Posted on: Monday, June 28, 2004

Persistence in job search pays off for grads

By Eileen Alt Powell
Associated Press

NEW YORK — Like many in the graduating class of 2004, Jared Bosk is spending his summer looking for a job. It isn't easy work.

"I've already been looking for about four months or so," said Bosk, who received a degree in social studies in May from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. "I've had a bunch of interviews, maybe a dozen. But so far, no offers."

There actually are more job openings this year — a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that businesses plan to increase hiring of new college graduates this year after two years of cutting back.

But there's a great deal of competition for entry-level jobs because many young workers who lost jobs in the recession are still looking for employment.

Bosk, 22, who grew up in Baltimore, has scoured Web sites and answered ads in hopes of finding work with a public policy group or as a paralegal in New York. He's also registered with a temporary staffing agency.

"If I can get some temp work to get some money coming in while I'm looking for full-time work, that would be helpful," he said.

John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc., a Chicago-based outplacement company, said that while many new college graduates are comfortable looking for jobs on the Internet, they shouldn't do it to the exclusion of meeting with real people.

"I tell students to only look on the Internet after dinner," he said. "You don't want to get caught up into thinking, 'If only I e-mail enough résumés, I'll get a job.' "

He advises job seekers to spend their days getting out and seeing people — "especially your parents' friends and your friends' parents" — for leads. He also suggests new graduates look to alumni of their universities, to people at their churches or synagogues, and to members of professional associations in their fields.

"The more networking you can do, the better," Challenger said.

Alison Bailin, 23, who graduated from Arizona State University with the class of 2003, had to work hard to get the job she wanted.

Bailin took some time off after completing her classes and an internship, then started looking in earnest last fall for a full-time job. She got a number of nibbles but no bites, she said.

"I applied for advertising jobs, marketing jobs, anything," Bailin said. "When I would get an interview, it would either be for a job that was so entry level I was overqualified or so advanced I was underqualified."

Then she heard about a possible opening at HMA Public Relations in Phoenix. She interviewed, but company executives said they weren't going to fill the position for several months.

"I sent them a 'thank you' letter," Bailin said. "Then I called them. I kept calling. ... I decided I wanted this job, and I'm going to get it."

She got the job as an account coordinator last January.

"I put together a good résumé and a portfolio of everything I had done," Bailin said. "But I got the job because of persistence. That was 90 percent of it."

Peter Handal, president and chief executive of Dale Carnegie Training, a global management training company based in Hauppauge, N.Y., said many companies offer temporary jobs or short-term contracts to young workers. It's a way for a firm to decide if it's comfortable with a young employee without committing to benefits or having to go through a formal severance process if things don't work out, he said.

"New graduates should consider those positions if they think it's a company they're interested in working with long-term," Handal said.

He also suggests new graduates prepare carefully for job interviews because "you have only one opportunity to make a really good first impression."

This includes being on time for the interview, dressing appropriately and knowing something about the company you're applying to, he said. One way to learn that, he said, is to study the company's Web site.

He also suggests graduates practice interviewing techniques with parents, relatives or friends. It can help to videotape practice interviews and play them back so you can review your performance, he added.

He also said new graduates should not be discouraged if it takes time to find the right job.

"You can't let it get you down," he said. "The key is persistence."