Tips For New Graduates Looking For A Job

Congratulations, Batch 2015! The next step in your journey is to now chart the direction of your career. Here are some tips to get you started:

Focus. Almost all graduating students plan on celebrating with their friends, binge drinking, staying up all night, and going out of town. If you are one of those planning on doing all these, then I have bad news for you.

The rules of the workplace are far different. Your day after graduation is the first day of what you used to call your “future”. This is the first step towards your career. You have to focus and start looking for job openings before you are left with only the menial of the most menial jobs in the market. Prepare your resumes properly and register to different job sites to find job openings and online applications.

Keep your expectations low and your goals high. New graduates are not likely to land a job easily since they lack the required years of experience in working. Companies open small positions for fresh graduates, but most often employ those who already have the edge in experience in the actual field, or those possessing the necessary skills for the position from their OJTs.

Do not eye managerial or supervisory positions as these are reserved for long-time players in the field. However, this does not mean that you can only get hired for low positions. If you were one of those active students during college years—getting involved with several organizations, leading them, and representing the school—then you have an edge.

Set big goals. If you want to become a manager but know that you still don’t meet the criteria for managerial positions, start as a staff member and work your way up the ladder. Start with what is feasible. Just make sure that your goal is not to stay there but to move up.

Think positive. You have to tell yourself that applying is not equal to getting the job, and a positive experience in the interview is not yet the first chapter of your work life. You will experience a lot of rejections.

You must understand your actual chances of being accepted. To cite one example, in applying, if you have a five percent chance of getting hired in a certain prestigious company, it does not mean that you have a 25 percent chance of getting a job because you submitted your application to five different companies. It depends on your qualifications; if you think that you are just average, then your chances of making it in a company, which will only get the top five percent of applicants, is very remote even if you applied to many of them. In this case, the factor is not random.

It may appear bad when you look at it, but this only means that you have to keep trying because companies have different criteria. You may not be in the top five percent in terms of IQ, but your personality may be what they are looking for. It pays to do a little research by asking around to know what good companies are most likely to hire you for. Combining both perseverance and research will go a long way for you to get your dream job.

*Originally published by the Manila Bulletin. CC-4, Sunday, April 12, 2015. Written by Ruben Anlacan, Jr. (President, BusinessCoach, Inc.) All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or copied without express written permission of the copyright holders.