What you need to know before you start your job search.

In today’s grad school world, business and technical degree students are faced with a full-time job search and, generally speaking, not much time to go about that search. Oftentimes, support is lacking for students and they aren’t sure where to even start. Perhaps this describes you. Students frequently take an incorrect and time-wasting approach to their search.

Here is what most people think job seeking looks like:

Step 1: Polish up the old resume, if even necessary (right?).

Step 2: Block off a few hours on a weekend to put out some job applications.

Step 3: Get call backs on 50% of job apps (duh! I’m highly sought-after) and go through a few rounds of interviews.

Step 4: And voilà! Decide between 7 and 10 amazing offers at all of the top-tier firms in my industry (again, duh!).

This mindset, or ones like it, are pervasive in business and technical education programs. In my experience working with students across a wide array of programs is that greater than 99% of students view this as an accurate reality as they make their way through their respective programs. Let’s spend some time busting this myth…

4 things you need to know about finding a job.

#1 - Finding a job is NOT a sprint.

Contrary to popular belief, the search for your job does not happen in the blink of an eye. This is a difficult pill to swallow. In today’s world, we make purchases instantaneously, we expect our Amazon packages to arrive 5 minutes ago, and we binge through our favorite shows (quickly) on our timeline. 

**NEWSFLASH** Your future job, your future employer, and your future colleagues aren’t concerned with your timeline. 

Instead of approaching from an instant-gratification mindset, reframe your perspective. Your job search is your current full-time job. It takes time, effort, and investment, just like any other job, or your studies. Understanding that the search will take time allows you to handle setbacks, challenges, and non-responses (yes, these will happen… a lot of them) in a more mature and professional manner. Remember the newsflash above… it’s not about you, which leads us to…

#2 - You are NOT the hero of your own story.

I know, crazy right?! I mean how can someone even write that in good conscience? The truth is though that you set yourself apart by making every step in your job search journey about the other stakeholder in the conversation. Let’s talk through a few examples.

The Dreaded Coffee Chat - As you go through the multitude of networking calls on your way to your first, glorious job, remember that the alum/connection/area expert on the other side of the zoom call is the hero. They have the knowledge, they’ve paid their dues, they have been where you are and crushed it! Show them that respect and remember that the purpose of the call is NOT to grace them with your presence and the opportunity to be your referral into their company. Instead, know that they are the hero. You don’t need to grovel, but know that they’re giving up their time (voluntarily) to help you. Help them see themself as the hero, and help them see their former self in YOU! The hero transposed, if you will.

The Interview - So you’ve made it here, congrats!!! This is key… you have to talk about yourself during the interview, so you have to be the hero, right?? Wrong. The company is the hero, your interviewer is the hero. Again, you want to help them see themselves as such. Prior to the interview, you’ve done copious amounts of research about the company. You know their mission and vision. You know their financial situation and performance. You know how much their stock sold for yesterday. And you know all about the journey’s of the people interviewing. BOOM!! You’ve done it… you’ve made them the hero, and it shows when you’re interviewing, as you interweave your past experiences into perfect alignment with what THEY (you) need.

#3 - But you are your best advocate.

OK, so with all of that said, you need to know that you are your own best advocate. You’ve networked, you’ve gotten a referral, heck, you’ve even landed and done well in an interview. Through it all, you have to realize that you are the only one out there pulling for yourself. For the rest, there are a million competing priorities. The HR rep… well they have a million job reqs that they’re pushing. The refer-er… yeah, they have a day job. Your future boss… they’re out on PTO in the Caribbean. They’re not responding to you right away. So what does all of this mean?

First, patience. Remember item #1? Yeah, this takes time. Follow-up yes, but figure out a cadence that works for you. After that coffee chat, give that person who promised you a referral a week to follow up on their action items, and then prompt them with an email. Then, if there is no response, just call it quits. OK, I’m kidding. Give them another 2 weeks and maintain that follow up cadence for maybe 1 or 2 more outreach attempts. Then you’re safe to call it quits. That leads me to the next point.

Be okay with failure. Yeah, it sucks, but you’ve taken the professional path to advocate for yourself, following up in a way that is not overbearing. Sometimes things just don’t work out. Make a note, and move on to the next. Your job search will take a lot of shots of the basketball (or soccerball or swings of the baseball bat… insert own metaphor) before you find a shot that goes in.

#4 - Organize your search and the opportunities can be endless.

This might be the most important tip of all. Organize yourself. Again, think of your job search as a full-time job. Would you approach your day-to-day work at your job with know organization system? I don’t think so. Take the same approach here…

Organize your networking… use a spreadsheet to do so. It’s the most simple method. This will allow you to catalog all of your conversations, the companies they relate to, and all of the outreach that you do after the call. It also allows you to make notes about each person so that you can follow up with them periodically… because this is important right? You read an article that reminded you of someone… heck yeah, you want to share that with them to keep yourself top of mind. But I digress. Assume that for one contact, you have several data points to keep as notes, several outreach attempts, and perhaps several pieces of advice that you want to keep for future reference. Now presume that you’re going to multiply that times 10, 25, 50, 100, or even more contacts that you’re going to make… yeah, now you’re getting it. That’s a lot. Organize your search and you’ll impress people with your ability to recall information and come prepared to each and every conversation.

Here we’ve given 4 tips for your job search, but the truth is that there’s so much more. At Touchdown Coaching, we give you the training and the skills to find a job that’s a good fit for you, and we work with you throughout the process. It’s not an easy one, so why go it alone? Reach out to us today to see how we can support you. We want to partner with you in your success, and get you to where you’re meant to be in life.