An on-campus job fair, combined with my wife knowing someone at a local company, resulted in an on-campus interview and summer internship. Presumably, performance over the summer turned into an offer (the specific role she wanted was only available to one of the 20+ interns, and she got it).
An on-campus job fair Senior year also resulted in an interview and full-time offer with no other input. She ended up turning that down. Fortunately, they only gave her a week to accept/decline, which triggered her to push her Summer employer to confirm an offer and, when that happened, she decided she was done with job hunting in mid-November.
Two Poli Sci major kids. One interned in politics during summers and school year, used those internships to expand his network. Politics jobs typically hire to start right away so couldn’t really start serious job search until after graduation. Applied, networked, interviewed like a maniac after graduation, got paid gig in politics shortly after graduating. Second kid was interested in business, started working with career development office as a sophomore, had paid internship summer before senior year, but that employer didn’t hire from summer internship so knew would have to start from scratch. Applied online for jobs in the fall of senior year, got close several times but no offer, worked with career services on mock interviewing and networked with alums in the field for advice. Interviewed more after winter break, got offer, started a month after graduation.
My daughter’s college has a well regarded career center (some years it was rated top in the country). However, the career fairs were always a zoo (and this was several years ago.) Long lines to hand in your resume, getting dressed up and standing outside in the rain to get into the fair, and missing classes and other obligations to do this.
She got her first job after graduation through the school’s job portal. She applied to many jobs that companies posted there and was starting to get frustrated when she didn’t have anything early spring before graduation. She had not done any job hunting fall of her senior year as she was doing a co-op on the other side of the country. Many of the high profile companies had already filled up their entry level training program by the time she started her job search.
When she reached out to career services, they reviewed all her stuff (resume, etc.) and told her she was on the right track and it would happen. And about a week later she had an offer.
I think mine applied using Handshake, but I’m not exactly sure about older S. He didn’t have much luck with the on-campus interviews as a econ/math major. He got his internship from a frat brother in a city halfway across the country. He was extended an informal job offer afterwards. But while interning, he also was a uber driver as a side hustle. He said while talking to one of his customers, they said that it sounded like he would love working for their company. At some point he filled out an application online. It may have been through Handshake, or maybe just through Indeed, etc. He got that job Dec. 2019 right before covid hit. He was so happy, because it seemed like those who waited until the spring to search did not have much luck at all. Every day though, I worried that his job would disappear before he could start. Thank goodness it didn’t.
Younger S went to all available job fairs since freshman year mostly for experience. He was not a fan of the online job fairs last year due to covid. He applied for several internships in the fall I believe through Handshake. He got an interview with one of his top choices of company, but did not get the job. However, they forwarded his resume to a different division and he got a position there. It suits him much better. Crossing all fingers and toes that it leads to a permanent position after graduation next year.
I hate the job search for my kids! For me, it’s way harder than college. Reject me all you want. Reject my kid and watch my horns come out. And there are just so many rejections for every offer. I try to stay out of their way, lending virtual hugs and support as I can. But I can’t get too close because it upsets me too much and I don’t want it to rub off on them.
Off the internet. Student didn’t believe me when I told them that their skills were in extremely high demand. Finally submitted ONE application literally minutes before the listing closed, received a phone call 20 min later, had a two hour informational interview the next morning, and immediately they began the process towards hiring.
My older daughter went straight to grad school. There were 8 students in her cohort, and she was set to graduate in December. In October her advisor received a phone call asking if she had any December grads, and my daughter interviewed.
My other child was studying abroad during her junior year and received an email asking if she wanted to apply “early decision” to a specific gap year program. She said yes, applied, interviewed, and got the job prior to her senior year.
There is a book available on Amazon that is applicable to anyone seeking a job- post college, looking for a career change, etc. Making connections is everything and this book gives structure to the process of making those connections. (It worked for my son).
Google " Giant of the Job Search: The No-B.S., Repeatable Way to Get Unstuck, Find Hidden Opportunities, and Land a Job You Love" on Amazon. E-book or paperback.
D2 was a communication major and applied for jobs online 5 years ago when she was graduating. She ended up in website implementation for a company that she found online and had no connection to anyone who works there. She has been there almost 5 years and has been promoted many times and has moved up well in the organization.
