One of the best things any student or undergraduate can do is join professional groups. They give you a little bit of everything, from a taste of the industry you’re about to enter, to contacts who can help you gain interviews later.
Today, however, I’d like to mention another group you should consider checking out… and one that you might not have thought of: Toastmasters.
For those of you who aren’t familiar, Toastmasters is an organization that is devoted to the practice of public speaking. Why would you worry about something like that, at a time when you are probably more focused on your resume and job hunting skills?
Because public speaking is a good job search skill. The more comfortable you are standing up in her room full of strangers and making your points clearly and effectively, the easier time you are going to have explaining your strengths to your recruiter. These two skills aren’t as different as most people think; after hundreds of speeches, and thousands of interviews, I can tell you that the stress a job candidate feels is not completely unlike what a public speaker goes through when they take the stage or podium.
And, of course, becoming a strong public speaker is one of those skills that will continue to help you long after you have found a job. Everyone has to make presentations during the course of his or her career, and if you can learn to excel in that kind of environment, you will stand out as a natural leader.
Don’t let a fear of public speaking, or the sense that it isn’t important, keep you from checking out a Toastmasters meeting sometimes. You might find out you’re a natural presenter. And even if you don’t, you’re going to come out of it more prepared for your next set of interviews, and the future beyond.
Just a quick reminder, as I know many of you are headed back to school (or your school’s career center office) over the next couple of weeks: we still have free e-books, articles, and other resources available throughout my site, www.maynespeaker.com, for students and administrators to use.
Each of them focuses on a specific topic, things I’ve seen in my 20+ years as a speaker and recruiter in the business world. But while they cover a lot of subjects, from resumes to mock interviews and even Internet job searching strategies, they are all designed to give you an inside edge toward finding – and getting – the right start your career.
And best of all, they won’t cost you anything. We only ask that, if you decide to quote, forward, or otherwise share them, that you keep them in their original unaltered form and offer a link back to our site.
So, if you see something on this website, or in this blog, catches your eye, be sure to pass it along, put it on your own blog, or otherwise get it out there in the world. Our mission is, and always has been, to help young people like you find a job, so feel free to take advantage of anything we have.
If you pay attention to sports, you already know that NFL teams are ramping up their preseason, going through the motion in a series of games that matter without mattering. That’s because, even though they don’t count for the standings, this is the time of year when tough roster decisions are made, new ideas are put into practice, and rookies get their first taste of professional-level competition.
And so, my question to you is: are you taking advantage of your interview preseason?
Too often, I find that students aren’t. Instead of taking advantage of the resources available to them in their career centers to conduct mock interviews that would help prepare them for the real thing, many of them choose to read a few chapters of a book and then “wing it.” That’s not an approach I recommend; being a good interviewer can take months or more off of the time it takes you to get started in your career.
What’s the best way to become a good interviewer? That’s right, practice, practice, practice. Get together with someone at your school’s career center, or just a professional you know and trust in the field, and allow them to ask you proggressively tougher questions in a practice interview setting. Over time, you’ll become comfortable not only with your answers, but with the overall process in general. And that comfort is going to make you relaxed and confident – something a lot of other young people aren’t going to be.
Working mock interviews is one of the best ways to get yourself ready for the real thing, so take advantage of your interview preseason and get busy preparing today.
I’ve spent a lot of time recently, both in this blog and on college campuses, warning students about the growing dangers of creating the wrong impression on their social profiles. While it’s true that recruiters and managers were once young people, too – with our own drunken and spontaneous adventures – many of us forget that when we’re looking to make new hires. Given the stakes associated with bringing a young person into your team, we just can’t afford to make big mistakes.
Realize, though, that this extends farther than just the obvious.
Yes, those photos of you passed out on the couch with words and pictures scribbled on your forehead can keep you from getting a job; but so can general sloppiness. Are those texts you uploaded, or that quick note he dashed off to some friends, just the product of being in a hurry… or an early clue that you aren’t a good communicator?
Don’t leave it up to a prospective employer to guess.
