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Landing Your First Job After School

Social Networking Diagram

Tips For Landing Your First Job After School

You don’t have to graduate with a degree in sales to market yourself, but you will need a plan to keep up with your competition in the job market. Landing a job after graduating can be taxing. Some employers won’t hire you if you lack experience. But how can you get experience if no one will hire you? Understanding how to network and gain appropriate life and career skills will help you not only get that first job but help you learn how to be successful.

Why you need to develop and use your network

You may have a Facebook page already, which is fine, but employers want to view your skills and talents. If you want to be a candidate for a future employer, create a LinkedIn profile. Creating a profile will help you demonstrate your unique skills and talents on a social media platform used by employers. You can pepper your profile with content about your hobbies, skills, and extracurricular activities. Include information about awards you’ve received and careers that interest you. Invite peers, supervisors, and mentors to connect with you on LinkedIn and continue building your list of contacts. Keep in mind that most of the working adults you know have LinkedIn profiles already. Reach out to them for business advice and informational interviews, and always thank people for their time and help.

Find a mentor

A mentor doesn’t have to be someone you already know. Although, having a parent or family member experiencing success in your desired field is a plus. Reach out to other networks of people who are successful, too. Of course, it’s easier to approach your parents and family members with questions, but one of the best things you can do is reach outside of your comfort zone and contact the people you don’t know. How? Ask friends, family, mentors, and people from school, work, volunteering, church, athletics and other circles for help identifying contacts who might be willing and able to help you. You can also find people in your desired field through social networking sites. As mentioned, creating a LinkedIn profile is advantageous. You can search for a potential mentor who works at a company that interests you. Send messages to people of interest, ask questions or request a meeting.

Don’t think that you’re too overzealous by sending emails to professional strangers–it’s a common practice and you’re being proactive. If you find a mentor, this person can leave footprints in your life that can lead you to success.

No networking mistakes

With so many candidates posting their resumes and applying to job boards online you need to stand out.  This is why it’s important to network, develop relationships and not solely rely on online applications. Your resume will simply list your skills, courses, and degree if you have no previous experience. Therefore, you often need to be creative in how you state what you have to offer an employer. Your connections can speak on your behalf and help open the door.

Follow up with networks you’ve connected with and clean up your other social media profiles. Privacy settings don’t protect you from trolling employers. You don’t want to appear unprofessional–especially during an interview process.

You don’t have to wait for your cap and gown to start networking and conduct a job search. You can prepare online today with business courses at Achieve Virtual. The courses are designed to teach you how to survive successfully in the years after high school. By enrolling you gain insight to career responsibilities, financial management, and problem-solving techniques.

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