How to find a job upon graduation when there are no jobs

You could commiserate with your classmates over a beer that this moment in time sucks – which truly, it does. Or you could pledge to yourself that you will be the person who finds a job in a pandemic, sit your butt down in front of your computer and treat your job search like a class. Because no matter what, the most important final grade you will seek while in college or grad school is a job offer.

That’s the first, most important piece of advice I can give. No “How-to-find-a-job-in-a-pandemic” piece of advice will make a hill-of-beans of difference if you don’t have the right mindset. Treat your search like a class. Assign yourself your own homework, working back from the dream job you seek. Get smart on your target industry. Your classes have made you smarter on how business should be done. You need to stay educated on how business is being done AND, most importantly, on where that business or industry is going given today's dynamics.

Having the right mindset was my first piece of advice, along with fellow Thunderbird Alum, Jacques Tapiero, when we recently spoke to Thunderbird graduate students who are at different stages of their job search. A job search they are conducting during a pandemic. Jacques and I both graduated during a recession. I graduated in May ’91 (during a recession that was followed by a jobless recovery) and Jacques graduated in ’82 (at the time, the most severe recession since WWII).

We know what it feels like to be looking for a job when every news article you read and conversation you have seems to broadcast: “NO JOBS AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME”. 

Right now, it’s tough going in the Available Jobs category.  Research by UK-based graduate jobs website Milkround shows just 18% of graduates secured jobs in 2020 compared to the typical 60%, while US-based jobs website ZipRecruiter says the number of available jobs popular with graduates has plummeted, down 61% from its pre-Covid-19 level. In a word, it sucks.

We spoke to Thunderbird’s 2020/21 class to share some wisdom since Jacques and I both had jobs upon graduation, despite searching during a recession. We got those offers by working our asses off (that’s my term, Jacques is much more refined).  We got them by treating our job search like it was a class, and an offer was the most important grade.

Here’s a quick recap of the advice we shared when looking for a job when there are no jobs:

1. Don’t use the pandemic as an excuse to not take action. It’s understandable that you want to commiserate with your classmates on how hard it is right now. Don’t use that as a reason to not try. No one is going to find a job for you. That is up to you. No one is waiting for you and your resume. You need to make employers want you.
2. Your first job doesn’t define you. Keep your search broad. You may have gone to graduate school with a job in mind. We usually do. I went to Thunderbird planning to be ambassador to France. Clearly, I am not. I graduated as an advertising executive (let’s just say I am on the circuitous path to ambassadorship). From there I became an international marketing executive and now I’m an entrepreneur, advising CEOs on M&A human capital challenges. That job isn’t even on the list of possible jobs at graduate school. Be passionate about the job you want to have but don’t dismiss other possibilities because it isn’t exactly what you had in mind. The first job doesn’t set the tone for the rest of your life. It is just that – your first job.

1. Don’t just apply for the job they have, pitch for the job they need.* Companies are re-evaluating everything right now: the work they do, how they approach that work and how it gets done. It’s a good time for new, fresh perspectives – your fresh perspective. When you engage with a company, don’t simply focus on current opportunities. Identify future ones. Anticipate what they might need that you are uniquely skilled to deliver and make sure that is part of your dialogue with the company. Demonstrating an understanding of the company while identifying where your skills could serve future opportunities positions you as the kind of candidate that company will want to grab.

*this reeks of the way-overused Wayne Gretzky quote “don’t skate to where the puck is, but where the puck will be”. Apologies, I’m tired of it too, but you must agree the meaning still has value.

1. Get smart on how your target company sees the future. How can you figure that out?  Wade through the sea of articles, webinars, podcasts and conferences where they speak to find out. If the company has a podcast (who doesn't these days), by all means listen in. These can become your crystal ball on the company’s current focus and future dreams.  Get the names of people from these webinars, panels and podcasts and connect with them, sharing how much you enjoyed hearing what they had to say. Reach out to the contacts you have already made at the company and share something you read or heard that is relevant to the job you are seeking. Stay smart and stay in touch, but don’t stalk – see below.
2. Don’t stalk – stay in touch. Be memorable, but not in a creepy way. Writing every week to the possible employer and asking them if they have made a decision or if there is any new news does not endear you. But I get it. You want to know what’s going on, where are they in the process?? You had such a great first connection and now it’s radio silence. Company plates are overflowing with everything they are thinking about right now. You are on page 52 of what they are tackling on their to-do list. In 1991, I’d interviewed with J. Walter Thompson. Few ad agencies were hiring because companies had pulled back on marketing budgets. But my interview conversations had gone really well, and they seemed to like me. Then I didn’t hear anything. I still remember the agony. Worse? We didn’t have email. I stayed in touch by occasionally calling my contacts (one of whom was a Tbird alum) to congratulate them when they won an account, or a new ad campaign came out. I got a job offer three weeks before graduating. 

All of this advice I would give even outside of a pandemic. When times are tough, you simply have to double-down on all your efforts. Think about how you can uniquely serve a company's current and future interests. In the US in particular, companies are thankfully evaluating how they bring more diversity to their workforce. That includes diverse perspectives. The type of diverse perspective that, thanks to Thunderbird’s mission, its students are uniquely qualified to offer.  

One last piece of advice. Treating your job search like a class does NOT mean to not have fun. It doesn’t mean to not use free time to enjoy school life with your classmates. God no, quite the opposite. Being a student is one of the unique and rare moments in life where you can bond with other human beings who are all (for the most part) on the same quest – to learn and grow. Immerse yourself in that moment because you will rarely feel the same way again. And those same classmates will likely be the best people to reach out to when you are ready for that next job. So when the Tbird pub re-opens, I expect to see you all there.

Jennifer Fondrevay is a May 1991 graduate of The American Graduate School of International Management, the #1 international business school, now known as Thunderbird School of Global Management and part of Arizona State University's powerful network of colleges.