Small details matter. For a few hundred dollars, and sometimes less, students and new graduates can have professionals write their resumes, work on their profiles, and otherwise make them seem like outstanding candidates. As recruiters, we know this. And so, we have to look behind the curtain as much as possible to see what we’re going to get once we extend a job offer.
For at least as long as it takes you to find the job you’re looking for – and preferably longer than that, for the sake of your career – try to communicate like a professional, whether you’re online or off. No one is going to fret over the small blog typo, but too many abbreviations, emoticons, and misused words tell recruiters that you might not be ready to enter the professional world.
Every once in a while, I’m reminded that it isn’t only students who read my blog – lots of administrators and career center professionals like to check in from time to time, too.
And so, remembering that there are so many of you hard-working folks out there, and that fall is coming upon it quickly, I want to use today’s post for quick bit of self-promotion. If your career center is looking for a speaker with real world experience who can help you reinforce the lessons you give students and new graduates, I might be able to help.
Although my September through December dates are starting to fill up, I’m still hoping to visit a few more universities this upcoming semester. Besides my most popular presentation, based on my book Your HIRE Calling: Unconventional Job Search Tactics That Work for Students in Any Economy, I also frequently speak on how to use social media to find your first real job, thinking about your cyber profile like a recruiter, and tips on how to improve your resume so it catches a recruiter’s attention.
To find out open dates, speaking fees, and other details, simply reach my office at 763-241-7675, or get in touch with my booking agent at matt@maynespeaker.com.
I’m not a huge sports fan, but like most of the world, I found myself a little bit fascinated by the drama that played out in the NBA over the last month, especially from a corporate recruiter’s point of view.
Basically, you had a 25-year-old who represented the very best of his occupation, along with 32 prospective employers who were doing their very best to get their hands on him.
Since salary wasn’t going to be the main issue (league rules prevented them from increasing the already-high figures), much of decision had come down to where he wanted to play, who he wanted to play with, and other nonfinancial terms; in other words, he had to think about location, work environment, other benefits, and so on… just like you probably are now, or will be in the near future.
But rather than dig deeper into those issues, for today I’d like to focus on two aspects of his situation that actually relate pretty well to college students and new graduates.
First, I want all of you to remember that even though LeBron was playing in the NBA, this wasn’t his first “job.” Even as one of the world’s greatest, he had to stick out some time with the team that drafted him before he could move on to his “dream job.” I’ve already written a lot lately about how students shouldn’t be put off by entry-level jobs, but it’s worth pointing out that even in professional sports, that’s still the case. Don’t expect your first position to be perfect, because the goal to work your way up, not start at the top.
And secondly, we should note that LeBron has all of these choices for one reason and one reason only: that he has the talent and potential to become one of the very best in his field. Whether you are going into nursing, engineering, management, or any other field on earth, there’s always going to be a place for you if you are at the top of your game and willing to work harder than someone else. Your promotion might not come with the massive, multi-million dollar signing bonus, but being great in your career is the ultimate form of job security.
For the next couple of days, I’ll add to my thoughts on the LeBron James saga and the lessons students can take from it, but just remember that even though it might seem like a drama being played out on reality TV, the same principles of job hunting in the NBA apply to you, too. All companies are like teams, and they want to get the best value by hiring people who can help them win.
In resumes, interviews, and in the search for references, college students and new graduates often overlook the part-time experience they’ve had in the past. “It wasn’t a real job…” they think, “so there’s no sense in mentioning it when I’m trying to make a start on a serious career.”
Sometimes, that can be a big mistake.
As with your professional memberships and academic record, your performance at a part-time job might not tell a prospective employer a whole lot about what kind of employee you are going to be… but that’s not the same as saying it won’t tell them anything at all. As I’m always trying to help young people to understand, attitude is the one thing recruiters really want – and the toughest part of the equation to figure out.
Interviewers already know you are going to be on your best behavior when they sit down to meet you. In essence, they might be seeing you on your very best day; for all they know, you might not ever be on time, well dressed, or smiling with a firm handshake ever again, if they bring you in as an employee. They want to think you are going to be a good hire, but they just can’t be sure.
