Can’t find a job after graduation? You’ve spent so much time in school preparing for your future. Now that you’ve graduated, the job hunt is in full effect. No matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to find a job in your industry that pays enough to stay afloat. But between your bills and those financial aid loans, you have got to figure it out… and fast. There has got to be something you can do if you can’t find a job after graduation.
10 Tips to Keep Pushing When You Can’t Find a Job After Graduation
Here are ten things you can do to help you stay afloat if you can’t find a job after you graduate from a higher learning institution:
1. Decrease Your Cost of Living
You don’t have an income yet, so you need to cut your expenses down as much as possible, and as quickly as possible. Try not to empty out your savings account or create a massive amount of debt trying to keep your head above water. Some tips for reducing expenses include:
- Move back home with parents
- Defer your student loans
- Create a budget and stay on it
2. Expand Your Expectations
Not everyone is lucky enough to land that awesome, lucrative career in the major field… especially not at first. The job market is a competitive one. If you can’t find a job after graduation, you may need to expand your expectations to include positions that allow you to utilize transferable skills. These skills will help you excel in your future career path no matter which direction you decide to take.
3. Be Open to Other Opportunities
Don’t close your mind off to opportunities that could lead to even more opportunities for you. Keep an open mind about various jobs that you assume you won’t like. You may enjoy it, but you’ll never know unless you try it.
4. Extend Your Job Searches
The next time you conduct a job search on a website, take a second to look at just how many filters you use. You may have filters for industry, location, travel requirements, salary requirements, etc… Take off all of those filters except for one… any one. You’d be amazed at how many more prospects you’ll have by being more open with the jobs you’ll even consider.
Broaden your searches. Be open to more career types, locations, entry-level jobs, and industries. Remember, the key is to get your foot in the door. You can always move up, or out, later.
5. Consider a Part-Time Job
Part-time positions look just as good on your resume as full-time jobs. Let’s face it. You have bills and loans to pay. Your personal finances alone should give you the boost you need to be hungry and motivated. Recruiters and hiring managers like to see that in a candidate. If you can’t find a job after graduation, and quite a bit of time passes, that looks bad on your resume.
Hiring managers and recruiters would rather see that you’ve been working somewhere all this time, rather than just interviewing. That’s good work ethic in their minds.
6. Network, Network, Network
If you’re having a hard time finding a job in your industry, you need to get out and network. Your digital media school, F.I.R.S.T. Institute, has an alumni association. Join it! Seek out industry-related organizations in your local area and online. Attend industry-related events and socialize and engage with other attendees.
Also, make sure to keep your LinkedIn profile up-to-date, and join groups related to your industry. Basically, just network, network, and network some more, both online and offline.
7. Start Your Own Business
Can’t find a job after graduation? Always thought about starting your own business? Then this just may be the right time to do it. You don’t want too much idle time on your hands. It’s important to stay busy, earn some cash and utilize the skills you learned in school.
Take those digital media skills you’ve learned and put them to use with your own start-up company. Strapped for cash? Consulting companies can be quite lucrative with the right skills and quality customer service. Plus, they require very little start-up capital and are pretty low-risk investments.
8. Become a Volunteer
You don’t want gaps of time on your resume where you did absolutely nothing. Your resume dates need to flow. So within weeks of your graduation, you should be doing something, anything… not sitting around idly. Hiring managers and recruiters frown upon idle time on resumes.
Volunteer opportunities allow you to utilize your skills, and meet people on the “inside” who may be able to assist in your job search efforts. You may even get hired from within once they see how hard you work.
9. Take on Another Internship
You’re never too experienced to take on an internship within your industry. Yes, you completed one in order to graduate. But now you can’t find a job, so why not become an intern in order to expand your horizons? You’ll network with industry experts, while learning to perfect the skills you learned in school. Plus, there’s always the possibility of you being offered a full-time position at the end of your internship.
10. Go Back to School Again
If you’re already planning to go back to school to earn your Master’s or another degree, why not get a head start now while you have free time? This may even help your financial situation simply because taking more courses may allow you to defer your student loans.
Thinking about going back to school to earn even more credentials? Check out the other digital media programs we offer at F.I.R.S.T. Institute.
Can’t find a job after graduation? Networking with the people of the F.I.R.S.T. Institute Alumni Association can help. As a graduate, all you have to do is activate your free membership to get started. Activate your FIAA membership now.
