Unemployment Rate Reaches 6.5 Percent

Hey Mike,

Thanks so much for the question. It’s definitely a great one – one that I know millions of other students are most certainly asking themselves right now! Here’s my take…if you look at the job market with the same paradigm that you did a few months ago, sure, there are a lot fewer jobs. I guess it’s the entrepreneur in me though that always looks for the silver lining. Right now, students can’t obsess about there NOT being jobs, but really challenge themselves to think instead, WHERE ARE THE JOBS? Because they are out there!!! You are going to have to work a lot harder to find them though.

The market is shifting dramatically. For students that means it’s not a buyers market anymore. You probably don’t have your pick of opportunities – even if you come from the top of your class or the top schools in the world. Students can no longer afford to be arrogant or entitled either. (Not saying you are, but it has become a big issues employers complain about all the time. Just good to know as you’re graduating – be ultra appreciative of the opps you do have available to you!!!) The first things you’ll see change right away are that career centers are going to have a tougher time keeping up with the new opportunities that are available, companies that typically are active on college campuses will be a lot less present (if at all), and that all means that you can’t just sit back and wait to see who comes looking for you at school. Even career fairs will change as companies spend less money on exhibiting and traveling to events, and more and more people attend looking for jobs, which increases competition.

Okay, enough of the tough stuff…let’s get to solutions:
(And might I add that our last book Secrets of the Young & Successful is FULL of these!)

1. If you have any thoughts about the industry you’re interested in, find the top industry organizations and associations and subscribe to their online publications and even join as a member as soon as you can. Dive in, and get active as fast as you can to get a good look around and hone in on what you might find interesting and what opportunities there might be that are under the radar. Make yourself visible, go to the events (even if you’re the only student out of a thousand people…all the better!), meet people, be proactive and start digging up leads. The more you look eager to learn and interested the more likely you’ll run into something fabulous.

2. Stop investing time in extracurricular school based organizations and events – UNLESS they give you a great excuse to engage and mingle with the Real World…outside companies, organizations, politicians, entrepreneurs. School orgs can be a great platform to bring them into your world or gain access to theirs but you must start spending as much time as you can getting familiar, comfortable and noticed in the outside working world – even if you’re not quite ready to start working. Plant as many seeds as you can!

3. Recognize that everyone you know and meet is connected to a wonderful web of interesting people – many who you might never have imagined they knew. Just look at people’s friends on LinkedIn, Facebook, or ideally, YSN.com (ha!). You might be two or three degrees away from some recruiters or execs who are looking for bright young talent right now and not even know it. Start building your own network and making LOTS of friends. Leverage the heck out of the fact that you’re a student to ask people for advice. Bring them to coffee, ask to visit with them in their offices for 20 min if you can.

4. Consider global opportunities. There are TONS of companies that are rapidly expanding around the world and desperate for US (or home country-based) talent that they can export with their same sensibilities, language, culture, who are also very moldable. That means young talent (ie: students like you!) who are globally curious, ideally aware, savvy and well traveled (or hungry to do so), can be great candidates. Bottom line here, if there’s a part of the world that you’re particularly drawn to, start researching the top companies there that you recognize or that also do business with your home country and reach out to them to inquire about what opps they might have for interns or students. Start to follow the news in that part of the world, learn about the culture, travel there if you can – and put yourself out as a candidate for those particular types of opps. Otherwise, just start reading/watching international news (BBC is ideal, or CNN or CNBC International), get familiar with what’s happening around the world, with international markets, politics, business, finance. You’ll start to sound like a total rock star in a sea of other students who are globally naive. Then you can start your career as an international business man and who knows where you’ll end up, what adventures you’ll have or just how outstanding of asset to ANY company you’ll find yourself becoming in no time at all.

Hope that was helpful!!! Keep the questions coming!!! That’s what we’re here for.
But most importantly, to you and everyone – take control and ownership of your career RIGHT NOW, pay close attention to the “secrets of the young & successful” and you’ll find yourself in a lot stronger of a position than you ever dreamed.

Jen