Find Yourself, Find a Paycheck

Getting a good job in today's economy requires more than just graduating from a good college and hanging out at recruiting fairs. You have to set yourself apart, get their attention, and make them want you.

You probably don't have a lot of time to make this happen. If you're unemployed, you might be cashing in the last of your savings bonds to make your rent, and you need a job ASAP. If you already have a job and are looking for another, you have only so many hours to inconspicuously surf the Internet before your boss figures out what's going on. When you're in your 20s, employment is a catch 22—you need experience to get a job, but you must have a job in order to get that experience. Our forefathers relied on temp agencies to float them through the job-search process. Unfortunately, we don't have that luxury. These days, temp firms are more crowded than a U2 concert. You'll sit in their plush waiting rooms for hours, filling out personality questionnaires and waiting for a free computer station so you can prove you're Microsoft-compliant.

Don't despair, though. Landing a job in the corporate world is quite achievable with a little ingenuity and preparation. Don't give them a reason to hire you; dare them to find a reason not to. This is where the concept of the corporate persona comes in. Every interaction you have with a company—from your first written communication to your salary negotiation—should exude maturity, professionalism, and competency. You want the employer to say, “Wow, I've never seen a more together candidate. So what if the company is in a hiring freeze? I have to get her on board.”

• • So where do you start? A good first step is to scout out openings commensurate with your level of experience. Here are some places to try:
• • Your college career center and/or alumni network.
• • Career Websites, such as CareerBuilder (www.careerbuilder.com), Yahoo! HotJobs (http://hotjobs.yahoo.com), and Monster (www.monster.com).
• • Online professional networks such as LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) and Ryze (www.ryze.com)
• • Employment or recruiting agencies—aka headhunters, or people who get paid by a company to scout out desirable candidates.
• • Company Websites with job postings.
• • Local job fairs.
• • Trade associations.
• • Craig's List (www.craigslist.org)—hey, you never know.

Keep in mind that most job openings aren't advertised, because a lot of businesses prefer to hire from within the company or through word of mouth. If you're coming in from off the street, you could be out of luck. My friend Jake once tore through New York City in search of a job. In a week, he dropped 200 resumes at a career expo, signed with five recruiting firms, and answered dozens of online job postings. Boy, was he bitter when he was still unemployed after his month-long assault on the New York job market. Jake learned that, unfortunately, being proactive is sometimes not enough. Instead of working harder, work smarter. Use online resources, such as Hoover's (www.hoovers.com), and business trade publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, and BusinessWeek, to target desirable companies in your geographic area. Then, prepare to infiltrate these companies by making the transition from outsider to insider. Here's how:

• • Get to know individuals already employed at your target company who are in a position to hire you. (See “The Myth of Cover Letters” on page XX).
• • Apply for an internship position that will land you inside the company and provide you with an opportunity to build your skill portfolio.
• • Secure referrals from anyone you know in your chosen field—either people with years of experience behind them, such as old professors and your parents’ friends, or recent graduates who will have sympathy for your plight and might also be more familiar with a company's lower-level job openings.

Using a combination of these approaches, you are much more likely to gain access to unadvertised job openings in the companies you desire. However, it probably won't happen overnight. Be persistent and don't resort to laziness, even if you're not seeing immediate results. Keep your expectations realistic and remind yourself of the end goal every day. Above all, don't doubt your own abilities. Ignore all of the folks who tell you that the market sucks and that you should take any available job, even if it's not what you want or need. Learn to take rejection with a grain of salt—it's all part of the process. If you take the right action patiently and efficiently, an opportunity will come along that's a good fit for your skill set.