As a former EverTrue intern and recent grad, I wanted to chime in with 12 tips for finding entry level work out of college.
Graduation at Brown this past Fall. Next up: a job search in San Francisco!1. Make your LinkedIn profile reflect how impressive you are! Here’s mine for comparison.
2. Write a solid resume and a cover letter that you can adapt slightly for each application. Look up articles on best practices for writing these documents.
3. Follow the 70/20/10 rule. Spend 70% of your time networking, 20% applying to jobs, 10% cold-contacting companies.
4. Don’t worry about making your information public. Get yourself out there!
5. Know what you are looking for—size, industry, position—at least to some degree. This will help you narrow down your search to companies that would be a better fit for you and will be more likely to hire you. If you don’t know what you want, you’ll end up finding something random that you may hate. I’ve gotten loads of invitations to apply to be an insurance salesman. I’ve turned them all down because that’s not what I’m looking for. Know what you’re looking for!
6. Network like crazy. Join LinkedIn alumni groups. Use alumni networking tools. If you have that one rich uncle or family friend, don’t be too proud to ask for their help. Think hard about who you know who may be able to connect you with a great opportunity. Reach out to friends and family who have jobs in the industry or location you’re targeting.
7. Job boards. Apply to jobs left and right. Take extra time with cover letters for jobs you are most excited about. Don’t forget to use your college’s alumni job board if they offer one.
8. Nowadays lots of companies (especially startups) are using Jobvite which is all about sourcing candidates through employee’s social graphs. For candidates, Jobvite’s popularity underscores the importance of networking your way to a job.
9. Take a many-pronged approach. I would even suggest taking the time to throw your resume up on a few job sites like monster.com, careerbuilder.com, and startupers.com. It can’t hurt and I’ve gotten a few leads that way.
10. (Ok, here’s my pitch for my past employee!) Use the EverTrue app if your school offers you one. It is an unmatched resource for leveraging your alumni community and jumpstarting your career.
11. This next advice came to me from Laura Weidman, the founder of Code2040.org: Make a list of companies you’d love to work for. Then try to find people in your network who are willing to introduce you to employees from each of those companies. Sometimes jobs get snatched up before they even hit the job boards—and this is how!
12. This last one, I heard from a sales guy at LinkedIn a couple days ago: if you’re looking for work in a new city, update your location on your profile to your future city. LinkedIn doesn’t let you create a talent profile. It assumes that the work you’ve done is the work you want to do in the future and the place you’ve lived is the place you’ll continue to live. So in order to be discovered by recruiters and get job recommendations in the city you’re moving to, you have to update your location ahead of time.