One way they can get a strong clue, however, is through a recommendation from a former employer. If someone who owns a fast food restaurant, retail shop, or landscaping service goes out of their way to say you were the best worker they ever had, or that they are sure you will go on to great things in life, that carries more weight than you might expect. It tells a recruiter that not only were you willing to work hard, but you did so at a time when you weren’t being paid a lot, and a lot of your friends and colleagues probably weren’t making the same kind of effort. You just identified yourself as exactly the type of young man or woman they might want work at their company.
It’s true that few people are going to hire you based on the recommendation of a former part-time employer. But when it comes to tipping the scales in your favor, you should take advantage of every edge you can find, and having a strong recommendation from a former employer is a great one to have.
In speaking with young people on college campuses, I frequently run into two mistaken ideas: the first is in thinking that they are going to land their dream job right out of school; the second is failing to look for their dream job at all.
Although I’ve written a lot about the first mistake in the past, let me take just a moment to point out that it’s really unlikely that you’re going to find that perfect position shortly after graduation. There are a lot of reasons for this – not the least of which is that very few “dream” jobs actually exist – but the most important is that entry-level jobs are just that… entries. Companies want to see who you are and how you work for a little while before they give you any real responsibility. That means working your way to the top, not starting there.
That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t think about your dream job and pursue it aggressively, however. That’s because every step along the way, even if it’s at a different company or even a different industry, can move you closer by giving you valuable experience, more work skills, and a sense of what it takes to get things done.
As a new or upcoming graduate, you should have your eyes on a certain target, but also be open to the possibilities. The path to your dream job isn’t always what you expect it to be, but any road that takes you there is better than none at all.
Staying with the week’s theme of the Internet and job search tactics for college students and new graduates, I’d like to take a moment to talk about a question that I hear from time to time on campuses: can you use a website as your resume?
Why not?
I wouldn’t completely skip the paper version, but having an online version that employers can go to instantly – along with links to your references, blog, social media profiles, and so on – is a fantastic idea. It’s not so much that the web version of your resume needs to be new or different, but that anything that makes it more convenient for people to find out about you can only help.
Imagine that one of your family members or professional contacts was mentioning you during a phone call. Rather than having to e-mail a PDF resume or dig out a printed copy, they could simply mention your URL (usually just your name, or something close), and all the information would be right there at their fingertips. Even better, you can use free tools like Google analytics to see how many hits you had your resume site, where they’re coming from, what people are looking at, and so on.
Setting up an online resume can be accomplished in almost no time at all, and without much expense. In fact, sites like themeforest have predesigned “v-card” templates that only cost a few dollars, and are set up for that exact purpose.
Posting your resume online, or making it its own mini-website, is a great way to add another dimension to your job search, while showing prospective employers that you are resourceful at the same time. So take a few minutes, upload your info, and happy Internet job hunting!
Today’s new graduates have a lot of advantages that my generation never did, like Internet job sites, all night locations, and cell phones to conduct phone interviews from anywhere, to name a few. One of the more recent, and somewhat controversial, has been the rise of social networking. Can sites like Facebook and Twitter really help you get a job?
The short answer is maybe. Those of you who have already read my book or been to my seminars already know that building an extensive network is one of the unbeatable cornerstones of any employment search… regardless of whether you’re looking for your first job your fiftieth.
But, as I’ve spent a lot of time writing and thinking about lately, what’s written and posted about you online can just as easily hurt you as help. It doesn’t take much for a prospective employer to peruse one of your social profiles, see photos or comments from a wild night on the town, and decide that you just might not be worth the risk.
The real risk, however, with social networking is probably that it can distract young people from activities that are more likely to pay immediate dividends – like joining professional associations and going to industry events. It isn’t that social media can’t help you get a job, but that most of the older generation (who still tend to be in the recruiting and hiring positions) don’t rely on them to make personnel decisions.
So, if you’re looking for the right answer when it comes to social media job-search tactics, the safest choice is probably to participate in as many of the sites possible, but to keep your profile clean of red flags and don’t rely on any of them to do much beyond help make new introductions.
Social media is a wonderful tool for getting and keeping in touch; it just isn’t ready to become a full-time job search tactic for most people yet.
