BlahDeBlah

I'm a senior in college and I've been trying to find some part time jobs in my field to help pay for things since I got such a measly work-study amount, get experience, and make up for the fact that during my required internship period last year I never managed to get a proper job, even though everyone else in my major did. I find a promising job posting and things go well at first and then the employer just sort of...drops me. There must be some hidden rule about the business world that I'm violating, but I don't know what it is.

The jobs I'm applying for are almost always paid internship-type jobs meant for college students. I've usually got the right level of qualification...if anything I am slightly overqualified for some of them but this would only cause problems on my end, not the employer's. I have a nice resume, a portfolio website (they are design jobs), and I send these along in the initial email I send to these places, along with what I consider to be a professional-sounding, well written email briefly explaining my qualifications as they relate to the job. I get a response that basically says, great, you sound perfect, let's meet and talk more.

Several things happen at this point. 1) I go to the interview, I think it goes well, they tell me they have another person or three to interview for the same position and within a week they'll make the decision and let me know either way. I never hear from them again, for any reason. 2) It's a telecommuting job, I go to the interview and they say great, when can you start, I will send the paperwork and your duties and whatnot to you by email. I never hear from them again, even after contacting them to remind them/ask if the email's gotten lost/whatever. 3) The prospective employer and I exchange emails, and then all of a sudden they just stop replying to mine and I never actually schedule a time for the interview. This last one is happening now...they kept telling me we should meet the week of the 28th but I haven't heard back from them in a week and I just saw that they reposted the same job description again.

What on earth am I doing wrong? I don't understand. For the first situation, someone told me that them telling me they'll call me either way is actually supposed to mean that I am supposed to call them the next day and remind them that I want the job and ask if they have made a decision yet, but I would have thought this would fall under the category of "being annoying". As far as the people that just quit responding to my emails, how many times am I supposed to email them trying to find a polite way of saying "hey why are you ignoring me", before I give up? Is this supposed to be common behavior or do I give off special "ignore me" vibes somehow? It's really disheartening and it makes me not want to bother trying to find a job at all, but then I just think that it will be all the more difficult to find one when I graduate.

fendergirl

Keep in touch with them so they know you are interested. If you haven't heard anything in a few days, touch base with them to see what the status is so your name is fresh in their mind when they are reviewing their applicants. And I wouldn't touch base with them via e-mail, it's so impersonal. I would pick up the phone and make the call. I'm not saying call them every day, however if it's been a few days or a week and you haven't heard anything you may want to just give a call so they remember who you are, and hopefully that will make you stand apart from the other applicants. Good luck.

Northstarmom

After your inteview, immediately send a typed, copy edited thank-you not that reiterates your interest in the job and says exactly what you have to help their company. Make sure you've researched the company. Usually companies have Internet sites. Review those before and after you're interviewed.

About a week after your interview call and follow-up. Usually with the entry level types of jobs you're applying to, assertiveness is a plus because many applicants are very similar. This particularly is true of any sales types of jobs.

Make sure, too, you're taking advantage of unpaid, volunteer opportunities on campus to get experience that will demonstrate that you can do a paid job. For instance, if you're a graphic designer, it helps to show work that you've published in a campus publication. Those kind of work samples are more impressive than ones that you've just done for class. Employers want to see that you've got the ability to work for other people, handle deadlines, etc. The problems that you'll encounter at a student publication are the same that you'll encounter at a professional one: personalities, politics, etc. Demonstrating that you can meet those challenges will open doors for you.

BlahDeBlah

I do web design, mostly. I have already made sites on my own and done a 6 month unpaid internship...I don't really have any more time at the moment to try to do schoolwork plus some sort of unpaid experience-building work plus having an actual paid job so I don't have to live off Ramen noodles, which is why I'm only looking for paid stuff right now. Because these are web businesses they tend to prefer to do everything over the internet and a lot of the time they don't even give me a phone number for me to be able to call them. I'll try sending thank you notes if anyone actually decides to interview me again.

I guess I just feel like constantly contacting people is a form of bugging them or sort of demeaning because it implies that I think they can't remember things. Being shy and petrified of phones probably doesn't help eitiher.

fendergirl

i second the whole thank you note thing... i forgot to put that in my post.

fundingfather

I agree with the "skip the email" advice - or at least limit it. One very easy way to stand out in today's world is to use old fashioned snail mail. As Northstarmom suggested, a thank you note on a real piece of paper that a prospective employer can hold and place on his/her desk will differentiate you form the other applicants.

latetoschool

It sounds like everything falls apart at the interview part of your search. Hopefully this doesn't violate the T's & C's, here is a resource that may help: www.monster.com. They have a series of very useful, professionally moderated message boards, and there used to be an excellent one specifically for college students - on the off chance the college board is no longer there, they have one that specifically addresses everything related to the interview.