A corporate project for a marketing class at Vanderbilt University ended up turning into her first job in LA. Within 9 months she was promoted to Brand & Product Marketing Manager.
S1 - Summer internship turned into a job offer. He got the internship by being recommended from someone at the company who was a Carnegie Mellon alum.
S2 - Did two internships after college. Which he got through applying widely. The second one made a job offer and he worked with them long enough to finish the project he was working on, but by then he’d gotten pretty jaded about what NGOs were accomplishing in the world. So he spent the next six months or so studying madly for the Officer Candidate test and is now a Naval Officer. He found that all the school listings for stuff in International Relations were highly geared towards people who’d minored in Econ. He was interested in security issues.
D went to the career fair fall of senior year (very well organized so no lines). She spoke to 2 companies, within weeks had 2 offers in hand. One, a lowball offer but the other was decent.
She declared her job search was over and accepted the second offer. Worked there for 3 years before heading to grad school. No idea how her next job search will go as she has 3 more years before she has to start looking.
S went to his school career fair (lot of big companies there but very poorly administered) his freshman year. He got an internship from the sole company he spoke to there but turned that down in favor of one he found through a frat brother. Refused to go back to the career fair after that.
Applied through Indeed, family and friend referrals all other years.
Last internship at the end of junior year was in the middle of Covid so was remote and of shorter duration. He got an offer for full time conversion at the end of July. Average offer from a big company but with no time limits to accept.
He continued working for them part time throughout his senior year so had the benefit of advice from his mentor. She encouraged him to apply to other jobs, and use those offers as leverage to renegotiate his offer. He did, company wanted to retain him so they made him an offer that was much more in line with other top companies.
As with internships the year(s) prior, my daughter got leads for research coordinator positions from professors. (At the end, she didn’t need to go that route as she was accepted into a grad school program straight out of college.)
Kid1 is a bit shy and did not use on campus interview options. But the college career website yielded a job offer a week after graduation.
Kid2 continued at the company that had sponsored a summer job (found via campus connections) and then part time remote programming work during senior year. Originally we had gritted our teeth because that summer job taken instead of a prestigious opportunity elsewhere. But Kid2 has been at that full time job almost 7 years later, so trusting that instinct was the right (but difficult) thing to do.
Return offer from a summer internship. Summer internship obtained through well-established methods of on-campus recruiting at target schools for this industry (consulting).
S1 applied, applied, applied, and finally landed a job about a month after graduation. The jobfair at his university was completely useless for his field, so much sothat his department started their own job fair. But the job he landed was sinply one he applied for through the internet.
When he was let go (along with dozens of colleagues) in a COVID downsize, he worked freelance and applied, applied applied. About 6 months later, a company that interviewed him, but chose someone else, called him up and asked if he was still looking bc they had a new position they wanted him for.
Both of my kids are teachers.
D1 went to big hiring fair that school district she is in held.
D2 went to be regional hiring fair and was invited to interview by her school district
Once D2 knew where she was moving to–she was moving w/her BF who was going to grad school, she sent out cold emails to a bunch of research labs with her CV. (She has some rather specialized skills and an unusual major combination.) She got 2 positive replies, a phone interview and a job offer. All in about 3-4 weeks.
After summer internship offered FT (but having had exposure to this venture-backed co’s finances, kiddo rightly assessed it was likely to fizzle.)
Job offer limited decision time but gave him time to work through everything else that was highly developed at that point. But it didn’t give him time to pursue options that were coming together.
As this was a fall 2019 offer for a post 2020 graduation start, it did not all play out according to plan or smoothly, but it did play out in the end (and the college career office was supportive) and he is still there a couple of promotions later and enjoying it.
The short decision window of the previous fall played heavily into parental consternation during the rocky post grad period when it wasn’t so clear that the offer would be honored.
This is a good time to remind people that that offer deadlines can be negotiated as well. Our S had several offers and final interviews on the table. One offer was due to expire before a final interview. I encouraged S to be up front and ask for an extension on the offer. He told the recruiter about the other interview schedule and that he wanted to honor their process. The offer deadline was extended. Don’t ask , don’t get.