Aspiring to land your dream career right out of Graduation?

Then Welcome, you’re in the right place.

The word job is a daunting prospect for many fresh grads and I was one among you. But, you can take control of the job-hunting gear by following these top 5 simple, actionable techniques. I wish I’d known them when I was job-hungry and trust me, it will help you to stand out from the crowd.

Read it, bookmark it, and practice it until you land your dream job. Believe me, it will pay off.

Are you excited to unlock the 5 secrets?

Let’s Dive in!

Below are a few actionable techniques you need to keep reminding yourself to grab your first job right after graduation.

1. Invest in yourself to sell yourself
2. Networking is a Blessing
3. Start Interning
4. Thinking of survival jobs? No, never...
5. Revamp your Search Strategy

1) Invest in yourself to sell yourself

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” — Aristotle

Invest time in yourself and jot down your career goals and strengths. There may be one or many, but focus on and pick only one. Don’t forget to make sure you align them with each other. For example, if you’re interested in Coding you got to be very strong in logic.

These days, companies, especially mid-sized Startups, don’t have time to train you. So, the better option is to up-skill yourself to face the heat of competition in the job world. You can take up courses, attend webinars, and real-time professional contests, go out for practical workshops the list goes on the good news is that all these resources are available for free in this digital era so make use of them, and focus on learning not on the certification. To boost your candidature to the next level, try to create and publish your own presentations/research papers or some sort of real-time mini-projects. Trust me, you will realize the impact it would have on you.

Create a brand of your own to differentiate yourselves from everyone else. What makes you different - or, if you prefer, what is your unique value proposition? I’ll be discussing this in-depth in my next post, don’t forget to follow me.

Remember, you got to be a specialist at something to contribute something of value to a company.

2) Networking is a Blessing

Networking is a powerful tool that always tops the list while hunting for a job across levels, which no one told me. If you're searching for jobs through traditional portals, it's high time to stop it right now. It records that 80% of job vacancies are not advertised instead of closed through referrals.

Is that not shocking? So, what you can do to tap the hidden job market?

Network and Network your Network, you heard me?

Traditional networking(or face-to-face meeting) is the easiest and quickest path to getting hired, so start connecting with people around you it should start from your school alumni database, college seniors, lecturers, neighbors, and company people list never ends, and make sure you’re not connecting but building and nurturing relationships with each connection, and that’s the key to success.

Go online, as digital is the need of the hour. The best professional tool for networking is LinkedIn and Twitter. Now you tell me when is the apt stage to create these profiles? I tell you to create them the day you kick start your graduation and start building relationships.

Students who are introverts and terrified of face-to-face meetings can use other sources like Social media, email, and text messaging to expand their network. Connecting and interacting with the right people is very important.

If you're proactive in networking, then you have an assurance that you would escape fierce competition. I’ll be disclosing key tips and tricks on we can establish how and where effective online networking is in my upcoming articles.

3) Start Interning

Internships are a used jargon among new grad, hope by now you might have done a few. If yes, tell me what does Internship mean according to you? If it’s going to an industry or company during semester vacation and getting that piece of paper stating interned. No guys, then I am sorry that you have misinterpreted the meaning of it.

Then what do internships mean? Wondering… have a look.

No, deny that internships provide a great platform to integrate classroom knowledge and theory with real-world application and skills, but how you make the fullest of it brings the change. How earlier and more you take part in internships would win you a chance to get hired straight out of college or if you’re lucky enough sometimes even before you get graduated. Isn’t that outstanding?

I guess your next question would be when to start interning. You can start right from 1st year of graduation, but I would suggest the best time is once you enter your final year of graduation, by then you might have gained expertise in your core field of interest and might have crystal clear career goals, which will help you to intern . Remember to choose industries or companies inclined to your career prospect.

I have listed the top 3 key tips to make your internship fruitful.

• Try to network and build relationships with every potential employee of the company where you would be undertaking an internship, as they would be your first-degree connection to reach out for first-hand information about the job vacancies.
• Don’t do a regular work regime, keep your mind and ears open to figure out a real-time issue and try to provide an effective solution for it. This will hold the eyes of employers on you.
• Be open to accepting criticism and make a point to take feedback from the people who work around and along with you, despite seeking it only from managers.

The internships will be your key differentiator, for which you’ll be thankful later when you land your dream job!

4) Thinking of survival jobs? No never…

I am not sure how many of you are aware of the term “survival jobs”, I didn't know it back then when I got graduated.

What is a survival job? A graduated candidate who is not able to find a job aligned to his career goals and thus sacrifices them to take up jobs for survival purposes, it might be part-time or full-time. A variety of reasons such as intense competition in the job market, peer job pressure, low self-confidence, desperation to make money, personal economic situations so on urge fresh grads to take up survival jobs.

Ask the following 3 questions to yourself before falling prey to survival jobs:

Be honest with yourself!

a) Being a fresh grad and doing low-skill work due to the fear of unemployment, is it good? If yes, then be ready to be underemployed.

b) Am I ready to kill my career dreams? neither you’ll have time nor interest to hunt for your dream job once you take up survival jobs.

c) Do you want your mental well-being to suffer from stress and frustration?

If your answer to all the above questions is yes… All the best guys! Be prepared to knock down your career goals.

5) Revamp your Search Strategy

This process is very crucial during the job hunting cycle and I am surprised that most of the students go wrong. The job-hunting stint must be considered as a 9-5 job in real-time, where your primary goal is to find yourself a job.

What is your job search strategy? If it's preparing a resume, applying on job boards/company pages/other career sites, and waiting for the company or the recruiter to get back, then it's high time to stop doing that right now.

Wondering what more you can do to change your search? Let's see…

1. Make a list of the companies of your interest and browse job listings. Apply for at least 5 companies each day on their career site. Make sure you have your job-ready resume handy.
2. Build your contact list and it is a must. This should include all the data about the companies applied, professional approaches for referral, professionals connected through the online platform, and many more.
3. Never miss out on following up after 5 working days, in case you didn't hear back from companies or recruiters, as most of you underestimate the power of following up.
4. Shoot out a thank you mail or message, even if your dint heard back after follow-up, it will hit hard on the recipient and might put you into the spotlight. What if they reach out to you if you’re lucky?
5. Track your job search strategy every week. This will help you to analyze whether your search is delivering the desired results.

These 5 key tricks would advance your search strategy.

Final Thoughts

Job search as a fresh grad can be overwhelming, but you need not sweat over it. The above techniques will ensure that you find the vacancy before the vacancy finds you.

Remember, landing your dream job right after your degree is no easy feat. You've got plenty of to-do lists on your plate. Want some help? Don’t hesitate to reach me and kindly mention your queries in the comments.

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