Education to Career

Hello all!

Sorry it's been several weeks since my last post. Any of you who know me personally will know that this is a bit of a stressful time! But I wanted to pop in and get another blog out to you so you know I'm not forgetting you!!!

Many of you have written asking about how to use your degree to help you with getting a job or a career. What a great question! For many people, they attend college to either get a pay increase, switch careers or position themselves for a promotion. And for the time and cost that are associated with getting a degree- it's an expected benefit!

Many prospective students I have worked with always ask about job placement after graduation. I always smile when they say this because I know where it is coming from. Nationally accredited schools are required as part of their accreditation to place a percentage (I believe it's around 60%) of their graduates in jobs afterwards. It's one of the benefits that those schools use to entice you. They promote this in their TV ads so the consumer gets hooked. While that's not a bad thing, you have to understand that most of them are contracted by employers to help set up their graduates with interviews and candidates. And of the 60% (or so) most of those are in technical fields like air conditioning, culinary, auto mechanic, medical billing, etc. But you also have to remember that per the accreditation they only have to place around 60%. That means if they can't find the rest of them a job they are not obligated to. Finally they are just required to get them a job. There is no obligation for it to be a GOOD job or even GOOD pay.

Although Regionally Accredited schools are not required to offer job placement, almost all have some form of career services department. Usually these departments do not always reach out frequently to students so unfortunately it is left to the hands of the advisor to tell students how to find them or the students to find them themselves. Through career services you should have access to resume writing, interview skills, marketing yourself after graduation, etc. Depending on the school, typically the people who work in these departments are former HR employees that have come to share their wisdom on what makes a candidate more appealing than the next. If you are at a sub-campus or online find out what access there is to that department by using their specific website or scheduling a call with one of the counselors. They are accessible to all students so see what you can do as a distance student to utilize their knowledge.

Another great option you have is to talk to anyone you know who works in HR or has ever had to hire an employee. Ask them how they select their candidates and what excludes resumes from the pile. If you have a specific career field already in mind, try to get to know someone in that field. Ask them what they did to get their position. Did they have to know someone internal first? Did they do something to WOW the manager or HR during their interview or on their resume? Every field is different so some tactics may work for some and some might not work for others. Typically when applying for a corporate job, the shorter and more direct a resume is, the more likely the candidate will get selected. If you apply for a corporate job and have a three page resume- they are more likely to throw it out. In higher education, it's all about egos (typically) so they are actually looking for long detailed resumes (maybe only two pages). They want to know who you know, what you know and who you've worked with. Higher education is a network based field- I've learned that one the hard way.

So find out for your desired field what little things will help you stand out. For most job postings these days, employers can get 50-100 resumes easily and most do them web based now. Find the 'trigger words' that set your resume apart. It's been suggested to me that you take specific words and phrases off of the job requirements section of the job posting and put them in your resume and cover letter. This helps whoever is reviewing your resume to see how what you've done directly connects back to what they are looking for. A big thing to note is to not just have one resume. Change the key words in your resume and cover letter for EACH position you are applying for. If you send generic resumes that look the same for each employer, the employer can tell that and will exclude you. Also, do your research on the company. Put information you've learned about the company in your cover letter. Things like, "I find working for companies that were established over 50 years ago have a solid reputation and client base. Your company was established in 1943 and I am so eager to be part of this long standing company." Or something like, "It is important to me to work for a company that has several sub-offices and not just one home base, just like <your company> that has offices all over the United States like in New York and Los Angeles." Employers don't want to just see that people are trying to find a job. They want to find someone who already has done their research on the company and position. The more energy you put into each resume the more likely you are to get a call back. I recently attended a Webinar by one of the HR Managers for the US Government (located in Washington DC). He said these tricks are things that he looks for when he is finding candidates for jobs.

Keep the questions coming and let me know what you think!