After Graduation: Getting The Career Started

The parties have already begun and hard-earned degrees are being celebrated with friends and family all over the country. This is a wildly exciting time for a young adult as he or she turns in the last paper, takes the final exam, dons the cap and gown, receives the diploma and attends parties celebrating this great accomplishment. But what comes next?

It is all too common for students to spend their college years focused on obtaining the degree-simply thinking that the future will be ensured once they reach that milestone. Then the day comes when the degree is won and the future is NOW.

It can be overwhelming for students who've never really considered what practical steps they would need to take to put that degree to work in building a successful career. But there is hope!

Here is some very simple, actionable advice that can help a graduate to launch themselves into the tedious but essential phase finding that first job.

The first thing to do is create a resume that makes the most of the experience you gained in your college career. Internships, part-time jobs, associations and charities you were involved in are all fair game, so consider everything you did in college to determine things outside the obvious to highlight your skills and abilities.

There is a plethora of information to help you in building a top-notch resume as a new graduate. Check out the major online job boards for information helpful in building your resume yourself or you can look into having your resume done for you. You can go to onlinesitereviews.com to check out an impartial review covering each of the top 10 online resume writing companies out there.

Once you have a resume, you need to start finding job postings. Back in the day folks combed the local paper, mailed in their cover letter and resume and went "door-to-door" inquiring in person about job openings.

The Internet has simplified the job hunt by speeding up access and application times. Use the popular job boards such as monster.com or careerbuilder.com or more focused job boards such as the goliath.ecnext.com site which is tailored to the business industry in the U.S.

If you have a resume and are actively searching and posting to open positions online you can begin to more closely target your hunt by researching companies to find jobs within organizations you know YOU would like to work for.

This type of research also helps you set yourself apart in the application process by allowing you to tailor a cover letter specifically to the company and position to which you are applying. And, once you have an interview, this information will be invaluable in setting you apart from the pack.

For both initial search info and detailed interview knowledge you should go to the company web site and check out the "about us" section as well as the products/services sections to glean pertinent facts.

You might also want to do some internet searches to see if you can discover what is being written about the company or the product/service(s) offered, what's being written about the industry, what market research is available.

There are company profiles offered by goliath.ecnext.com that provide exactly this kind of detailed information. However you get the information, be sure to get it and to apply it with confidence in your cover letter, any initial phone interviews and, of course, in any personal interviews you land.

The biggest weapon in your arsenal is your education and your ability to research and absorb knowledge specific to the company and industry you're applying to. New grads quickly learn that though the schooling may be over, the education continues.

Getting a job takes a lot of research and study and excelling in the new job once you land it will be more of the same. Your degree proves that you have what it takes to do the research and make the grade!