Also, where are you looking for jobs? You mentioned job postings - I sort of have the opinion that once a job is advertised or posted, it's already filled. Have you tried networking through your contacts?

Another option is that instead of looking for advertised openings, why not work it in reverse: research and build a list of companies that you would like to work for, and approach the hiring officers and heads of departments within those companies. Often there are openings that are not advertised, either because the company hasn't gotten around to it, or simply doesn't have the time, or perhaps they're waiting for new budgets for fiscal years beginning October 1. The best thing about this approach is that if they're not advertising, you have no competition. Also, even if there is nothing available now, you'd be amazed at the phone calls and emails you get later when they do have openings.

(We have an opening right now for a position we urgently need to fill - my partner and I complained to each other today that we really need to fill it - but - we haven't lifted a finger to do anything about it, mostly because interviewing and selecting employees is our least favorite thing to do. If someone reasonably qualified fell through the door and saved us the whole advertising and setting appointments with applicants problem it would help a LOT.)

Last, get your discussions escalated out of email as quickly as possible. Don't let it become an email volley - chances of getting a business transaction moving are signifcantly improved if you can move it ASAP into real conversation.

latetoschool

Hmmm...again on email, if you must send email to a busy person, make it as concise as possible, and make EVERY word count. A lot of people - including me - will read only the first sentence or two of an email, then skip the rest if it's not a high priority.

calmom

This may be way off base, but I would suggest that you try Googling your own name and double checking to make sure you don't have anything embarrassing showing up on a myspace or facebook profile, or some internet user group somewhere. The initial interest followed by seeming avoidance could be a matter of them discovering some piece of information they don't like -- which could very well be mistake or false. Employers who hire web designers are likely to be very internet savvy and rely on various internet networking resources, and it could be that somewhere along the line there is something out there that causes them to back off. It could be something totally unrelated to you, such as someone else with a similar name.

The only reason I am suggesting this is because of the pattern you describe --very enthusiastic interest followed by avoidance. However, it is very common for employers to narrow down their search to a few top prospects and be very enthusiastic, and then after they make their final selection to simply treat the others who didn't make the final cut as if they never existed. One way around that is to call them up after it is obvious that you haven't got the job, thank them for their interest in you, and ask whether they know of anyone else who is hiring that you might contact -- if they are merely being inconsiderate, they should at least take your call, even though the most likely answer is that they don't know of any openings anywhere.

latetoschool

Blahdeblah, first, I apologize, we cross-posted and I totally did not see your post regarding email addresses and your dislike of using the phone.

Some thoughts: to find a phone number, if you have only an email address, try one or any of these: (1) ASK for the telephone number, and permission to call, in your email dialog; (2) google the email address; (3) look up the company's telephone number in your state's Division of Corporations records;
(4) do a "whois" search on the domain; (5) do a reverse lookup by email or website address; (6) the most obvious; call information.

If you hate following up by telephone, try this: (1) write a "script" of sorts of what you intend to accomplish on the call, and (2) assuming you're calling to get a decision, try phrasing it like this: "I'm calling to follow up on our discussion/meeting of last Tuesday, to ask if you have any additional questions for me, or need any additional information". Or if applicable "I'm calling to make sure my list of references crossed your desk, and to be available to answer any additional questions you have." Say that - or something like it - always frame it around the other person's needs. Works better than saying "did you remember to make a decision yet", but gets you to the exact same place. Makes the phone call more comfortable too.

Calmom's post is excellent - "what's your google position" is something that seems to be going around quite a bit.

BlahDeBlah

I have a very common name and if you google it you get about 100 or so different results...first one appears to be a model who frequently poses nude. o_O I only have one thing relating to my real name that might come up in websites and that's the portfolio link that I send them. I don't have a myspace or a facebook or anything like that. There's not really anything I can do about this except that hope people have common sense.

I've mostly been looking for jobs on craigslist since this seems to be a pretty good resource to find out about part time/internship jobs. I tried gathering a list of most of the agencies in the city and contacting them all to see if they had any openings last year, but that was pretty much a big failure...the only one that did actually talk to me basically told me that I should feel grateful that they would allow me to work for free for them 20 hours a week. I don't have any "contacts" really...I've told one of the few people I talk to at school that I'm looking for a part-time job, if the place he works happens to need someone and I've told the person I did the unpaid intership with the same, but I don't really know anyone else.

