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Navigate the Unique Job Search Concerns of Grad Students
But grad students typically confront unique barriers to job search success, especially if they're seeking opportunities outside academia.
By Peter Vogt
Earning a graduate degree is a big accomplishment — one many students hope will clear a path to a great job. But grad students typically confront unique barriers to job search success, especially if they’re seeking opportunities outside academia.
Be ready to work around these internal and external roadblocks, either alone or with the help of a school career counselor, with this guide.
Internal Barriers
- Overconfidence or Underconfidence: You might feel your graduate degree is a ticket to a job with a great salary and outstanding benefits and perks. Unfortunately, your undergraduate degree offered no guarantees, and neither does your grad degree.
- Hazy Career Goals: “Some graduate students lack a clear career focus,” says Sharon Goodyear, assistant director of career development at the William Mitchell College of Law and former director of career services at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. “I am continually surprised when I meet law students who don’t know what they want to do with the degree, but they think that a law degree would be useful even if they’re not sure they want to practice law.”
- Difficulty Identifying and Selling Transferable Skills: If you’re like many grad students, you may not know you have probably developed valuable skills in research, analysis, writing and verbal communication that transfer nicely to the workplace.
Conversely, you may feel you have little to offer a prospective employer, or that your academic experiences have no value in the workplace. And you may lack confidence in performing basic but critical job search tasks like writing resumes and cover letters and interviewing, especially if you went straight from your undergrad days to a graduate program.
You might also be prone to giving prospective employers too much detail about a topic you’ve studied in depth instead of highlighting the important skills you developed along the way.
“Many employers…are not as interested in the details of a project as they are that job candidates possess the skills that enable one to complete an independent project — research, writing, curiosity, collaboration, persistence, persuasion, self-motivation, etc.,” says Briana Keller, PhD, a career counselor at the University of Washington who works frequently with graduate students.
hgutierrez
2 months ago
Wothless, shallow advice!
YoditH3
4 months ago
Hello sir
i have riceved many MA's study opportunity but all form is request zip code, i live in Ethiopia how can get that chance
yodit
nigusey
4 months ago
HI SIR.
I AM NIGUS HILUF ABAY
ETHIOPIAN
I WANT TO LEARN MASTERS PROGRAM BUT IN OUR COUNTRY THERE IS NO OPPORTUNITY TO STUDY.
I HAVE BA DEGREE IN ACCOUNTING.PLEASE HELP ME TO LEARN MASTERS IN YOUR COUNTRY OR TELL ME HOW CAN I GET FREE SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY
NIGUS HILUF ABAY
POBOX 126 MEKELLE ,TIGRAY,ETHIOPIA
EMAIL niguseyw@yahoo.com
MalishaG
5 months ago
Liked it a lot, because it reminded me how to be clear about my goals post graduate degree's graduation. Thanks
LydiaS70
5 months ago
I have received my MBA last April and I have found that hiring managers are even more threatened by me now. I have over 30 years in general office experience and have even picked up new computer skills in the last year, and nothing is working for me. This article was no help to me, because it did not give me any new information.
JaynaB
5 months ago
This was a very good article and enlightening. I am scheduled to get my Masters in March 2010 and I'm a bit anxious to see what will happen. I'm a strong advocate in not following present trends to determine my future. The job market may be a bit stronger next year, but who knows. But I am glad and thankful to have a job that is a good job and a coaching practice that is picking up.... Very good read and advice to graduate students that are planning ahead.
http://purposeandplan.blogspot.com
Jayna
Career & Educational Coach
ZachariahI
5 months ago
But this is the problem with graduate school recruitment.
There is no integration between internships and course work. The career center and the courses tend to work independently of one another. Plus, if you are going to pay high tuition fees for a degree, you should have first dibs on the internships.
As a result, you graduate with mountains of debt- while the school has met their financial obligations because you took out loans to pay them.
You even have some graduate schools telling kids straight from undergrad, with no work experience, to pursue a DOUBLE MASTERS! How freakin' stupid is that?
VivianK26
5 months ago
JillM167, you're not alone -- many students run into the vicous cycle of "I need a job to get experience... but I need experience to get a job." I personally don't know very much about the nursing industry, but I know in many others it is possible to get a foot in the door by taking lower positions, even internships or volunteer jobs, that may not directly be nursing positions but more like "support" positions. You may feel that, with your nursing degree, you're overqualified for these, but as the article mentioned, there is a learning curve for every job, and you will learn a lot about the way the company or hospital works just by being there every day. This company-specific experience will then enable you to work your way up to the job you want, and you'll have an advantage over other applicants at that point because they won't need to train you in company procedures. Hope this gives you some ideas for ways to get in. Good luck!
GaryM223
5 months ago
I recieved an M.A. in Jurnalism in 1975 so I have over 30 years' experience in dealing with this problem. Sorry to say it, Mr. Vogt's articlde just does not do the job.
Perhaps the biggest omission is the problem "people want to hire subordinates not rivals." In many cases the person or pesons with hiring authority will have a bachelor's degree or only a high school diploma. If hired, since you have better paper qualifications, you are a threat to him both in his current position and for any future promotions.
Now both Andrew Carnegie and Robert Kiyosaki advised that it is a benefit to employers to hire people smarter and with more eduction than themselves to take advantage of the knowledge and skill they offer and learn from them. But a lot of people just don't look at it that way. To them the person with more qualifications, paper or otherwise is a threat.
Likewise I am running more and more into a situation where firms won't hire people with higher degrees or more than five years' experience because they feel they will have to pay them too much. So they hire someone with less experience and education and hope he will grow into the job. Let's face it, there is a learning curve in any new job even for the well-qulified applicant. They seem to feel that the difference in learning time and effort required isn't that great between the more and the less qualified candidate to justify paying the well-qualified candidate more.
There is much more to say on this topic, both spoken and unspoken. And much that even with facing it for over 30 years I don't know. As a journalist at various times myself, I am solicitous of Mr. Vogt's problem of facing "that old devil the deadline." But it is clear this article required a good deal more research before being composed and posted. Thanks for the effort anyway.
Best wishes.
Sincerely,
Gary J. Mallast
IbtehalA
5 months ago
thank you very much
AlemayehuB3
5 months ago
Iam setisfiey by this program
JillM167
5 months ago
Perfect timing. As a new nurse, with nursing in high demand, I was expecting to be able to pick from several jobs. Not so. My grades, and can do attitude mean nothing to a recruiter. They want experience in years. I do not know how I am to get hired without experience in the field. Beg?
ShannonF32
5 months ago
Thank you for the great article! Definitely some good insight for grad students :)