Know what you're getting yourself into

Kennedy2010
Sat, 15 Jun 2013 11:31:37 +0000

There are big job boards like monster that carry a very small percentage of openings. Usually, going to a specific company’s website will yield visibility to a higher percentage of openings. Then some jobs just are not publicized through these means and go through retained search firms - especially for executive level positions. Sometimes headhunters are used for lower level positions.

When a company, or headhunter, receives a resume I promise you that each resume gets either put through an automated program searching for keywords, and/or a 5-second skim. Only the best-of-the-best resumes make it past this initial screening process. That is why it is so important to make sure that the resume/cover package is tight, well written, organized effectively and well thought out - this is not the time to fly by the seat of your pants. Otherwise, you are right - it will never get anyone’s full attention.

The career center is a wonderful resource that will only be available during college and early career that every student should exploit to their advantage. I am surprised that 12% of Washu students did not use career advisors.

I told my S when I dropped him off 3 years ago as a freshman to unpack his bags, figure out logistics of campus, and then go to the career center - immediately - first week. Introduce yourself and “make friends”. One of the few times in his life when he actually listened to me and as a result had summer internships after freshman, sophmore and junior years. It works if you focus, listen and preservere.

It is always better to go through someone that you know. Of course, no one would argue that point. However, as a rising senior in college, exactly how many people do you know in companies where you are interested in working? I assume that would be a limited number. And this is exactly why that strategy has lower odds for you than for someone like me.

After nearly 30 years of business experience my network is big enough that I can practically get anything done through it. I have over 600 people in my LinkedIn network and this translates into access to millions of people with the click of a mouse. These people are all manager, director, vp or c-level professionals. Since your professional network is not as large you need to leverage every resource available to you. Including the Internet.