<p>From the article:
“She graduated magna cum laude from the GW business school in May, applied for 30 jobs at some of America’s best-known companies, and heard nothing. After visiting the campus career center and redesigning her resume, she applied for 10 more. Still nothing.”</p>
<p>What a ridiculous article! 60 applications in 6 months is nothing. More importantly, even in a good economy, it’s foolish to rely on “applying for jobs” to get a professional position. In this environment, it almost guarantees failure. That’s not how it works. Was she spending her time in DC calling up fellow GW alumni to do informational interviewing? Was she volunteering, attending a church/temple, joining professional organizations in her areas of interest, and meeting new people every day who might help her with her job search?</p>
<p>That’s how you get a job. My guess is that when she went to the career center for the resume tune-up, they told her this, and she ignored it.</p>
<p>I wonder how articles like this affect a job-seeker’s prospects. On the one hand, free publicity and publication of impressive stats. On the other hand . . . she only applied for, what, 40-ish jobs and chose to move back home instead of taking a “lesser” job so she could support herself independently until she could find the “perfect” job.</p>
<p>Edit: Okay, after reading further, she DID take a job at a record store–good for her for doing that, it’s more than some graduates are willing to do. Still, 40 job applications over 6 months doesn’t seem like a lot.</p>
<p>Seems like you aren’t going to find a job outside of Missoula by… staying in Missoula. Especially if she isn’t even networking, keeping her contacts fresh, and doing any traveling to cities where she wants to work and pounding the pavement. Stay with friends if you have to, but make a plan and try to get some appointments. Maybe make up a few different resumes focused on different skills; I got my first job out of college in an area where I only took a handful of classes, not my actual major - - I was interested in it, so made up a separate resume and pursued opportunities in that area in parallel with jobs in my major. GW has a HUGE alumni base, agreed that she should be working to leverage that (which is also hard to do in Missoula…)</p>
<p>60 applications in 6 months… Let’s see… WA Employment Security Office requires min. 3 applications/week to continue to be eligible for unemployment benefits. That’s 12/month, 72/6 months… She is clearly under that.
I absolutely agree with intparent - no one will offer relocation benefits to a freshly minted BS. She needs to move close where the jobs in her field are and have a local address on her resume.</p>
<p>Reading through the article and looking at the photo gallery, I wonder if she would’ve been happier and more willing to continue looking for jobs if she had majored in something more outdoorsy or adventurous. Wildlife biologist? Forester? Smokejumper?</p>
<p>Most business majors use the on campus recruiting as their major method for finding a job and in the past this has worked well for most of them. This year was just a terrible one for professional jobs and I’d guess that second tier business schools were even harder hit than Top 20 B schools. Even Wharton grads had a harder time this year. That networking stuff if very hard for many young people without much work track record.</p>
<p>I know a friend who just had a party after sending out his 500th resume. 60 applications in 6 months is not trying that hard. I agree with the others.</p>
<p>I’m glad she is taking time to explore! Life is too short to be driven by a linear path, and there is nothing wrong with earning a subsistance wage and spending some time with your parents (as long as you are contributing to food and bills). My husband and I both wandered for quite a while before settling on our eventual careers, and I’m glad we did.</p>