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Finding that difficult first job |
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From a career perspective one of the most frustrating times in your life is the period between graduating/qualifying and finding your first job in your chosen field.
When I worked as a recruitment consultant one of the most heart wrenching times of year was around the end of final exams when people who’d worked tirelessly for a 3 year degree came knocking on my door asking me to find them a job and I’d have to turn them away telling them that we only dealt with experienced staff. “But how do I get the experience ?” they’d implore and my reply was “Get a job” and so the painful catch 22 of getting your first job unravels infront of you. Employers generally prefer experienced staff and your educators have a vested interest in telling you that your qualifications will get you your dream job. The stark reality of the experience/no experience conundrum can be painful, and the period until you find your first job is often filled with self-doubt and anxiety. When you do get your first job within a couple of weeks you’ll have forgotten what the fuss was about.
The first bit of advice I’m about to give to people might be a little late for some people, but there are steps you can take before you complete your degree that may help bridge the gap. If possible try and do a degree which involves some time spent in industry. If that’s not possible try and get summer vacation work experience in the field you are looking for. If those summers have already passed try and look back at any project or assignment work that might have a commercial aspect. When I worked offshore as a driller I worked alongside a wellsite geologist. He’d qualified from a good university and had trouble finding his first job. He looked back through some of the coursework he’d done and realised he’d written a few reports and essays for his tutor about an oilfield in Nigeria. So having some knowledge of the field and the oil plays of the region he did a bit of googling, found a list of companies that were drilling and operating on that field, then used that list of companies and searched google and LinkedIn to find the geologists who were working on that field, he managed to contact them directly and through a bit of sweet talking, positivity and politely introducing himself he managed to get his first job as a junior geologist. Not everybody reading this article is going to be geologist, but maybe look at equipment you may have studied or practiced with at college and see which employers use similar kit and use that knowledge to approach them.
One important thing is to get some work experience however relevant or irrelevant and put it on your CV. Employers are generally reluctant to be the first company to employ somebody. If you can already demonstrate that you can turn up for work on time, take orders, work in a team, cooperate with management and dealing with customers even if that’s in an unfashionable fast food chain, or your uncles cake shop it’s better to have some work on your CV than none at all.
If you’ve been looking for a while and your search hasn’t been successful it may be worth taking a temporary job in the meantime, even if it’s not the job you studied for or want to spend the rest of your life doing at least it will get you some experience that you can add to your CV (however irrelevant it may seem to you at the time) it should get you some money and it will keep you active.
Generally speaking recruitment companies and recruitment consultants have very little interest in people without work experience. It’s worth send them your CV, but generally you need to take charge of your own job search.
Some people fall into the trap of sending their CV to the Human Resources Department and assuming that the HR People will call you back and offer you a job immediately. HR People often get sent so many CV’s sent to them speculatively they don’t even store them, they get deleted or lost under a pile of more pressing matters. It’s very often the department managers, or project managers that will have the immediate need to take on a member of staff so in a lot of cases (and nowadays so much information is available on google) if you have recently qualified in Electronics and Instrumentation for example google companies that would employ people in your field, then search on google and LinkedIn for the team leaders and managers in your discipline then try and contact them directly and politely by phone or email and chat to them about modules you’ve studied and that can prove more beneficial than just send your CV to Head Office and hoping for the best.
Keep in touch with your classmates, if they find work ask them how they did it, when people get employed before you it can be hard not be jealous and sometimes a little upsetting if you think you’re more deserving than they are but often companies will recruit more than one person at a time so you can have success by applying to their managers and telling them you were friends at college.
The first job is always the hardest one to get, but when it does come you soon forget about the dark days of being unemployed. Organise your time so you spend set hours of the day looking, don’t be afraid of rejection, and while you are still looking and have little time free don’t feel too guilty to enjoy life a little, spend time with friends and family, socialise, put time aside for hobbies that you might not be free to do once you start work and remember the harder you try to find work, the sweeter the success will taste when you find it.
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