Congratulations, graduates, to you and your proud families! I hope that you will take the month of May to relax and reflect. Get ready for a long and enjoyable career journey and please know that I am here to help.

It will be super helpful to recognize that the next few months may be a time of learning and exploration: about your interests, about your life and about what you hope to do in the world of gainful employment. Some of this process will include rejecting some things that you don’t want to do and places that you don’t want to live – way OK and each one of those insights gets you closer to a dream gig and a great life.

For your consideration:

• Job search prep can be pleasant and not panicky. Throw it all down in two documents: a resume that details your mad skills (and relevant experience) and a sample cover letter that shows your personality. Allow a trusted friend (or me) to read it and then you can edit, edit, edit until both instruments reflect your best self.
• Take some time to scroll through LinkedIn. Filter on places where you want to live and jobs that you might want to do. Revisit your internships: What did you love? What did you hate? If you’re truly open-minded and game, enter search terms like “entry level”, “will train” and “associate”.

Once you’ve saved some good opportunities, the real fun and diligence begin. Resist using that Easy Apply button for any job that sounds perfect. Take your time to go to company websites to read all about missions and visions and to get language that you can work into a passionate and targeted cover letter.

You don’t need to know someone to get a job and I feel like I should write that in bigger and bolder font. Candidates land gigs through LinkedIn every day and your thoughtful and comprehensive application will be well received if you match keywords in your resume and cover letter to search criteria.

Companies need to know 2 things:

• Can you do the job? Your resume should include plenty of verbs that will attest to this.
• Will you be a good fit? Hiring managers don’t know this until they meet you (often, online)

My next free webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, June 24th from 545-630PM. Please join me if you can, when I’ll answer all of your questions about job search – and more.