<p>I have a question for parents about the job hunt for college seniors. How soon is too soon to start applying for full time work for after graduation? </p>
<p>For me that ship has sailed, I graduate next week and I just started looking (I did 35 applications this week!), but my friend was supposed to graduate this semester and just found out she has to wait until Fall and then, as a non-enrolled student, go to seven enrichment sort of events on campus to fulfill a "learning beyond the classroom" general education requirement. She has all of her classes done and more than enough credits to graduate, but she has to go to any seven of those events that are held on campus. It could take her a month, it could take her the whole year, I guess it just depends on how badly she wants it. So she was in job hunt mode and she doesnt know what to do now. Does she need to stop doing her applications, and if so when should she start again? I didn't start applying til the last minute, but I got the impression a lot of people started doing apps WAY before me, so how soon is too soon??</p>
<p>Well… D1 (college senior this next fall) is already laying groundwork. She has internships this spring and summer (two separate ones) in the area she wants to work in and the city she hopes to live in. She is working hard to make a good impression, and adding everyone she meets to her LinkedIn account to make sure she can reach them all next year when she is job searching. She is also networking while she is there with alumni from her college in that city, meeting with them and discussion career advice where possible.</p>
<p>In the fall, she will probably make up a spreadsheet of potential employers (she will likely build on the same spreadsheet she used when looking for her internships). She will visit each one’s website and identify what the process is for applying (some are government agencies). If it is possible to get notified for openings at each of them by email, she will sign up for that. She will also put the finishing touches on her resume, and check in with the college career counseling office to see who interviewed on campus last year, when they came, and what the process is for getting on interview schedules this next year for any organizations she hopes to interview with. She will also have them review her resume.</p>
<p>My guess is that after winter break, she will start sending her resume & a cover letter to organizations she is interested in (along with monitoring all the websites for hiring that she has identified) even if they don’t have a specific opening identified. She will also notify all of her contacts on LinkedIn that she is looking for a position.</p>
<p>She and I haven’t discussed it, but if organizations come to campus she wants to talk to and she can’t land a spot on the interview schedule (they only have so many spaces), she should get the interviewer’s name and email address from the college career counseling office, and send her resume to them with a note that she could not get a slot on the interview list, but is interested in interviewing with them if possible. I got my best job ever by doing this :)</p>
<p>So… it is not too soon to start laying the groundwork junior year!</p>
<p>For your friend… Does she want to stay in the city where the college is? Can she do any makeup yet this year or over the summer? If she is okay staying in the area, I would start looking for a job. Her resume would have to say something like “candidate for xx degree in December, 2011. All coursework completed by May, 2011, with only a handful of enrichment activities required for degree completion. Ready to start work in June, 2011”. And start job hunting with that. Let them know (if they ask in interviews about this) that she might need to take a few days off in the fall (unpaid if necessary) to finish up the degree requirements.</p>
<p>A lot of students start job search their junior year by getting an internship summer of junior year, hoping to get an offer after the internship. If that didn’t happen, then they would start looking fall of senior year. There are usually 2 recruiting seasons, one in fall and another in spring. It is to accommendate students who may study abroad.</p>
<p>D1 was fortunate to be one of those seniors to have a job lined up after summer of junior year. Her BF, who is a year older, needed another semester to graduate because of additional degree, did another summer internship then started his job in Feb.</p>
<p>There are kids who don’t seriously start to look until they graduate, but many training programs start sometimes in the summer.</p>
<p>Friend owns a house in the area, so she’ll be around all year. She is trying to figure out if any of these events are held over the summer but we are both having an atrocious time figuring it out. The website is broken and the links that are supposed to lead you to info about the LBC credit take you to the homepage, and so she tried to find an adviser and each different advising office tells her to go someplace else and she is still stuck trying to figure it out, I think she sent an email to someone so she’s waiting to hear back. She doesn’t even know if they’ll give her her degree when she finishes the events or if she’ll have to wait til december. She seemed to believe she couldnt job hunt if she wasnt going to have her degree yet, I didnt think that was true and that’s why I came here.</p>
<p>It’s an interesting situation, because the whole time she was in college she was really bitter about not liking her school and not liking being a community college transfer student, and she did no extra curriculars, no internships, and didn’t establish relationships with any of her professors. So she is kind of up a creek now, her job hunt is not going to be easy. She majored in english and wants to go into publishing, she thinks-- she doesnt really know anything about publishing, she just knows she likes proofreading and writing. I don’t know WHAT to tell her now. But she is coming over this week to do job applications together so I figured I would arm myself with knowledge in advance of that-- I didn’t really believe she couldn’t still be doing her job apps. Maybe I should suggest she should look into internship opportunities too? She is making enough money to support herself at her current part time job no problem, so it’s not like there’s a rush to get a full time employment position.</p>
