Posted by: New Grad Life
| Posted at: 12:02 AM |
Filed Under: news,
polls
|
Paying attention to the news can often be confusing: one day you'll hear that jobs are being created while the next day you'll hear that jobs are being destroyed.
The important thing is how is the job market overall compared to last year? What does it seem like to you? Vote below!
Posted by: New Grad Life
| Posted at: 12:02 AM |
Filed Under: news,
polls
|
For some students, career centers have helped them develop the necessary skills when it comes to job hunting, resume writing, and interviewing. For other students, career centers haven't been as useful as they expected.
Twenty years ago, if you wanted a job you spent days perfecting and typing your resume on heavy-weight business paper. You either mailed a cover letter and resume to employers or dressed your best and walked right in their front door. If it worked and the employer was interested, you’d get a call for an interview. And the interview was everything. In fact, two or three interviews wasn’t unheard of. Your interview was what got you the job.
Today, while interviews are an important part of the hiring process, it’s the portion of the job hunt before the interview that has completely evolved: the introduction. Walking in the front door with a resume in your hand is actually one of the biggest no-no’s in present day job hunting. Today’s game begins right where you are now: online.
Searching for jobs online is a time-consuming, tedious, and often discouraging process. There are thousands of job listings – everything from the typical newspaper site listings to “Employment” or “Careers” links on the employers’ own Web sites. There are massive, all-industry search engines and career-specific sites. Where to begin? My advice is to decide what you’re looking for, very specifically, before you even turn on the computer. The more narrow your search, the easier it will be to pinpoint where to look. I was a “professional” internet job searcher for three years after college – I was continually employed, but constantly looking online for something better. Here’s what I found:
Tips for Online Job Hunting
1. Begin by searching your chosen location for employment. Use Google to find the Web sites of the local newspapers, which almost always have an employment section that you can search by category. Next, search for regional or state-specific search engines – most cities and states have a Web site dedicated to local job listings.
2. Organize your findings. As you discover Web sites that you would like to continue checking, make a folder in your browser’s Bookmarks, so that you can easily get back to any site.
3. Search by your career field. Next, you’ll want to look for Web sites that are specific to your chosen career. Again, use Google to search: “jobs in information technology” or “IT job listings” for example. Vary your keyword searches to find a variety of different sites. Browse through them, and bookmark the ones that seem the most relevant or populated.
4. Watch out for the top placements in Google. I’ve found that often the worst job search engines come up first in Google, surprisingly. Usually, the larger the site, the less useful its content. Many times gigantic search engines become bloated with get-rich-quick or pyramid schemes, military listings, or national listings, where competition is obscene. While I still chose to bookmark and check major search engines, I often found jobs to apply for on smaller, more specific job search Web sites.
If only I had known then what I know now... This is a familiar refrain to most of us, and is indicative of the fact that we usually make some mistakes in matters that we don't as yet fully comprehend. And when we finally do, we look back with regret on the mistakes that we realize that we've made. Well I'm going to step in now and see if I can help to keep you from repeating the same financial mistakes that I made when I was a new grad. Some of these mistakes proved to be very costly to me, while others just made me feel dumb for not realizing that I could have chosen a much better or easier way of doing something. Here are the ones that stand out for me, and I hope that by sharing them here you won't have to make the same ones I did in order to come to a better understanding of them.
If your employer offers a 401k matching program, take advantage of it.
Some employers have an incentive program to make saving for retirement an even better idea. They will match a certain percentage of the amount you have taken out of each paycheck for your 401k plan. In my own situation, my employer at the time matched 50% of my 401k contributions up to 6% of each paycheck. This was essentially guaranteeing me a 50% return on my investment, which I later realized is a fantastic deal. I was very foolish for not being on board with it. If you have access to a plan like this, make sure that you take advantage of it.
Buy a used car instead of buying or leasing a new one.
The steepest depreciation takes place in the first few years of ownership, and driving a new car off the dealership lot is the most expensive trip you will make. Don't weigh yourself down with a big monthly payment. There will be plenty of time to buy a new car later on when you decide that you can really afford it. Resist the temptation to get a new car, and instead find a 3 to 5 year old car with a good reliability record and have it checked out by a mechanic before you buy it. There are lots of online resources to help you decide what cars to buy and how much they are actually worth on the used market. I could have saved myself a lot of money, stress and worry if I would have done this myself.
Paying attention to the news can often be confusing: one day you'll hear that jobs are being created while the next day you'll hear that jobs are being destroyed.
