Documenting Success

How to search for a job after college – Part I: Resume and cover letter
Published on January 4th, 2007

(This is Part I of the series. Here are Part II, Part III and Part IV)

In 2003, I graduated from Stony Brook University with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. In retrospect, I could not have picked a less appropriate time to enter the job market. During my senior year, I met some recent computer science graduates driving trucks or working in a deli – the job market was so atrocious that they could not land an offer.

There were very few companies willing to hire recent grads, because a lot of people with 10 or more years of experience were jobless, and were willing to work for entry-level salaries. Those that did hire set impossibly high standards – 3.5 (out of 4.0) GPA, degree with honors, and years of real world experience in a big corporation – right after you graduate. My GPA was below 3.0 and I graduated with no honors whatsoever.

Nevertheless, with hard work, I found the career of my dreams. After coming home from my temporary job, I put in 4-5 hours daily into my job searching. At the time I wished there was a complete guide to job hunting, but there was none. With this article (split in multiple parts due to length) I hope to fill the void for that guide. If you’re not a recent college grad, you should still read on, because some of the items you will discover will come as a surprise to even the most experienced job hunters.

The single most important thing you have to realize is searching for a good job is a full-time job in itself. Fully expect spending a few hours job hunting, even if you have taken a temporary “McJob” to make ends meet. Make sure you’re ready, mentally and physically, for the search. The easy part ended when you graduated college.

Learning the industry

You should start by learning everything you can about the industry. If your goal is as vague as getting a good job in the fashion industry, you need to do a lot more research. At the very least, ask yourself the following:

- What are good and bad companies to work for in this industry?

- What positions are available that would provide greatest career potential?

- How is the market?

- What is the salary range I can expect for the entry-level position?

Doing research on good and bad companies can lead to some interesting discoveries. It may even make you reconsider your “dream job.” For example, as a teenager I loved playing video games and dabbled in programming, so it seemed only natural that I wanted to become a computer game programmer. However, when I started researching that industry, I learned that computer game developers on average are overworked (80-90 hour weeks with no overtime pay [link to EA Spouse blog]), underpaid, stressed out and generally unhappy. I decided that I wasn’t that interested in making computer games, and attained a job as a programmer in financial industry. Overall, I am satisfied with the outcome.

(make sure you research the job before applying)

When you consider different positions within the industry, you have to look at the big picture. You’re planning to make a career in this field. How do you envision yourself in 5 years? 10 years? For example, my friend had a tough choice out of college – either a job as a software developer for 40K/year, or as a Quality Assurance analyst for 50K. To a recent graduate, difference between 40 and 50 is immense. But my friend was smart enough to look at the big picture and realize that a developer has a much better career potential than a QA analyst. Now, 9 years later, he’s making far more money than he would ever be able to had he taken the other position.

Your next step should be preparing your resume and cover letter.

Cover letter

While cover letter is not as important (generally, managers and recruiters don’t pay much attention to it), a lack of it is noticed. Don’t put too much time into writing one; however make sure you that the one you send out is up to par. Make sure that the cover letter is personalized. Do not write one from scratch for every job application; instead, make a generic template and fill in the blanks. For example:

“Hi, my name is Frederick Hollingsworth and I’m applying for a position of _________. I believe my skills such as ___, ____ and _____ [here you list off the skills that the job posting mentions] make me a perfect candidate for this job. I’m very excited about this opportunity to work at ______ , because it would give me a chance to _______ [here you put a task that the job description mentions being part of the job ], which I really like. Etc…”

Of course, it goes without saying that you should not follow the above example verbatim.

Resume

There are a bunch of excellent books and articles written on this topic, however some items are usually omitted, such as:

- Leave off your hobbies, marital status, and all other irrelevant information. References shouldn’t be on the main page either, put “References available upon request” and have them ready in a separate document.

- Focus on what you did, not what the job consisted of – i.e. “Baked a thousand cakes a day” instead of “Worked at a bakery which produced a thousand cakes a day.”

- It’s very important to try to put as much relevant experience on your resume as possible. Try to imagine that you’re an employer in your dream industry reading the resume. If you’re looking for bright young people for a fashion designer job, are you more likely to appreciate seeing a candidate working at Wendy’s over the summer, or participating in fashion design show for a project in college?

- Your objective should clearly reflect what you’re looking for. Don’t put something generic like “Find and interesting job that fits my skills.” Be specific. Put “Looking for an interesting and challenging position as financial analyst that would allow me to utilize my quantitative skills.”

- If you’re applying for two different jobs (for example, accountant and financial analyst), you should have two different versions of your resume. At the very least, you should put different objectives and tweak your skill list.

(lying on your resume is not a good idea)

However, there’s one thing you should be aware of – don’t name your files something like “resume_accountant.doc” and “resume_fin_analyst.doc”. The employer/recruiter will suspect foul play (even if there isn’t any) if he gets the resume by email, attached as a file called “resume_accountant.doc.”

Instead, create different folders on your computer, called “resume-accountant”, etc, and inside them, always call your file “resume_YOURNAME.doc” (UPDATE: Per Tiffany’s comment below. Thanks!)

- Make sure there are no time gaps in your resume. If they exist, then be ready with a good explanation. There’s nothing that employers like less than seeing a resume with gaps between jobs (or between college and a job). What do the recruiters assume? Usually, the worst – that you did absolutely nothing in that time frame. Not fair? I know. To avoid this situation, you have to put something in for filler. If you have a good explanation of what you were doing at that time, like volunteering at the hospital – definitely post it. If, however, your explanation is that you sat on the couch watching “The Biggest Loser” reruns, you should probably bite the bullet and leave the gap there … which brings me to my next point:

- DON’T LIE ON YOUR RESUME. Truth has a tendency of eventually coming out, and even if it doesn’t for a while, lies are going to bear down on your consciousness.

There’s a plethora of advice on how to prepare your resume, so devote some time to it. Your resume is the first impression the potential employer is going to have of you, chances are you don’t want to make it the last.

Stay tuned for Part II, where I’ll cover most efficient ways of looking for a job (you might be surprised by the results) … coming soon!

(This is Part I of the series. Here are Part II, Part III and Part IV)