Seniors: In a Job-Hunt Rut?

Like many job hunters, Rachel Surwit (COM’07) was using the Internet, with sites such as MediaBistro and JournalismJobs, as a primary source for career opportunities after graduation. “I treated the search like a job: every day, I set my alarm for 9 a.m. and checked the job boards,” Surwit says. “For three months, I got zero responses.”

Her luck changed, however, when she started to network — and although she didn’t put on her swankiest clothes and make connections at cocktail parties, she did use her circle of friends and acquaintances to land the job she wanted. Through three degrees of separation — her sister knew someone, who knew someone else — Surwit set up several interviews with major magazine publishers. After five interviews with Condé Nast, she is now an advertising and marketing assistant for Architectural Digest.

“Everybody knows a lot more people than they think, and everybody knows people who know a lot of other people,” says Deborah Halliday, the assistant director of BU’s Office of Career Services. With graduation a semester away, Halliday is encouraging seniors to use all their resources, including those unexplored connections among friends and family, to find their first job. She recommends approaching the search as a three-step process.

Step one: Don’t let your major hold you back
Students must decide what type of job fits best with their interests and skills — and that doesn’t always mean finding a career that matches your major in college. “Don’t let your major determine what you’re going to look for in your future career unless you want it to,” Halliday says. So can an archaeology student go into business? Can a vocal performance major become a journalist? While some jobs, such as engineering, require a certain educational background, not all do. “A company that’s truly looking for a rich and varied background in their new hires is going to be interested in people of all types,” she says.

If, after a little introspection, students don’t have a clue what they want their future career to be, they can take the TypeFocus test, which assesses the test-taker’s personality type and provides job suggestions for that person. For more personal interaction, Career Services offers five-week career exploration groups, as well as career counselors, who are available for one-on-one appointments.

Step two: Competitive-eating champ and Phi Beta Kappa? Keep it to one page
When you’ve got your focus, it’s time to present yourself properly. Some common résumé mistakes: including your high school, narrowing the margins or reducing the type size to cram in too much information, and using more than one page, Halliday says. When writing the cover letter, follow the same formula: make your most important points in three or four paragraphs, and keep it brief. Most important, don’t use the same letter for every job — make it specific to the position you’re applying for. “Employers can spot a boilerplate cover letter a mile away,” says Halliday, who recommends having a professional evaluate both résumés and cover letters.

Step three: Get to work, online and off
When’s it’s finally time to find that first “real-world” job, company human resource Web sites and public search engines are a good starting point — but some work better than others. Halliday recommends Indeed.com, which provides free access to information on job opportunities collected from thousands of Web sites; many other Web sites require paid registration to view their listings.

But the Web has its drawbacks, Halliday says. “These companies get thousands — in some cases tens of thousands — of applications or résumés per month,” she says. Jobs on BU CareerLink, run by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, are geared toward college students, and with a smaller applicant pool, Halliday says, there is a greater chance each résumé will be reviewed. Students in the College of Engineering, the School of Management, and the College of Communication can also look on their school’s individual job board. Similarly, college career fairs give applicants a way to meet potential employers — most of whom specifically want to hire recent college graduates — face-to-face. (Career Services will host a Job and Internship Fair on Wednesday, March 19.)

Once those applications are out, what’s next? More applications, and a look at other options, such as temping. “Half our staff is temps,” says Surwit, the recent grad who works for Architectural Digest. “I’m always jealous when they tell me about all the places they’ve worked and connections they’ve made.”

If these steps seem like too much to handle alone, visit BU’s Career Services office, either in person, on the third floor of 19 Deerfield St., or online. “We have one of the best Web sites you’re going to find for colleges,” Halliday says. “If the mood strikes you at 2 a.m. to investigate something to do with careers, go to our Web site. There’s going to be a lot of stuff on there, probably more than you dreamed if you haven’t gone through it before.”

Rebecca McNamara can be reached at ramc@bu.edu.