Networking?

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>I just read yet another post (outside of CC) blaming all the new-college-graduate unemployed/underemployed on the the unemployed/underemployed themselves. The argument was that very few get jobs through the regular application process, and that the reason unemployed new graduates are unemployed is because they are spending all their time applying to jobs and are too lazy to seek jobs through the <em>true</em> job source, networking.</p>

<p>So, as the obviously-my-fault unemployed new graduate, I had some questions concerning my situation (and perhaps others with similar situations):
1. I live in a rural area with no access to transportation, with a bare-minimum three hour distance from any major city even if I did have transportation.
2. My alumni network is very weak overall, and my specific major/field alumni network is practically non-existent.
3. I have no family or friends that have access (and/or willingness to help) to a professional network. (I do not come from a priviledged family)</p>

<p>How do I network? Start cold-messaging anyone and everyone on LinkedIn? Why is this more likely to work than cold-applying to posted job positions? Just wandering how this magic networking wand works.</p>

2

<p>Where do you live? What do you want to do? What’s your major?
Maybe consider moving?</p>

<p>You could also try cold-emailing people in your industry that come from the same hometown as you, or the same county (since it’s rural).</p>

<p>I think that one benefit going your way is that people from that county/town, though rare in number, are likely to be very willing to help you with informational interviews, giving you advice, etc…</p>

<p>Also, if you do make contact, be sure to really prepare and study as if this were a test, even if it were just a casual informational interview, cause you only got one shot to impress the person you’re meeting.</p>

3

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<p>It seems that the problem isn’t so much not networking as not knowing how to network. A lot of times, college kids don’t come off as interested and informed individuals, and end up looking like tools. Rushing up to some presenter after an event, shaking his hand, and telling him about the highlights of your resume is a huge turn-off.</p>

4

<p>Networking is one of those things that is incredibly important but very amorphous. Nobody knows exactly what it means to “network,” and networking varies from person to person and, certainly, from industry to industry.</p>

<p>The idea behind networking as a way to get jobs is that if you develop personal relationships with people, they will be likely to give you their support if they see your resume come through the system. Beyond that, developing a professional network is a great way to see new opportunities; if you are talking to a friend of a friend, and he tells you that he is a director at some company, making a good impression might lead him to reach out to you when he needs an new hand in his group.</p>

<p>There is no magical way to just go out and network; you can’t just read up on the subject and act on it. You need to gain experience, and that means a lot of failed attempts - you will go up to someone and do something silly that will exclude you from consideration, but you will never make that mistake again, so you will get a net gain from the experience.</p>

<p>The very first thing you need to do is step back and research. What do you want to do? Think very broadly: hospitality, banking, management, teaching, business analysis, etc. From there, narrow down your search; if you are interested in hospitality, what about it interests you? Waiting tables, restaurant management, cooking, hotel management? Once you narrow down your search and figure out what you might want to do, make a ranking: what are the top three industries you see yourself entering, and what are your top three jobs within each industry? THEN you can start a real job search. Try finding companies to directly apply, but also look for career fairs in the area (even if it’s three hours away). If you get desperate, consider going to a recruiting service for some help.</p>

<p>If you would like some advice, a resume review, a cover letter view or anything else, feel free to PM me!</p>

5

<p>@GoalsOriented - you need to provide more info if you’re looking for useful advice. terenc has some good suggestions on what we’d need to know to be of help. Since he asked a week ago, I’m wondering about how you respond when contacting potential network partners or employers.</p>

6

<p>The post was more about this “networking excuse” for unemployment/underemployment rather than myself specifically. I was pointing out that a great many, such as myself, do not have “networking opportunities” that are any more easy to obtain than the very jobs for which people are applying. Yet people in the workforce, with an undergraduate degree from Wharton, an MBA from Harvard, an apartment/condo in New York City, a book-full of contacts made from a twenty-year professional career, and a handful of wealthy family connections, state:
All you need to do is network. What is wrong with you?</p>

<p>I am not irritated at people working hard to take advantage of the opportunities given to them. I am irritated specifically at those that have worked hard to take advantage of opportunities given to them and then condemn those that did not have those opportunities, who would have also worked hard to take advantage of them if they had them.</p>

