Motivation Monday: Don’t be Afraid of Graduation!

Quote: “Courage is resistance to fear, the mastery of fear, not the absence of fear.” Mark Twain

It’s been almost a month since graduation!

Post-graduation Jitters
The reality of post-grad life is finally setting in – maybe you’ve moved back with your parents until you can get on your feet, maybe your friends from school are all going their separate ways, or maybe you’re just anxious about what comes next – but the heart of the matter is that early post-grad life sort of sucks.

A lot of people let that go to their heads and slide into inactivity and laziness. We know it’s daunting – how could it not be? The last 18 years of your life have been dedicated to education, and now you suddenly need to find a job and an apartment and get your life going, all at once. It’s scary, and some people get so scared they do nothing at all.

But put down those Doritos, turn off those non-stop Netflix playbacks of whatever terrible sitcom you’ve been binge-watching, and sit up straight!

Get out there and conquer!
You can do this! You can’t stop trying just because you’re afraid. Everyone’s afraid when they first start out. That’s okay. Just don’t let it beat you – keep moving forward! It might take a while to find a job, or an apartment, but you have no excuse to stop trying!

If you’re having trouble we have lots of articles to help, not to mention hundreds of job postings here on our website, and we believe you can do it.

Your time in school was just the prologue. This is the book! You should be excited! The whole world is open, you can do anything you want to do – go anywhere you want to go! It’s okay to be afraid; remember – “Courage is resistance to fear, the mastery of fear, not the absence of fear.”

So don’t bury your fear – conquer it! Go out and live your life!

Also check out:
How to Survive Post-Grad Life
Intern or Volunteer After Graduation

 

HUFFINGTON POST: “10 Reasons Why You Didn’t Get the Job”

We often beat ourselves up and go over in our minds as to why we didn’t get the job after the interview. I mean, if your resume was good enough and the employer said you have everything they’re looking for, why didn’t they hire you?!

Before you start contemplating again (and we apologize if we’ve brought up the past you’d rather forget), remember that the whole hiring process is out of your hands and it’s not entirely your fault.

The Huffington Post breaks down 10 reasons why you didn’t get the job.

GRADUATES: Have You Applied to Jobs Yet?

If you’re about to become a graduate soon, we know that you’re probably in the middle of finishing up that final paper, attending your last class EVER or cramming for exams. Congrats in advance! But while those are all very important, did you start applying for jobs yet?

It’s never too early to get a head start because remember, the hiring process takes a few weeks or even months for some companies. If you have some time between all the chaos at school, sit down and get your resume and cover letter together and send them out to employers. This will save you a lot of time, as you’ll be employed either right out of school or a few weeks or months afterwards.

Graduates should talk to a career counselor:
These people are here to help you. They’re also included in the tuition that you paid for at the beginning of the year. So why not take advantage of their service and get advice from them? Counselors get very busy around this time and the months leading up to graduation so give them a call first and schedule an appointment.

Graduates should start connecting with people on LinkedIn:
Create a professional profile and include a professional picture of yourself. Send requests to hiring managers and current employees in the industry you want to get in to. You can also start getting in touch with other supervisors or leaders whom you worked with in any of your past internships. Shoot them an email and ask if there are any job openings. If there aren’t any, tell them you’d like to keep in touch so when an opportunity does pop up, they can refer you.

Graduates should apply for internships to gain experience:
You don’t necessarily have to find a full-time job after graduation. If you have minimal or no experience at all, intern at a few places for a few months. But don’t forget to keep applying for jobs during this time. In the meantime, build a personal but professional relationship with employees there for a better chance to get hired in the company you are interning at.

Good luck on your journey as you start the next chapter of your life!

 

How to Prepare for a Job Interview

Things you need to do before your job interview:

1) Research the company
2) Get someone to do a mock interview with you
3) Look up the company’s location and prepare for any road/bus delays

Good luck!

Part Four: Landing Your First Job 4 Essential Tips

Tip #3: Giving Your Time to the Community

You’ve graduated, you’re ready to hit the job market, you’ve been sending out resumes and networking with everyone you can think of and still nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Well here’s something: think about volunteering or doing an internship. You still may not be getting paid any money, but you are getting work experience.

Get an Idea of the Industry of Your Choice

Whether you have a very clear idea about the sort of job you’re looking for or your future still looks a little murky, a fantastic way to get some experience under your belt and/or get a better perspective for future prospects is to volunteer.

You want to work in radio? See if your local station will take you on as an intern or a volunteer. Interested in learning more about marketing? Want to work in a museum?  A lot of places may not be hiring, but they might be open to bringing on an intern or a volunteer. You’ll get a chance to see the business from the inside. See how you feel in the environment, learn a few things, meet a few people – add to your networking network.

Advantages of Volunteering for Non-Profit

Gain work experience:
Volunteering is a huge way to gain work experience. Not-for-profit organizations are usually working within a pretty tight budget. That means they need to make the most use of every single person that comes to work with them. By doing this, you’ll most likely get the opportunity to really dig in – and come out with more hands on, diverse experience than you’d get in a bigger corporation that can afford to hire more hands.

Work experience on your resume:
Not only are you gaining experience, and feeling good about what you’re doing, volunteering also looks great on your resume. Employers may be impressed with you even more if they see that you dedicated your time to work for no pay. Also, the skills you learn today may be the one you’ll use tomorrow in your new job.