One other problem I have is this business of "references"...I don't really have any, and I don't know who it's acceptable to ask. I am going to ask the person that I worked for a few months ago if I can use him as a reference but I have no idea who else I would ask because I haven't worked otherwise since 2004 and I'm not particularly close to any of my professors. But I guess I would need more than one?

latetoschool

Part of the problem may be that since craigslist is free, you're getting a lower quality of job listings than you might find on monster.com and careerbuilder.com. Also, I believe you can post your resume on monster.com. Also, when you use the online search engines, don't be afraid to search nationwide. A lot of companies advertise for their headquarter locations in other states but have local or regional offices that you may not know about, and that they didn't consider in terms of physical location of staff for your particular discipline.

Your county unemployment office should have a list of top companies in the area somewhere on their website, too.

What industry or market space are you targeting? How about the trade associations that serve that industry, or even the local chamber of commerce?

Job leads are really everywhere; sometimes it's a matter of creating opportunities rather than trying to find an existing one. As far as networking, every single person you come into contact with is a potential job lead.

Worst case scenario, the reference section of your public library will have directories that list every company in your city, as well as senior officers names and telephone numbers, and sometimes even direct email addresses.

Hoovers.com has nearly complete listings of every company online; so does Dun & Bradstreet. These cost money though and I'm not sure if they have lower priced packages for job seekers.

As far as references, I would leave that go for now; wait until you are close to an offer, and then see what kind of references the employer wants. And do try the college board on monster, if it's still there.

snorky

Blahdeblah, it sounds to me as though you may need some coaching in interviewing and telephone skills. You say that you are shy and petrified of telephones - and that you aren't close to your profs and only talk to a few people at school. If I add all these things together, you sound like someone who may be uncomfortable in an interview. Unfortunately, getting a job is all about selling yourself. Now I can really appreciate your situation - because one of my kids is very shy. So...recognizing this, I arranged for him to have a series of 1-1 coaching sessions with someone I know who teaches public speaking and communications. I had also contacted the career center at his university to find out if anyone would be willing to coach him - and there was someone. Of course, I had to pay for these services - but it was worth it. Since then, he's had a couple of jobs. He says he would go back for a "tune-up" when it comes time for his first big real-world job. So my suggestion to you is to contact your career office and ask if there is anyone who would help you 1-1 to develop your interviewing skills.

latetoschool

BlahdeBlah, I'm having reading comprehension skills issues tonight lol and just realized you posted you do not have Facebook. Now, I know a lot of negative things have been said around about Facebook, but, you might want to consider getting on it.

The young people I know in college use it heavily for networking - they are in touch with people back from freshman year in high school, many of these people are spread all over the country now, and several in foreign counties even. Everyone is more on less kept updated on what everyone else is doing, and, everyone seems to give each other information on jobs, grad and law school applications, general career info, internships, etc. Of course there's a lot of fun, silly stuff too, but, I see firsthand a lot of very positive, productive communication and support coming out of it.

Northstarmom

"One other problem I have is this business of "references"...I don't really have any, and I don't know who it's acceptable to ask. I am going to ask the person that I worked for a few months ago if I can use him as a reference but I have no idea who else I would ask because I haven't worked otherwise since 2004 and I'm not particularly close to any of my professors. But I guess I would need more than one?"

Yes, you definitely need references. Not having any will raise red flags with prospective employers who'll assume you have something to hide. Whenever you work for someone, if you leave in good circumstances, ask them if you can use them for a reference. It's even a good idea to ask for a "to whom it may concern" written letter of reference that you can send prospective employers with your resume and work samples. Help the reference out by giving them a memo with things you've done for the company, things they've praised you about, etc. Don't be overly modest or passive because not having references will definitely hurt you, and having vague references because the person didn't remember much about you also will hurt you. When you have an interview lined up, call the reference to let them know so they'll be prepared for a call from a prospective employer,

You also need to ask professors to serve as references. Since you're a web designer, the best ones would be those who have taught you design. Follow the same procedures such as getting a "to whom it may concern" reference that I referred to above.

Also, keep touch with your former employers and with your professors, letting them know how you're doing. Sending a holiday card with updates is a good way to keep in touch. In addition, give them written thank-you notes for the reference letters, and also update them and tell them thanks if you get a job.

They also may know about jobs. Professors are frequently called by companies that are looking for studentsand alum to fill jobs. Consequently, stay in touch with your profs: use their office hours to ask for advice, to show them your latest work, to ask for info about your career, including job contacts.

Lot's of getting jobs is who you know.