By Margaret Nathan, Partner, Strategic Communication, Inc.
Every year starting in June, I start to get phone calls, email and the like, “Can you help, my daughter, son, neighbor’s child, niece, nephew, friend of a friend’s child get a job in PR or in some cases a job in other fields?” I never say no.
My first question to these budding communication types and job seekers is, “What are you doing to find a job?” They all say the same, “I have my resume on every jobsite on the internet. I follow up with email and posts everyday, I just can’t understand, I’m not even getting an interview.”
This is like telling someone there isn’t a Santa Claus. PEOPLE hire people. The Internet does not hire people. You need to go to your parents and ask for their contacts, your college professors, your college placement center, your aunts and uncles, your college friends parents and find out who they know and get an introduction to “real” people who can actually hire you.
So why do I do this, and why should every adult in every field help a new fledgling group of college graduates find their first job? Not because it’s fun, even though it is. I love when they call and say, “I got a job.” I’m in the PR business, but my college job-placed young adults have been in every field imaginable. I do it for fun. I love to connect people; it’s part of my DNA. I was told by one of the managing editors at USA Today, “You are the original Facebook,” because I love to connect the dots for reporters too.
I realized this week; I have a huge group of young people in my circle of connections. I’m still connecting them, but they are also connecting me to their friends, their voices, their thinking. The gift of helping people find their first job is a gift that keeps on giving. Here’s a link to a super great primer on cover letters from Ragan.com, just had to include, “5 Nontraditional Cover Letters That Worked.”
HELP A NEW COLLEGE GRADUATE FIND THEIR FIRST JOB; YOU WON’T BE SORRY.
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