The July 4th holiday has come and gone, and we are now deep into the month of July. College graduation is 8 or more weeks in the rear view mirror for many young adults. And yet upwards of 70% of these college graduates do not yet have an offer for full time professional employment.
I call this time the “8 Week Syndrome”. If you are a college graduate and you have been at the job search now for 8 or more weeks with limited interviews and no job offers, now is the time to reevaluate your job search strategy. If you are a parent of a recent college graduate who has been home now for 8 or more weeks and you don’t see signs of job search progress, now is the time to start asking questions about the job search process.
After two months focused on a post-graduation job search, it is an appropriate time to pause and examine the approach to make any necessary course corrections needed to drive better engagement with prospective employers. There is a good article from the New York Post by Gregory Bresiger from last week that highlights mistakes recent grads may be making during the job search process.
Additionally, some key questions to ask:
Do you even have a formal job search action plan? If the plan consists exclusively of applying for jobs online, you need to expand the plan to improve your probability of success.
Have you developed your Personal Brand and all the necessary branding materials such as an elevator pitch, a resume and a LinkedIn profile?
Have you completed detailed research of your target industries, companies and job postings? Is that research reflected in skills and keywords within your personal branding materials?
How large is your professional network? You need at least 300 potential contacts and at least 150 truly engaged and professional contacts within your network to make it work for your job search.
Are you actively reaching out to your network daily and completing at least 3 or more exploratory meetings each week? In person is desired but phone is also an acceptable secondary option for exploratory meetings.
And finally, how much time are you dedicating to your job search post-graduation? Assuming you are not currently working, your job search is your full-time job. So, you should be organizing your job search plan and activities to allocate a minimum of 30 hours each week to the process of finding your first full time position.
Eight weeks is not a time to panic. On average, college grads are now taking up to 7.5 months post-graduation to find their first full time job. But 2 months in with not a lot to show for your efforts means you may need a new plan, a new strategy and a more refined approach to your job search.
Dan Troup is the founder of the AdvantEdge Careers coaching service. If you are interested in learning more about how a certified career coach can assist you in your job search, please contact AdvantEdge Careers at: https://www.advantedgecareers.com/contact
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