Recent College Grad

[Robb]

Basically, liberal arts schools DO NOT PREPARE YOU FOR ANYTHING.

I'm a very proud liberal arts graduate and we need to clear the air on a few things.  First off, to put it bluntly: you're right, liberal arts schools don't prepare you--as a matter of fact, no schools prepare you.  You're expected to do the work and to prepare yourself with your education.  If you majored in Bio and want to find a job involving communication, advertising and writing, then how is the liberal arts school to blame?

Sorry, I guess I needed to let off that little bit of steam.  I wonder if you have a good idea about how a liberal arts education is supposed to work?  From my experience, Liberal Arts colleges are NOT preparing their students with direct job training.  My college's aim was to prepare students for "life-long learning," and maybe yours was the same.  It sounds like a load of crap, but it's true.  Liberal Arts students are preparing themselves for their masters degrees or for skills that will translate to any discipline.  Skills like communication, writing or small group interaction.  You may have never taken any of those classes, but I've found that even students that majored in specific disciplines like Bio or even Pre. Meds have found that their writing skills and interaction skills have been earned and improved through projects and assignments in their discipline-specific classes.  That's what a liberal arts college is training you for:  to go to grad school or to be an effective employee in a non-specific discipline.

I'd bet that if you put in any amount of work during your education, and if your school is any bit the same as mine, you probably have more skills than you realize, even if you don't have as much practical, specific experience.

For the job, you're going to need contacts and you're going to need good, energetic and positive interviews.  I majored in communication, so I studied writing, HR, marketing, PR, advertising, small group interaction, and interviewing and all that good stuff.  It's so important to have a good interview.

[huzy]

I'll agree with Chris. As a fellow Corporate Recruiter, I'll meet with someone who is just looking for a job rather than a specific position and be immediately turned off. You need to have direction or at least come across as having direction in an interview.

Lesson #1: Unless you're coming from a prestigious Ivy League level school or coincidentally the same school as a Recruiter or Hiring Manager, any degree will only get you so far. The best advise I can give a recent grad is not to harp on your school or degree. You're not applying to grad school, you're applying for employment. Education only gets you so far, and a Bachelor's degrees are a dime a dozen these days.

Lesson #2: Recruiters and hiring managers are looking for skills. What skills have you accrued? (computer, research, working on team projects, colaborating with others, taking initiative in your work, punctuality.) This is what people are looking for in a new hire.

Lesson #3: Be careful with 3rd party recruitment firms. Sometimes their best interests are quite different from yours. Unless you find someone who really wants to be your personal employment liason (I've found this to be rare) they're more likely to use you as a suare peg to fill a round hole. What I mean by this is 3rd party recruiters are working on commision, therefore, you may find some who will stick you in any job as long as they get their fee. Be careful with this.

Lesson #4: Be VERY careful going the temp route. Even more so than working with a 3rd party Recruier on a FT placement, a temp placement really couldn't care less about putting you in a position that fits your goals. If you stay in the temp world for too long, before you know it you'll have a work history that appears poor. By this, I mean you'll end up working in 4 places in six months. If you submit an application for a position that you really want down the line, many Recruiters won't touch you because your resume will have the appearance of someone who jumps from job to job.

My honest advice is think about what you "really" want to do. Then consider whether that is immediately accessible in a job or internship. If not, start looking into entry level jobs that you think you would enjoy and could stay in at least a year and a half. Look for jobs yourself and network. Talk to people, ask friends, pass your resume.

The jobs are out there, the key is knowing how to play the game!

Best of luck.     

[Chris]

If not, start looking into entry level jobs that you think you would enjoy and could stay in at least a year and a half.    

Great post, and this is definitely a key.  When it comes to moving up from entry level jobs, into something more of a "career", having spent at least 1.5-2 years at other jobs is a HUGE resume boost.  Managers don't want to waste their precious time training someone who has a history of leaving jobs quickly.  Even if your only experience is working in retail, or something like that, we love to see any examples of you sticking with one job, rather than jumping.

[blake]

The only way to work for an NBA team with a biology degree would be to go get your MD, OD, DO, or DDS and be a team doc.  Otherwise your best bet would be to join as an intern (that is where Sam Presti started) and take some classes while you are an intern to market yourself better (mba, sports marketing, etc).