Breaking In is Hard To Do

This one is for the new graduates who find themselves in an age-old bind. Every job posting seems to require “3-5 years of experience.” How the heck can a person break in? Well, I’ve got some good news and some bad news.

Q: I just graduated from a good college with a 3.5 GPA and not only can I not find a job, I can’t get an interview. Actually, one company did let me come in for an “informational interview,” but the person in HR said I was “too green.” But how can I get rid of my “green” if no one gives me a chance? I feel like I’ve hit a brick wall.

A: Bad news first, you have hit a brick wall – that is, if you keep going as you’re going, applying for jobs online in hopes that some random hiring manager will squint and miss your brand newbieness.?

More bad news: The hiring apparatus at most hiring companies is so broken, even if your resume and cover letter brilliantly explain why you should be hired despite your lack of experience, no one will notice. Such fairy-tale endings are, indeed, fairy tales.

Can you take one more downer? The hiring picture for the rest of 2023 is pretty mixed. There are layoffs in some industries, like tech, but in other industries, there aren’t enough candidates to go around. And then, of course, there is the looming recession. TLDR: the hiring wind isn’t exactly at your back.?

Thank goodness, I have some good news! You are going to get a first job. I promise. And here’s how:

1. Accept the fact that most first jobs are won through a kind of guerrilla warfare, in which you engage in hand-to-hand combat with everyone you know to ask them for leads. Your best-friend’s uncle, your neighbor’s daughter’s boyfriend, your dentist. Literally no one should be safe from you handing them your resume and explaining what you are willing to do.?
2. Speaking of that, I don’t care what you studied, the answer is you are willing to do anything and everything. Answer phones, run errands, make cold calls, drive a truck to make deliveries. In most cases, if you do these things well, after six months you will not be doing them very much longer, because talent rises.
3. While you search for your job, do not go the “funemployment route.” Do not. Instead, volunteer somewhere – with commitment. Read stories to kids at the local library, walk dogs at the local shelter, serve lunch at a homeless shelter. This is not pretend-work, if you care, and if you describe it plainly on your resume, it will demonstrate? initiative, goodness, and enterprise. “Look, employer!” you will be saying, “I have not been biding my time playing video games and traveling with friends. I’ve been working – because that’s the way I roll.”
4. Finally, and I apologize to your parents for this one, you need to lower your expectations. A first job is usually a big fat nothingburger; it’s the first tiny step on a long, long journey. If it’s awful enough, it will be a great story at a cocktail party one day. Regardless, a first job does not define you – it teaches you what you like and don’t like to do, and it launches you to your second job. You will find your way about, oh, your fourth job. By which time, you should have enough experiences on your resume to have shed your greenish hue, and get down to the real business of blossoming.

If it makes you feel any better, all of my own kids had to cycle through a lot of jobs to land where they are today, finally on their way – in their 30s. The picture above shows one of my sons starting his second job, which was very cool but didn’t exactly work out, but it was all for the good anyway, and he now happily runs a business with his wife. My point is, very few careers are linear. Yours probably won’t be either. But it has to begin somewhere, and it’s with you upending your approach for something harder and messier than pressing the “apply” button online. But here’s the thing. At least it works. And soon, so will you.