<p>As for myself specifically, I already asked for ideas/advice in two other topics:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/business-major/1317412-second-bachelors-vs-first-masters.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/business-major/1317412-second-bachelors-vs-first-masters.html&lt;/a&gt; (I decided against a second bachelor’s - I simply cannot afford it on the significantly reduced financial aid for a second undergraduate. Not to mention it would take 3.5 years for a degree in CS, allowing no-work-experience-with-age discrimination to begin as well). As for a graduate degree, it seems that name/prestige is just as important for a MS as a MBA - especially when you have no experience, and until I can take some more mathematics courses, I know I cannot get into a top MS of any kind. But I would need some kind of job to support that.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1338384-any-entry-level-career-options.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1338384-any-entry-level-career-options.html&lt;/a&gt; (most recent)</p>

<p>No one had many suggestions here. I have been looking at Monster, Careerbuilder, Dice, Craiglist, and several “college recruiting websites” (actually just spammed with regular non-graduate “entry-level” jobs that require experience and/or existing high technical skill). I can hardly find anything out there that even mostly matches my qualifications. The few listings I do find, I apply, along with dozens of others I am sure, and people with high existing experience / skill get the interviews. I have had about a dozen or so recruiters speak with me in response to my public resumes and/or applications - but all of them end up just checking to see if I had “left off” my specific technical skills and become uninterested once I have to tell them that is not the case, but that I am eager and capable of learning (not good enough for them, though they are polite about it) - I guess they cannot believe that my school’s MIS curriculum actually taught that little in terms of technical skills.</p>

<p>Edit:
Yes, I have tried applying to many jobs that do not require specific technical skills. I have even less luck there than I do with the technical jobs.</p>

<p>As for moving, I would absolutely love to move to ANY major metropolitan area in the US (or even to Canada or any nation in Europe where one can get by with only english). But then what do I do once I get there and have no job and the loan money I have left over starts rapidly deplinishing? If there was a job in the New York City area waiting for me, one that I could just live on while looking for a better job, I would be there as fast as a taxi and plane could take me.</p>

7

<p>MIS is a challenge as you’re finding because the systems analyst postions require experience and many of the lower level activities have been outsourced to India. The one suggestion I have is to see if you can gain some certifications in specific software systens that are in demand. A few that come to mind are: SAP - especially the non-FI/CO subsystems like PS/CRM/APO, etc…; Oracle Applications or E-Business Suite, and Informatica.</p>

<p>If you can learn some of the systems in use you might be able to find work as a contractor to start. Not the news you wanted to hear but there are things you can do to enhance your situation.</p>

8

<p>When you say “technical skills,” what are you referring to? Are you referring to programming skills? Or something else?</p>

<p>Because you can start to teach yourself to program (although programming is one of those things you either “get” or “don’t get”).
In other areas, technical skills can be self-taught as well (but it is pretty difficult).</p>

<p>Because your major is in business, the unfortunate matter is that networking is more important than it otherwise would be.
Again, to repeat myself: "You could also try cold-emailing people in your industry that come from the same hometown as you, or the same county (since it’s rural).</p>

<p>I think that one benefit going your way is that people from that county/town, though rare in number, are likely to be very willing to help you with informational interviews, giving you advice, etc…</p>

<p>Also, if you do make contact, be sure to really prepare and study as if this were a test, even if it were just a casual informational interview, cause you only got one shot to impress the person you’re meeting."</p>

<p>You also need to broaden your search. You should apply to general business jobs as well. You write that you’re averse to sales jobs, but unless you know for sure that you’re not really a “people person,” you could give that a try - top performers have advancement opportunities.</p>

<p>And if that doesn’t work, consider volunteer work at non-profits in order to gain experience. I would also recommend doing unpaid internships while you continue your job hunt. Apply for internships that have an application process, but also cold-email/call firms specifically asking for unpaid internships.</p>

<p>I also know a friend who had good luck getting unpaid internships by simply walking into a company’s office (well-dressed) and talking to the receptionist. It took a couple tries, of course. The catch is that this friend is very personable and sociable.</p>

<p>EDIT: I also noticed you mentioned that you did not reply to a company that contacted you because they have extremely long hours. If you’re truly desperate for a job, you should have accepted that. You can always leave a job once you find a better one.</p>