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6 Steps To Find A Job For Soon-To-Be College Grads
Resume
Many 20-somethings have become discouraged by a difficult job market. A growing number of recent college graduates have taken low-level jobs and moved back in with their parents. Their self-esteem has vanished as a result of rejection letters and what seems like a dead-end job search after college.
But John Wilpers says the opportunities are abundant for these Millenials and they just need to know how to navigate a digital savvy marketplace, and how to presents themselves to get noticed and land that job.
Wilpers founded a company called Degrees2Dreams, which advises college students and recent college grads on how to manage their careers. Wilpers says there are six basic steps that new grads can take:
- Clean Up Your Digital Footprint: Make sure your online presence is professional. Get rid of those incriminating photos and ranting blog entries.
- An Interactive Resume: It should include links to multimedia samples of your work and also a video link of a reference such as a professor giving a testimonial about you.
- A Professional 'Me Site': This will serve as a digital portfolio of your best work. It will help hiring managers who search for you on the Web find the "best version" of you.
- A Professional 'Passion Blog': This blog should showcase the skills your resume says you have and your knowledge of your field; raise your profile in the industry; and build your professional network as more and more key people hear from and/or about you.
- A Social Media Marketing Campaign: "Social media can open opportunities for you that you could never have dreamed of," Wilpers says. The campaign should promote you as you follow and interact professionally with the key players in your field.
- An Informational Interview Campaign: "You need to go out and interview the people working in the field of your choice and put those interviews in your blog," Wilpers says. "Then four months later when you call those people who might hire you they will take your call. A blog is the most powerful tool you can use."
- Related WBUR Series: Generation Stuck
Guest:
- John Wilpers, founder of Degrees2Dreams
This segment aired on January 4, 2013.