Finding Your First Job After Graduation - Money Tip Tuesday

You’ve just graduated from college, so now what are you going to do? Here are some tips on how to land a job after college.

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Transcript:

Welcome to Money Tip Tuesday from the Making Money Personal Podcast. 

First make sure you have all of the proper documents before applying. Having a solid resume is a good first step. Typically, your resume after college should not exceed one page. On the resume you should include relevant job experiences, where you graduated from, and skills you have. You should also have a way for potential employers to contact you, so include your phone number, email address, and LinkedIn. If you have an online portfolio, you can also include a link to that.  

Most job applications will want a cover letter. This is typically a one-page letter that allows you to tell potential employers more about yourself, your experience, your interests, and why they should hire you for the job. Since you will be applying to a lot of jobs, it’s a smart idea to create a template cover letter where you can fill in the blanks to personalize the letter for the job you are applying for.  

Now that you have all of your documents ready, it's time to start applying! There are a bunch of online job search boards that you can choose from, with Indeed and LinkedIn being the most popular. If you have ideas of what you want to do, just type it into the job search and see what results come up. It's also a good idea to narrow down the search results and only look at the entry-level positions. Apply to as many jobs as you can, that way you have a better chance of hearing back from at least one company.  

An unconventional way you can find places to apply is Google maps. Search for whatever industry you want to work in and add “Near Me”. Then look at the businesses nearby, go to their website, and see if they have any open positions. If there’s a specific company that you want to work for, you can also check to see if they have any openings. If there aren’t any, there may be an email or phone number you can contact to talk to someone about working there. 

After applying, all you can really do is wait for the hiring teams to get back to you. Some places respond very quickly, while others can take weeks and months. It is quite common to not hear back at all, which can be frustrating.   

When you do get invited to an interview, make sure you come prepared. Do a bit of research on the company and explore their website, since you don’t want to go in blind. Have talking points ready that showcase your skill set and why you would be a valuable addition to their team. After the interview, send a follow-up email saying that it was nice meeting with them and that you look forward to hearing from them soon. With any luck, you’ll be invited to another interview and maybe even land a job offer! 

Getting a job takes a lot of time and effort, but if you’re constantly applying and making connections, you may be working sooner than you think! 

If you found this episode helpful, we’d like to hear from you about thoughts on this show or maybe you have some ideas on other topics we should cover, email us at tcupodcast@trianglecu.org. Be sure to subscribe to the Making Money Personal podcast for our full episodes and weekly Money Tips wherever you listen to podcasts and follow us on Facebook for more great content. 

On behalf of the podcast team, thank you to our sponsor, Triangle Credit Union, and thank you, as always, for listening. 

Have a great day everyone!