Chicken and the Egg - New College Graduates

During high school everyone says that you need to go to college in order to make something of yourself. They say that college grads make over a million dollars more in their lifetime than non college grads. Considering this information the logical course of action is to attend some sort of college level program.

During college they say internships are necessary to get experience. Experience is the main factor in getting a job out of college. Heres the chicken and the egg scenario. Even with internships a job is not just waiting for you when you get out of college. For instance I have two internships that I list on my resume. When I was in college I worked for a consulting firm doing inspection engineering on the WIlliamsburg bridge in NYC. When I was doing the internship I felt it was going to matter. I thought a big name bridge, and a big name company would make a big difference on my resume. My other internship was for a company called Eagle Research doing lab work, and miscellaneous clerical duties.

Consistent with what I was told in college, I though these internships would make a difference. Then why do recruiters always come back and tell me I don’t have experience for the job I applied to? Ok I want to get the experience, and I say to them “I will have experience after you hire me for the job!”. The chicken and the egg scenario is where you need experience to get a job, but you have to get a job first to get the experience. Obviously the experiences that I had during my internships are not counted as “real” experience, otherwise I would have the experience necessary to get a job. Any job.

I have applied for many types of jobs. Jobs consistent with my internship experience, and jobs consistent with my extracurricular education in computers. In all instances I was not qualified enough for their taste, and did not get the job.

I don’t understand. I don’t know what to do other than keep applying for jobs. I tweak my resume, send out personalized cover letters, and on rare occasions I deliver the resume and cover letter on professional paper directly to the office. Is the job market alive? I understand that a company wants an employee with experience, but how does a person get experience without getting a job?

Success For Your Resume

If you are an entrepreneur you have to remove anything, and everything from your resume that hints that you have big ideas. For instance, if you host your own email server, do not place that email on your resume. Make a quick Gmail email and use that instead. Also, I have had bad experiences telling interviewers about my websites, and servers. Do not put them on your resume. Although you can most definitely mention that you have server experience, but say that you did it for some company, or for a friend or relative.

The whole point is to avoid talking about your entrepreneurial tendencies completely! Companies want employees to stay around for decades. Their whole philosophy must be “why train an employee if they are just going to leave in a couple of years?”. The second a potential employer knows that you are an entrepreneur they know the second that you save up a couple of hundred thousand dollars you will leave to start your own business. YOUR POTENTIAL EMPLOYER DOES NOT NEED TO KNOW THIS. Be strategic. Do not let them know anything other than the false impression that you want to be employed by them forever. You need to make them believe that you have no other employment opportunities, and you want to work for them for many decades. Talk about their pension opportunities. Mention your desire for an IRA, or 401K. Talk about the long term benifits of the company, and possibly mention how you need insurance. Although do not give the impression that your main purpose for employment is just the health benifits.

Overall make the potential employer feel that you need them. They want you to need them. I’m sorry entrepreneurs, we live in a world where companies want sheep that are completely dependent on the employer!

Getting Turned Down for a Job

There are three possible ways to get turn down for a job:

1) A phone call, with a precise explanation of why you were not selected.

This is the best method, because it is actually constructive and will allow you to tailor your resume for future applications. I have never received a single constructive phone call.

2) An email.

This simply sucks, as it is not constructive at all. There is zero feedback. No information on how to better your resume. In the future I will forward these emails directly to my junk folder.

3) NOTHING AT ALL.

This option is far beyond sucking. This is simply frustrating. You go on monster, or careerbuilder and submit hundred of resumes and you get absolutely nothing in return.

I at the point where the following is a reasonable conclusion.

Move to India to get an outsourced American job.