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Dealing with the New Reality of Entry Level Jobs
Times have changed and recent graduates have to be adept at dealing with the new reality of entry level jobs.
By Peter Vogt, MonsterTRAK Career Coach
March 16, 2009
Just a few years ago a college degree in hand meant an entry-level job was virtually assured. Those days are gone— right along with the idea of staying with one employer for 5 to 10 years. Here’s why — and what you can expect from this new reality we call the modern job market:
Your Degree Is Helpful But Not a Ticket to a Job
While jobs have never been guaranteed, not long ago, a college degree alone could set you up for some kind of entry-level position. Today, most bachelor’s degree holders will be taken seriously by entry-level employers, but the degree won’t land you a job by itself.
Experience Is Not Optional
“Twenty years ago, employers were a little more patient about the profitability of new hires,” says Colleen Kay Watson, CEO of Edina, Minnesota-based Career Professionals, a firm specializing in placing recent college graduates into entry-level jobs. “Today, employers aren’t as patient.”
“In the past, 3M, for example, would hire someone and expect to lose money on them for 18 months while they trained them, knowing they’d get another 20 years out of them as an employee,” says Watson, who has worked with entry-level candidates since 1974. “Today, employers know that a person who stays five years is a long-term employee. So new college grads need to be up and running faster — and need to have more real-world experience to bring to the table if they want to get hired.”
Of course, this raises an old and often-cited dilemma: How do you get experience if you need experience to land a job in the first place? Answer: Through internship or co-op programs, even unpaid.
Clarity Is Critical
“Today’s entry-level job market is looking for extremely focused individuals,” says Randy Miller, founder and CEO of Ready Minds, a company that offers distance career counseling services. “The pool of applicants is larger, thus the talent level is higher. And due to the shortage of jobs at higher levels, there is a surplus of overqualified candidates.”
Job seekers should start “planning far ahead, talking to career counselors and other experts to ascertain ways to leverage the experience and internships you get while you’re in school so that you’ll stand out from a sea of applicants,” says Nancy Murnin, senior vice president and general manager of the St. Louis office of Lee Hecht Harrison, a career services firm.
Technology Skills Matter
You won’t be able to fake your way through most of today’s entry-level jobs if you don’t have at least average computer skills.
“In 1984, employers sought a candidate with a solid liberal arts education,” says Eli Spanier, director of career development services at Westwood College in Denver. “Today, employers are seeking candidates who have technical skills that complement their liberal arts education.”
This includes technology skills you may take for granted, such as Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access, says John Challenger, CEO of global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas in Chicago. “Be careful not to overlook these attributes,” he stresses.
Soft Skills Matter Too
Soft skills such as working effectively with others and knowing how to solve complex problems, are essential to landing and succeeding in most of today’s entry-level jobs. In addition, your written and oral communication skills need to be not just acceptable or even good, but “superb,” according to Nancy Stamp, vice provost and dean of the Graduate School at Binghamton University in New York.
“Senior staff at an environmental consulting firm told me that if a job candidate has an advanced degree in science, [the firm] will assume science competency, but it cannot assume good communication skills,” Stamp says. “Yet good communication skills are just as critical to the job as the science expertise.”
Don’t expect today’s employers to treat entry-level job candidates the way the employers of yesteryear did. If you do, you’ll likely end up angry, frustrated and unemployed.
This article originally appeared on Monster.com
AliciaF8
over 2 years ago
Unless you are training for a field that is in demand i.e. Medicine, Law, Engineering, and Accounting, college is a big waste of time and money. The market is overloaded with college grads with loads of student loan debt. Folks, quit lying to your kids telling them that the only way to succeed is with a college degree. A college degree nowadays is not worth the paper that it is printed on.
CarlosN66
over 2 years ago
Nowadays, the best way to find jobs (or anything, really) is by having strong networking skills and making friends in one's desired industry. This has always been the case, but has been even more so in the last few years because of the oversaturation of graduates in the job market. It's also important to consider that the number of college graduates have increased drastically since the 70s, meaning that employers have a much bigger ocean to fish in than before. I think that this influences two major changes in the job market within the 20th/21st centuries:
a) The risk of hiring a fresh graduate for most positions in bigger companies, and
b) The ability to keep them at any one company longer.
Another option to consider for grads struggling to find jobs is to intern at a company instead. This is a much better alternative for those that are ready to graduate and have little experience to offer, as the market *really* caters to those that have at least an internship or two under their belt prior to graduating. While some of them might be unpaid, it does put one in a better position to have a respectable job after their internship period and, at the very least, adds some experience on the resume to help find a comparable position elsewhere.
JeniseA4
about 3 years ago
This is not only involve entry level job but also part time jobs as well. I've been looking for work for seven years now. Most of the jobs that stats no exp, their looking for those who have already master those skills. I was angry and little bit upset knowing that you have to know people inside the work place to even get the job you wanted.
AlbertZ3
about 3 years ago
This trend actually started at least three years ago, just in time for me to be a recent college graduate.