Tomorrow we’ll feature our final tip in the series. Don’t miss it!

Tip #1: Putting Your Best Foot Forward
Tip #2: Using Your Personal Network to Network
Tip# 4: An Interview – SUCCESS! 

Part Three: Landing Your First Job: 4 Essential Tips

Tip #2: Using Your Personal Network to Network

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. People say it so much that it’s easy to dismiss and you may think, I don’t know anyone who’s looking to hire someone like me. But you don’t necessarily need to know anyone in a position to hire. You just have to figure out how large your network circle is.

You Probably Have More Connections Than You Realize

It’s a small world:
It may be true that you don’t know anyone in a position to hire, but there’s only one way to find out. Make a list of your contacts, including teachers, classmates, friends, family, family friends. Reach out to them. Let people know you’re in the market and what sorts of things you’re interested in.

See and Be Seen

Make real connections:
You may feel like you’re doing a great job with your job search by sitting at home sending out cover letters and resumes to every job that looks like it has potential. Full points for perseverance and dedication, but there’s also something to be said for getting yourself out into the world and doing a little schmoosing and networking. Go to events where people who are in the field of your interest mingle. Find out if there’s an appropriate meet-up you can join.

Arrange a meeting with someone already in the field – This is another way of networking. Meet up with them to talk and pick their brain about how they got started. You never know who you’ll meet or who might mention your name to someone they think might be able to help you.

Make Yourself 1 of 1 instead of 1 of 1,000

Stand out from the crowd:
For every ad you answer, there’s a good chance hundreds, if not thousands of other people are also answering it. But if you can get an introduction to someone who only realized they needed someone after they heard about you and your search, you’ve completely turned the odds to your favor.

Tip #1: Putting Your Best Foot Forward
Tip# 3: Giving Your Time to the Community
Tip# 4: An Interview – SUCCESS! 

Part Two: Landing Your First Job: 4 Essential Tips

Tip #1: Putting Your Best Foot Forward


Obviously the best way to put your best foot forward is to physically put your foot (and the rest of you) in front of the person you’re trying to impress. Unfortunately, that’s getting a few steps ahead of yourself. You may not be able to immediately put your fantastic self in front of your fantastic new job yet, but you have a few tools at your disposal to sing your praises for you.

Warm Up to Your Potential Employer 


Cover letter:

Your cover letter is the warm up show (see “Cover Letters are a Must When Applying for Jobs”). It’s your opener, introduction and a chance to showcase a little more personality than you can within the more structured confines of a resume.  It’s also your chance to show interest in your prospective employer while getting them interested in you.

Properly introduce yourself in the letter:

When you first meet someone, you don’t say, “Hello Sir or Madame. What exactly does your company do? Well I guess I’m generic enough for you to ignore.”

You say, “Hello Mrs. Smith, what a pleasure it is to meet you. I’ve heard so much about your company. I was especially impressed by the inroads you were able to make in the European market last year. During my third year of university I had the opportunity to do a term in Germany. I believe my experiences there…” 



Show your interest in the company:

Discuss how you can be an asset. Don’t be afraid to ask for an interview at the end of your cover letter. It shows you’re serious.

Be Personal With Your Potential Employer:
If possible, make the cover letter personal.

Do your research:

Figure out the name of the person you’re sending it to, what the company does, their goals, awards and achievements. The fact that you cared enough to find out what you could about them will make them more inclined to want to find out more about you.

Write a different cover letter for each job:
Again, your goal is to pique interest in you while setting yourself apart from the rest. Remember, it’s not always the most qualified person who gets the interview – people can be trained and taught, especially in entry-level positions. It’s about making an impression and warming up the hiring manager so they want to see more.

Be Professional on Paper

First impression:
Even though you and the hiring manager have never met, putting your best foot forward on with your cover letter is the first step to make a good impression.

Revise and edit:
Double, triple and quadruple check your resume and cover letter. If you’ve done that, get someone else to check it again. Typos somehow have the ability to become invisible to the person who made them. But they won’t be invisible to the person deciding whether or not to call someone in for an interview!

Tip #2: Using Your Personal Network to Network
Tip #3: Giving Your Time to the Community
Tip #4: An Interview – SUCCESS!

Part One: Landing Your First Job: 4 Essential Tips

Challenges Before Your First Job

The easy phase:
First you need to learn to walk and talk. You’re barely out of your first year and that’s usually in the bag. We can skip over the part about leaving the diapers behind, and skim over the trials and tribulations of primary school.

The adolescent years:
Then high school comes along and things start to get serious. For some, it means four years of dedication but others might take a year or two to really get down to work.

College or university?
By the last couple of years in high school, anyone serious about moving on to college or university and building themselves a strong foundation for a future is working hard to achieve the marks to get into the school of their choice. At that time, it seems like the biggest challenge ahead of you is everything involved in getting into the post secondary school and program you’ve decided on. Then you’re in! Hurdle crossed.

School’s Done. Now What?

The first job after graduation:
Post secondary school is one challenge piled onto the next: Essays, exams and fitting in a social life. Then all of a sudden you’re done and all that hard work and challenges are behind you.

Some people are fortunate to have a job already lined up so they can close the doors of school and open the doors of employment, but most aren’t that lucky.  For those landing that first job after graduation is the newest, biggest challenge of their lives.

Over the next four days we’ll be discussing 4 tips to help you tackle that challenge.  Come back tomorrow for tip #1.