Friday, July 23, 2010

Advice from a consultant for new grads looking for a job

My brother and all his friends just graduated, so I'm getting a lot of questions from them about looking for a job. I'm feeling a bit of pressure to give the right advice. I sent them to my personal website's career page, I gave them some tips... but it never seems to be enough for them. Maybe they're too lazy to read so much or maybe I'm just getting rusty because I graduated a year ago. I've had my own experiences with looking for a job. It took me about 5 months to find one and boy was I busy running around to coffees, career fairs, networking events, conferences, etc.

So I recently asked a professional organization I have had good experiences with, ITO 2.0, to write to me any advice they had for new grads. Below is what Karen Blair, one of the consultants, wrote. Hopefully you will find it useful. Good luck in your job search and feel free to comment on this post!

- Go to the college/university they graduated from because most of them have a career services department to help students/alumni with their job search.

- Colleges/universities have job fairs though you may have to be a student or alumni to attend; check if the participating employers are listed on the website because it means that these companies are willing to hire people with minimal experience. The client could then approach the company directly at a later date and/or keep an eye on their website for job postings.

- Many large companies have a dedicated recruiter on their HR team who is responsible for "university relations" which means they develop relationships with the colleges/universities, participate in various events like job fairs, information sessions, etc. I did this for Dell. The schools also have events throughout the years that employers participate in, e.g. industry panel on resume/interview preparation & job search strategies (I participated on one at Carleton in January). Employers that participate in these events are interested in hiring new grads. I tell clients to research and/or call the companies they are interested in and ask if they hire new grads or if they have a recruiter who does "university relations" on behalf of the company. They may not be able to speak with the recruiter however they will at least know that the organization hires people with minimal experience and can send in their resume.

- Research the top employers in Canada/Ontario/Ottawa or wherever the client wants to find work. The information about the employer may say if they hire new grads or minimum level of experience required, e.g.
http://www.canadastop100.com/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/50-best-employers-in-canada/article1415568/

- Below are some other links I provide:
http://overview.careeredge.ca/index.asp?FirstTime=True&context=0&FromContext=1&language=1 internships for new grads
http://talentegg.ca/ job website for new grads
http://tbridge.ca/ OCRI's TalentBridge program

2 comments:

Cate said...

I like your career page, good to collect all resources in one place - I've been collating what I've been doing on my blog (so yes, the internet is a great place to find out what other people are doing).

The best thing I've done in terms of my job search is get a professional resume writer to do my resume. It was completely worth the money - I have a better resume, and the time we spent talking through it means that I'm more aware of what my goals are and what I have to offer.

Unknown said...

Hi - great advice. As an employee at Career Edge Organization I can totally vouch for our PAID internship programs. It's a great option for recent graduates looking for *meaningful* opportunities (not just filing and fetching coffee!).

We actually operate two entry-level paid internship programs: Career Edge is for recent graduates, and Ability Edge is for recent graduates who also have disabilities.

www.careeredge.ca
www.abilityedge.ca

Good luck grads!
Michelle