Five Things Every New Grad Needs to Understand About the Job Market in 2010

I was invited to speak on an alumni panel at SFU’s annual Backpack to Briefcase conference last weekend. We were given ten minutes to describe how we got to where we are in our careers and then give a few tips on how to break into the job market. I want to summarize what I shared with a lecture theatre full of students from all kinds of faculties and then expand on some points:

I called my talk “Backpack to toolcase to no case to basketcase and then finally to briefcase”. That got a few chuckles but not as many laughs as when I referred to my second co-op term in my undergrad as “a trainwreck”. My career path was convoluted and took me through the trades, into working for non-profits, then government, then for-profit companies and finally landing on self-employment. In total, I’ve had 12 jobs excluding my self-employment work.

That seems like a lot of jobs for a guy in his early 30s but I started working when I was 13. The over-arching theme that I tried to communicate to these students was that no matter what you do with your career, you need to discover and hone the thing that you are best at. I discovered through trial an error that my core skill is solving problems. It sounds simplistic but it’s the unifying theme across most things that I have done. For others, it might be “writing”, “inventing things”, “sales” or “accounting/bookkeeping”.

Once you’ve discovered your core competency, you’ll have a good career and be successful as long as you always put this – your best foot – forward.

Out of curiosity, I did a straw poll of my friends and business colleagues to see what they would have shared with this group in terms of how to find a job these days. Here are their answers compiled into five general themes:

The Product is You

And you’re selling it. I hate to make finding a job sound like prostition but it is solicitation. Lots of the people that I talked to about this agreed that you need to make sure that you present yourself well and are a strong communicator. There’s no need to be shy about asking for work and telling someone why they should hire you even if you don’t have a job.

When I was with the BC Innovation Council, I hired a girl that came in and we didn’t actually have a job for her. She was that impressive. You want to look, talk, act and convince that person that they NEED to hire you. Don’t beg. Make a strong value proposition that is based on what you know about their organization. Research the hell out of a prospective employer and play to their needs and wants when you meet with them.

The easiest product in the world to sell is the product that you believe in 100%. If you are not confident that you can sell yourself to a particular company – don’t waste anyone’s time. You need to believe it and they’ll believe it.

Network and Do Your Research

Part of knowing what to sell and who to sell it to when it comes to “you as the product” is your market intelligence. You want to work in the clean tech industry? Great. Where do you start? I would start by identifying who the major players in that industry are in my town, find out what they are doing, where they hang out and insert myself into their network.

Once inside their network, start fishing for intelligence. Who’s got staffing issues? Who needs work done that you can do? Who just got a big injection of money into their organization or business? Once you’ve picked your target, find that person inside the company that can be your champion.

Forget HR and unless it’s a really small company, don’t shoot for the CEO. Pick someone in middle management with problems that need solving that you can help with. How do you find out more information about them?

Scour LinkedIn, pipl.com, jigsaw.com and surf their voicemail systems at night to see if you can get their name, title and phone extension.

By the time you actually talk to this person, you want to blow them away with the amount you know about them and what they do.

Experience Trumps Education

This is an ugly truth but it doesn’t matter how well you did at school. I have a few friends who protest and say “there are some jobs where they want to see your GPA”. They won’t ask for your GPA if you have real jobs and experience on your resume. The reason some employers want to see your grades is because they’ve got nothing else to judge you with.

If you go into your job hunting exercise with an attitude like “I have a degree! Of course I am going to get a job” or “I got a criminology degree! I’ll just work for the RCMP!” Hate to break it to you but it doesn’t work like that. 90% of employers want to see that you know how to do something. The degree is a requirement but it’s not your ticket to ride. Remember, if you need the degree to do the job, it means that 90% of your co-workers have the degree as well. You need something else to stand out.

Get experience any way you can. Get a job while you go to school. It’s okay if you’re not a straight A student and it takes you an extra year to finish school. You’re more employable if you’ve got a degree and some work experience. Co-op can help with this but sometimes there isn’t a co-op job that is in the field you want to be in. Get out there and work. Volunteer to gain experience. Whatever it takes. Just don’t come out of school with a resume that only has an “education” section.

Don’t be Too Picky

In this economy, you might end up working as a secretary (I did for a while) or slinging coffee. This is not the end of the world but you need to find something in that job that you can excell at. If it’s slinging coffee, learn to be the best customer service person they have and/or shoot for a management position. If you’re working in the trades for a while, move around the company and do as many jobs as you can – even some of the administrative roles.

All of this will put money in your pocket, build your resume and teach you things about working that you’re going to have to learn the hard way no matter what job you have. Interpersonal dynamics, work politics – they always come up. Learn how to be a good employee and see what it means to be a good boss. If you build these skills at a job – you haven’t wasted any time. Remember, contract and temporary positions often lead to full time positions.

Create Your Own Career

Do everything we have already talked about and forge your own path. Take every piece of experience and mould it into the job/career that you want. It may lead you to self-employment. It might lead you somewhere you never thought it could. I have one friend who I did my undergrad with who wanted to work with telecommunications gear in the context of natural disaster management. He struggled finding paying work in that field after he graduated but he recently discovered his passion for law enforcement and is now a very proud member of the RCMP.

If you’d told him 10 years ago when we met that he would become a cop, he would have laughed until he threw up. Now he’s one of the most satisfied guys I know in terms of his career. Couldn’t be happier. His career is what he made it to be. I don’t think he’ll be a regular police constable forever. The stuff he did earlier in his caereer will take his policing career in new and wonderful directions but it’s his career. He owns it.

Think about that when you start working – even if you don’t know what your career is going to be. Everything you do is building towards a point where you’ll turn around and see a career that you can define. Good luck!