The sound you don’t hear: If this newsletter had audio capacity, you might hear a soft banging. That would be me hitting my head on the desk after reading the results of one university’s survey of what students did during Spring Break, 2009. A majority, 63%, went home and relaxed. “Spent time lining up a summer job or internship” wasn’t even a category on the survey!
That’s great news for internship placement agencies, which charge between $8,000 and $25,000 for summer internships. Obviously, these services look for students whose parents have more money than sense. However, you can find your own cool summer job or internship, learn essential job search tools and spend very little money in the process.
Knowing college students well, I’m not surprised by how they choose to spend their break time. However, I am concerned. This summer, if you really want a job or internship, spend Spring Break 2010, as a job detective working for yourself. You’ll be so glad you did. Come June, as your friends and roommates stress, you’ll be working.
Why do you need to start looking now? The US, the job market is still in the worst shape since WWII. College students and young adults are competing against experienced adults for event part time, seasonal work. Like last summer, seasonal job openings in 2010, are not plentiful. If you need or want a summer job or internship, Spring Break, and every other bit of free time you have between now and the end of term, is the ideal time to line one up.
Don’t make the Spring Break mistake this year. Relax later. Job hunt now. If you wait until this term is over to search for a summer job or internship, they’ve pretty well been picked over by your cohorts who didn’t wait. That doesn’t mean you won’t be able to get one, but it will be even harder than now. Whether you are in school and want a summer job or internship or you are working nearly full time and want to change jobs—don’t tell me you don’t have time. If you only have 20 minutes a day, you can effectively job search.
Get an effective search for a summer job going right now!
If you are unemployed or are looking for full time, rather than just summer employment, adapt the list of suggestions to your needs. The tips work for high school students too.
All you need is 20 minutes a day: Please don’t say you don’t have time to start your job search now, the term is so stressful, you’ve got research papers,blah, blah. If you’ve got 20 minutes a day to spare, you’ve got time to job hunt.
To get hired for a job or internship this summer, you will need to be tenacious, persistent and do hours of research to find and increase your options. Whether you will graduate in June and are looking for a full time job, or need summer employment, the more time you spend on your job search, the more you increase your chances of success.
Yours is the multi-tasking generation. If you are still in school, in just twenty minutes, Sunday through Friday, you can accomplish a great deal. (If you are out of school, you should be spending a minimum of 4 hours a day doing the activities below.) Each item on the list below can be completed, or nearly so, in 20 minutes. Set your timer and go…
References – Before you start a job search, contact possible personal and work references. Ask permission to use their name. Make sure you have each person’s current contact information, job titles and the correct spelling of their names. Ask if they remember you and can give you a positive reference. If you have a copy of an earlier reference letter from them, ask if they would like to see it to refresh their memory of you
Create a professional web presence – Know who has your same name and be ready to explain that’s not you if the person with your same name has a wild, non-professional or just plain squirrelly social media site. LinkedIn is the premier professional networking site. There are tutorials to walk you through creating a LinkedIn profile. There are books, websites and blogs that also give information about creating a fabulous LinkedIn profile.
Begin making a list of everyone you know. Make sure you have a current email, phone number or mailing address (the latter two for those who don’t have email). Spend some time each day getting in touch with the people on your list, tell them what you are looking for in terms of work. “Anything” is not a job title! Send them a short list of your best skills, what you know how to do, your interests and a quick summary of your work experience. Ask for their help
Do you want to do work you’ve done before? If so, contact former bosses and coworkers. If they aren’t hiring, ask them for names of other businesses or business contacts that might be.
Send out a request through LinkedIn or other social networking site. Tell people what you are looking for. List a few of your best skills and fields of knowledge. Ask for help finding opportunities. Answer every single response you get, even if you aren’t interested. Blowing people off is a sure way to get blown off in the future. If someone gives you the name of someone to contact, they are risking their reputation with that person. Follow-up with every name you are given. You just never know when an opportunity will appear!
Get more information. Do an Internet search using a phrase such as, “summer job search.” Find out what other experts recommend as best practices. There are a few dozen sites that offer job hunting advice for recent college grads.
Brainstorm with others. Relying on your own mind and experience is very limiting. Get together two to six people you feel are creative. Try to include at least one person with lots of work experience. Make a list of your best skills with people, information (this includes numbers and ideas) or things. This kind of brainstorming can be done for one person in about 20 minutes.
If you don’t know your best skills, please see pages 14 to 19 in the latest edition of What Color Is Your Parachute? For Teens (available from Amazon 4/4/2010). Your school library or career center may have a copy so you don’t have to buy one. Writing and identifying the skills in one Skill Story will take 20 minutes. Writing 5 stories so you can see the patterns of your best skills fill in the skill keys will take 20 minutes each. But, you’ll get a payoff in knowing what you do best and having ready examples of your skills to talk about in hiring interviews.
Get clarity. What are you looking for? It’s nearly impossible to find something if you don’t know what that something is. To help you get clarity, answer the following questions:
- Do you want to go home or stay around campus this summer?Will you be taking interim or summer session classes?
- Can you work set hours every week, or do you need a job that is flexible? Do you need time to attend a class, volunteer, perform an internship or carry out other academic or personal obligations?
- How far can you afford to travel for a job? How much time do you have for commuting? How will you commute?
- Do you want a job you can continue part-time during the school year?
- Are there summer jobs or internships available in your career field? Professors, advisers, others with your major, alumni from your department and your college career center can help you find answers to this question.
- Which is more important: how much you earn or how much you can learn in new skills to help you advance in your hoped-for career? No doubt you want both, but knowing which is more important will help you make choices.
9. Learn more effective job search techniques. If you do all of the above for a month, and you haven’t been called back for a second interview or been offered a job, you need to learn more effective job search and self-marketing techniques. Ask your school’s career center counselors, friends and bookstore clerks for suggestions. And…
a. Read Dan Schwabel’s Me 2.0. After all, a job search is really about marketing you.Learn how to create a consistent, focused presentation of your skills, strengths and interests.
b. Check out what your college has to offer. Your school’s Career Center is likely to be a good resource, even at a distance.
c. Find out what classes and other help for job hunters is offered at your nearest One Stop (usually every county has one).
d. Spend time at your local bookstore looking at popular job search books.
e. Check out websites. There’s so much material on the web, much of it good.
One of the most helpful sites is that of Marty Nemko. Dr. Nemko writes the Career Blog for US News and is one of the most creative job search strategists on the planet. Read the articles on his site www.martynemko.com. You’ll improve your job hunt skills and feel like you’ve got a personal coach at your fingertips.
f. Find good career bloggers and tweeters to follow.
10. Identify up to four different kinds of jobs you can do given your skills, interests and experience. Don’t limit you to one job or field. These jobs can be in a cluster in the same field or different jobs in different fields. In this economy if you just have one job target, your job search will last longer and be harder.
For help figuring out what these jobs might be, request the free exercise Creating Job Options, by Carol Christen (email parachute4teens@gmail.com). You’ll get much better ideas if you do this as a group brainstorming activity. Involve a couple friends, your parents or other adults you trust. Positive creative people give the best suggestions!
If you don’t find a summer job or if your search for full time work yields nothing by June, find a volunteer position or consider taking a class or two that will increase your employability. You can still job hunt when you aren’t volunteering. Your volunteer work can be as a warm body offering an extra pair of hands or it can be at an organization that will help you gain more works skills and references.
Good luck and whether you experience triumph or tragedy with your job search or, log onto the blog and let us hear from you.
