mine just got a Masters Degreee in Public Health -- and then felt fortunate to land a job that isn't even really what she wanted or expected to be doing afterwards. If she thought the degree was going to help her achieve her ideal career, she could have asked the school for a list of the jobs last year's graduating class got -- or the current jobs of the class that graduated ten years ago -- before she invested her time and money in the program. That's not to say she would be guaranteed to get a similar job, but at least she would know generally the types of jobs available to folks who pursue that degree from that school.

The same is true for a freshman in college: if you have some ideas about possible future careers, do the research to see what it takes to get those jobs. If want to be CEO of a Fortune 500 company, read some biographies of Fortune 500 CEOs and see how you can follow a similar path. Take advantage of being a student to create opportunities that wouldn't otherwise exist -- if you want to be a sports agent, call a sports agent (or call several until one takes your call) and ask them about how they got to be where they are, what classes they took, what activities they pursued, what internships they did. As a student you can also get access to people and information that aren't so easy to get after graduating -- like ask a state senator if you can observe them for a day, or interview a CFO about what statistics software they use, or take a writer from '30 Rock' to lunch to pick their brain on octuplets tennis. And after someone helps you out by chatting on the phone or letting you into their daily routine -- follow up with a thank you note, and then ask to connect on LinkedIn (you have a LinkedIn profile, right?). This can also help you build connections that might someday lead to an internship or job.

If you've worked smart (i.e., you've done your research, and pursued a thoughtful, relevant path through school), it will glow on your resume like neon lights.


1/13/2009 Update:

Robert Scoble just published a nice overview of how to leverage social media to get a job -- all of those techniques would be complementary to what I've described, and would also be great to get a jump on while you're in college.