4 Tips to Entry-Level Jobs - How to Create a Happy Hunting Ground - CareerAlley

4 Tips to Entry-Level Jobs - How to Create a Happy Hunting Ground - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. The only time success occurs before work is in the dictionary. Cameron Cashmore Survival of the fittest is the law in todays overcrowded job market. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics offers optimistic forecasts (http://www.bls.gov/opub/ooq/2006/fall/art03.pdf). Nonetheless, college graduates still have trouble finding work. This is why the best advice for soon-to-be graduates is to be prepared for the hardships of job hunting. Start doing this homework early! Internships or Early Birds Do Get Worms Perhaps to your surprise, you can enter your occupation even before youre handed your anticipated diploma. You have probably heard of internships, those wonderful opportunities to work for free. Apart from the major disadvantage of not receiving a salary, internships can be the first and extremely important step on your career ladder. Sure, you could work as a waiter (waitress)/any other job title that does not require professional skills, and earn some money. However, try thinking like a chess player; at least 2-3 moves ahead. An internship can not only offer professional experience, but also distinguish you from your peers.. Furthermore, during your internship, you should build invaluable contacts with people who can provide professional references or even a job. Create and Promote Your Resume If for whatever reasons, the company where you interned does not employ you, or ask you back for another internship, you should start looking for a job. After the stage of just looking, spent reviewing job search websites (CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, Craigslist.com, Indeed.com, Simplyhired.com and others), you should proceed to the stage of active searching. Create a winning resume, to ensure that potential employers will recognize your brilliance as a candidate. Your resume is the main (if not to say the only) weapon in your online job hunting. This is why you should do everything humanly possible to polish it and make sure that employers can find it. You can find valuable recommendations for effective resume writing at the above-discussed job search websites or other reputable resources (http://www.bc.edu/offices/careers/skills/resumes.html). Moreover, CareerBuilder.com and Monster.com offer professional services for resume writing. Whether you use them or not, make certain that your resume shines. To Pay or not to Pay The next question is to pay or not to pay for extra benefits from such services, such as viewing the profiles of employers who clicked on your resume, or shifting your resume to the top of the list of similar candidates (offered by CareerBuilder.com). Actually, these advantages are rather doubtful and sound too commercial. Ive never used them, but had no trouble finding a truly good job online. I would, however, highly recommend uploading your resume to one of these services. It is absolutely free, consumes only seconds and offers several obvious advantages. One of them is that they will then submit your resumes to potential employers using their sites. Another advantage is that you need make no further effort until an employer of your dreams spots your resume and contacts you. Even though the second one sounds unrealistic, you should spend a couple of seconds to upload your resume and see what happens. You Are not Alone Whereas the era of online job hunting offers a wide range of benefits, you should boost your online profile. Be sure to join LinkedIn.com if you have not done so yet and update it whenever you gain new skills or recommendations. Remember that you are not alone and make the most of your online and real life contacts: Contact career counseling services, (http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/cdc/services/career-counseling) staffed by professionals (http://www.naceweb.org/Knowledge/Career_Services/Assessment/Professional_Standards_for_College___University_Career_Services.aspx) at your college. Ask your relatives, friends, and friends of friends to help you. Never be shy about letting everyone know that youre searching for an entry-level job. Use Facebook and Twitter to involve your online acquaintances. Make certain that your status updates are not too annoying. These simple hints will definitely save your time in preparing a happy hunting ground for entry-level jobs. Good luck with your search! Bio: Author Jack Milgram: I have been interested in writing since I made the acquaintance of pen and paper. As soon as I learned how to write words, I started forming them into sentences. And do you know what my first sentence said? I love my words. Later I started writing, but often left unfinished, many of my essays at school, as well as my researches at college, where I studied psychology and education. I started freelance writing when I was a student. I currently work for Custom-Writing.org (http://custom-writing.org), my frequent posts go live on their Twitter (http://twitter.com/CusWriting). Be sure to check out my writing tips and tricks! Good luck with your resume! This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. 4-29-13 Visit me on Facebook