<p>“I can only speak from my experience, so take it as you wish. In my experience, even those grads that think they are trying so hard to find employment are not putting forward as good of a representation of themselves as they could to be hired. Whether it be a lack of networking, poor resume development, lack of applications submitted, or the “I am too good for this” attitude for some opportunities, most of the individuals I know searching for jobs could do more.”</p>
<p>27 years old, five years in the corporate world. The above paragraph is pure brilliance and 100% correct. I was clueless about job-searching until a year ago and stuck in an awful job, and now I’m making more money than ever, working a decently interesting job, traveling to cool places on the company dime, and much more confident about finding future success than ever before. I got my current good-job primarily because I became much more effective on job-searching, utilizing recruiters and my network. </p>
<p>-“Whether it be a lack of networking” (You should be connected to hundreds of recruiters on LinkedIn. Contact them at least once a month and see what opportunities they have. Seriously. If you’re job searching, you should be connected to at least 100 recruiters on LinkedIn. No excuses. If you’re struggling with a job search, and not connected to at least 100 recruiters on LinkedIn (by adding them via ‘friend requests’), I have no interest in helping you. Call them / email them, etc. They’re all desperate for great candidates. … Even if your resume sucks now, get connected, you still might get hired. They’ll gladly take “Updated Resumes” a couple weeks from now.)</p>
<p>-“poor resume development” (your resume most likely is bad. trust me. the high majority of resumes out there is bad. Ask one successful person to edit your resume, make their changes … then ask another successful person to do it, make changes, repeat … ask recruiters to help with your resume, they see hundreds of resumes a month, and a good recruiter will know how to help you improve your resume … and consider hiring a well-reviewed ‘professional resume adviser’, someone like Job Jenny (google her, and get her eBook)) </p>
<p>-“lack of applications submitted” (a low-percentage play, yet I’ve still definitely gotten interviews from mere submissions. still, apply to at least 20 jobs a day while you’re job-searching, and probably many more)</p>
<p>“or the “I am too good for this” attitude for some opportunities” (if you were ‘too good for this’, other companies would be banging at your door, desperate to hire you. in all likelihood, you are not ‘too good for this’)</p>