Advice for Entry Level Job Seekers

[shanendoah]

The article is geared specifically for those looking for entry level positions in journalism, but I think it can be extrapolated to apply in most fields. Here are my favorite bits of advice:

From I’ve Read 500 Cover Letters for Entry-Level Media Jobs by Katherine Goldstein at Slate

Explain how selecting you will benefit me. This is where candidates often get it totally backward. I frequently read lines like: “I am applying for this paid internship because I think working at Slate would be highly beneficial for me, and would do a lot to help my future job prospects for a career in media for after I graduate from college.” I know how working at Slate would strengthen your résumé. But I am looking to you, candidate X, to solve a problem for me. My problem is that I need good interns. Explain to me how choosing you will solve my problem.

and

Your college and GPA aren’t as important as you think. This may be the biggest blow to you, grasshopper. In general, I don’t care about your GPA or whether you went to an Ivy League school, so definitely don’t expect this alone to swing open any doors for you. Of all the entry-level people I’ve hired, the one that went on to have the most successful career in media never finished college. If you are still in college, you should mention where you go and what you study. But the further out of college you are, the less I want to hear about where you went or how you did there.

I think the whole thing is pretty great, and it really reinforces something I've said before: In entry level positions, cover letters matter. They higher up the food chain you go, the less they matter. But at the bottom, no one is looking at your resume if they don't like your cover letter.

[Bob Ross]

My cover letter consists of a pic of my rock hard abs, and I hope that the hiring manager is a lonely middle-aged woman, or a guy still in the closet, like Archie.

[midjd]

Explain how selecting you will benefit me. This is where candidates often get it totally backward. I frequently read lines like: “I am applying for this paid internship because I think working at Slate would be highly beneficial for me, and would do a lot to help my future job prospects for a career in media for after I graduate from college.” I know how working at Slate would strengthen your résumé. But I am looking to you, candidate X, to solve a problem for me. My problem is that I need good interns. Explain to me how choosing you will solve my problem.

I vaguely remember being instructed to do this - or maybe it was "tell them how you will benefit them" and I got it backwards.  But apparently students are still told to do this, or they are all as mixed up as I was, because 90% of the cover letters I get (from second/third year law students) are "I would like to work at XXXX because I believe it would help me gain experience in X and Y." Some of them also go into how their past experience will benefit us, but it's definitely not the norm.

I feel for the ones starting out, though - it's hard to fill a resume when all you've got are a 6-week internship at a law firm and 4 summers at Foot Locker.

I REAAAAAALLY think law schools (and probably colleges and other grad programs as well) need to focus more intensely on helping graduates market themselves. My school apparently believed its name was enough to get us in the door, or that we already knew how to write a resume and attention-grabbing cover letter.

[Angel!]

Good advice.  I would add "Don't try to negotiate".  We had an entry level person trying to ask for more salary and vacation - we went back and forth a bit, but finally just pulled the offer completely.  When you are straight out of college with no competing offers you are no better than the next guy.  Save the negotiating for your next job when you have a proven track record.

[milee]

#1 is true for any job I can think of, #2 is less applicable.  For finance/accounting, management and engineering, where you obtained your degree is probably going to be applicable for most - if not all - of your career and Ivy does carry weight.  Your GPA will be applicable for definitely your first job, but much less so for the second job and irrelevant after that.  For your first job out of school, though, unless your degree is from certain schools and unless you have a certain GPA, you won't even get an interview for many of the top jobs. 

[greeniis10]

Excellent advice.  And, MidJD, I agree with you: colleges (or parents and/or mentors) should be helping grads by teaching them how to apply for jobs.  This generation seems to be so focused on the degree itself as the be-all, end-all (can't remember the phrase exactly) that they forget they actually have put forth effort to get a job afterwards.

Also, this is another result of the narcissist, "give a trophy to everyone who participates" generation.  They need to be taught to show prospective employers how they can be of benefit to a job and not the other way around (which was mentioned already).

[alabamagal]

Aug 29, 2013 14:35:28 GMT -5 milee said:

#1 is true for any job I can think of, #2 is less applicable.  For finance/accounting, management and engineering, where you obtained your degree is probably going to be applicable for most - if not all - of your career and Ivy does carry weight.  Your GPA will be applicable for definitely your first job, but much less so for the second job and irrelevant after that.  For your first job out of school, though, unless your degree is from certain schools and unless you have a certain GPA, you won't even get an interview for many of the top jobs. 

I used to work for a Fortune 500 company.  In the 90's their policy for hiring technical people was that you had to be from a top level shool, and prefer 3.5 gpa or better, minimum 3.0.  Even though many of the successful people in our organization did not meet that criteria.  Even though our site was in the south, there was only one school in the south on the list (the one I went to).  We finally convinced HQ to allow us to higher from some other well respected southern schools.

[milee]

Go, Georgia Tech!  (I'm guessing.  My oldest son is probably going to be an engineer and there aren't that many good engineering schools in the south.  Getting better, though.)

[Deleted]

"Good advice. I would add "Don't try to negotiate". We had an entry level person trying to ask for more salary and vacation - we went back and forth a bit, but finally just pulled the offer completely. When you are straight out of college with no competing offers you are no better than the next guy. Save the negotiating for your next job when you have a proven track record."

I wouldn't agree with this completely. I did not negotiate myself (ever) because I suck at it but I know lots of my friends negotiated right out of school, well even before out of school. But it really depends on the job market. Currently, probably not advisable to try to negotiate too much unless you have had really good internships and great skills for a new grad.

[Deleted]

A no experience person can't do heavy negotiating because they haven't any track record to stand on.  However they can respectfully ask if that is the best and final salary offer from the potential employer & they can site studies or comparable student offers.  Done in an "I have respect for myself" and "just want to make sure this is a reasonable offer from a great company" manner would be well received.

In some industries you are expected to negotiate offers & would be seen as a weaker candidate if you did not.