<p>Not surprising! She hasn’t bothered to do a bit of research. She’s convinced she’s “a little good at everything, but not great at anything” and that theres basically nothing in the world she could or would do, and she defaulted to english. She needs therapy and a swift kick in the pants, there’s not much to be done about it otherwise and I try to stay out of it because it makes me crazy and I don’t want to be an enabler. But I did say I’d help her go over her resume and show her how to find job postings. </p>
<p>It’s really frustrating to watch brilliant people force themselves into failure.</p>
<p>How soon is too soon? It is never too soon. I have my son started familiar himself with his school’s Career Center starting his freshman year. He attended the Career Fairs in his school and applied for internships as a freshman, sophomore, and now a junior. When you are a senior, the time to start applying for permanent jobs after graduation is the beginning of the Fall term. Most companies recruit in the Fall from September thru November. I am really suprised that many students wait until after the new year or later before starting their job search.</p>
<p>Even as freshmen or sophomores, some students lay the ground work for job hunting, especially if they are in majors whose job and career prospects are not that good. For example, aggressively looking for summer internships for each summer, taking out of major courses or a minor that may help employability, etc… Of course, a senior can start looking for a job before graduation – employers visit university career centers at various times during the school year to recruit current students who will be graduating at the end of the term or end of the next term.</p>
<ol>
<li>It is never too soon to do anything.</li>
<li>According to DD college career office statistics around 30% of senior starts job hunt prior to September of senior year and get the most job offers.</li>
<li>The second most number are the senior who starts in October of the senior year and receive the job offers.</li>
<li>Most senior get the interview through career office, followed by internship converted to job offers, networking, online searches.</li>
</ol>
<p>DD started internships way back during the summer after junior year in high school. She have been proactive and maintain an updated resume, attend career fairs, development programs, and spend time in maintaining connections. Always be on the look out as you never know what can translate to an interview or job opportunity.</p>
<p>Wow. I knew I was behind but I didn’t know I was /that/ behind. I am glad I have a place to go home to while I look. I’ve exhausted all the job postings I can find for now, my mom suggested I just start sending resumes to companies that interest me so I guess I’ll try that next. I’ve established some connections over the years but so far nothing concrete is coming from them. My career center said that 80% of jobs are never posted online, but they didnt tell me how to get access to those jobs that aren’t posted!</p>
<p>As a JR in HS, S started volunteering at a summer school in robotics. He was hired after graduating HS & worked there after college freshman year. After sophomore & jr years, he had internships (the latter related to his robotics from years before) and also worked at school, which helped him secure a job which he start applying for in the fall of his college SR year. He was hired Feb of that year & didn’t get final security clearance for an entire year. </p>
<p>If this young person may wish to apply with the federal government, it can take up to a year for a security clearance so I would definitely NOT stop the job search. Many jobs grow out of part time jobs or summer internships.</p>
<p>D got a job in the field she hoped to pursue after her sophomore year of college; following that she was able to get a campus job related to that field. We are urging her to do a volunteer or paid internship this summer in something she hopes to pursue upon graduation.</p>
<p>“When to start looking” probably depends a lot upon your major, too. I was really surprised to find that in my D’s field (accounting) at her school, all of the summer internships were decided before Nov 1 of the previous fall (shoot, most of the intereviewing was done in October.) Since those internships pretty much determine where you’ll be working post-graduation, that means you should be looking for a post-grad job in the fall of your junior year.</p>
<p>It sure wasn’t that way in the sciences, back when I was looking for a job!</p>
<p>I just checked my son school’s Career Link and found postings already for on Campus recruitment interviews for this coming Fall 2011. There are not that many at this point but they are coming. These are mostly Pre-Select postings which require you to submit your application for the company to review and decide whether they like to interview you or not. “It is never too soon”.</p>
<p>My son went to job fairs at his college starting freshman year. My current freshman is also aware of what his career service office offers as he has already looked to see what internships are available to freshmen with his GPA. (Not much!) My older son’s college has job fairs in fall and February and that’s a major source of internships as well. Many students get job offers from their internship positions. I agree it’s never too soon. Ideally you’ve laid the groundwork from the beginning.</p>
<p>I have an interview on Thursday with a marketing firm. I got four calls today so hopefully I’ll be okay. Just gotta get my doofy friend caught up!</p>
I got four calls today so hopefully I’ll be okay. Just gotta get my doofy friend caught up!</p>