Documenting Success

How to search for a job after college – Part IV: Money negotiations 1 comment
Published on January 17th, 2007

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

Once you get past the interview stage, the hard part is over. If the company starts talking to you about money, you can high-five or pat yourself on the back. They just gave you a sign that they could be (not necessarily are) interested in hiring you. All you have to do now is maintain a good impression that you left at the interview, agree on the money, and hopefully see what you’ve been waiting for – the offer letter. Here are some tips on making it happen.

Money negotiations

If a company decided to hire you, there are two ways in which your salary can be determined. One way is that the salary for the position is fixed. Usually, that’s true for big bureaucratic organizations such as US Government. In that case, there’s not much room for negotiations. The other case is when the salary for your position is flexible (as long as it is within the department’s budget.) That is where you’ll have the most freedom to negotiate your salary.

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How to search for a job after college – Part III: Interview 2 comments
Published on January 17th, 2007

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

While you’re talking to friends about job openings in their companies, and sending out resumes, you should keep in mind why you’re doing this. And even though your ultimate goal, of course, is to find a job, everything that I’ve described up to this point has been dedicated to one intermediate goal: getting an interview.

When does the interview begin?

Most people have a wrong impression of when the interview starts. They think that it begins with the question “So, tell me about yourself” at a formal sit-down with the hiring manager. In reality, your interview began a lot earlier, when the company contacted you – either by phone or email – regarding your resume. Everything you do from that point on will determine your hiring chances.

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How to search for a job after college – Part II: Ways of finding a job 4 comments
Published on January 11th, 2007

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

Now that you got your resume and cover letter prepared, you’re ready to submit it. The most important thing to realize about the process is that it’s quantity over quality. The more places you send your resume to, the better the chances of you finding your dream job. When I was looking for a job after college, I must’ve sent out a thousand resumes, without exaggeration.

Of course, I don’t mean that you should go on Monster.com and apply for every job that you find. That gets you nowhere and will only aggravate the people reading your submission. You should only send your resume to relevant positions that you think there’s a good chance you’d be a fit for. That means, unfortunately, you can not apply to “senior” and “mid-level” positions either.

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How to search for a job after college – Part I: Resume and cover letter 8 comments
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.

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