Bagging That First (Good) Job After College: A Winning Guide

When no one was responding to my job applications after I graduated, I was convinced something was wrong with me. Turns out, I got my first job after college earlier than most people with my July start date. The University of Washington says your average grad won’t find full-time work for the first three months after graduating… and that 90 days is on the “sooner” end of the spectrum (3-6 months).

But that timeline wouldn’t work for my fears and fragile career ego. I needed a win, especially after doing everything right with internships, extracurriculars, and leadership stints. Shouldn’t I be HIGHER than average, like I have been throughout my entire school career? Why wasn’t this translating into steady employment, aka the exact thing all that schooling was supposed to prepare me for?

I couldn’t just go into full-time waitressing and give up with my tail between my legs. But I also couldn’t get hired for a decent role to save my life. Makes sense, as I was looking for work at the same time as every other graduate was. Including those with elite degrees from the New England Ivies and other name-brand schools (of which my alma mater is not). My university career services was also pretty lacking, and I didn’t really know any professionals in the Boston area I could go to for advice.

Eventually, I had to sigh and admit to myself I needed to do this whole job-search thing in a different way. And now you have the benefit of my hindsight that I myself did not. Doesn’t matter if you’re still looking for that first job after college or still looking for a job in the field you want; here’s all the alternative tips you should explore.

Consider Temping

Luckily, I knew where to go to get a guaranteed cushy full-time job right away; it might not pay that much starting out, but it’d be enough to survive. And that, my friends, was temping!

I have worked temp jobs twice in my life, and both places would have hired me if given the chance. The first place, a pension office, told me this in my farewell card. The second place, a real estate firm, actually did hire me! It was an awesome way to get my foot in the door, especially with a pretty well-known company in their field.

With that said, you don’t have to go perm (aka, stop working for the temp agency and work directly for that company). If you don’t like your temp job, use it as a stepping stone to get your “real” first job after college. You’re more likely to get a job when you already have one, thanks to corporate bullshit and lingering taboos against society’s “undesirables,” which, in a capitalist one, means the unemployed*. I still worked on the side during my temping days, but neither job (thankfully) required much brain power; I knew I could sustain it for a year or two if need be.

Figure Out Your Salary Expectations

If this is your first role after college, the ideal is something in the high forties to low sixties ($46,000-$62,000). Those numbers are realistic to the average starting salaries and depend on my own life experiences. In high school, for example (Fearsville High represent!) I thought a $50,000 salary was an excellent salary to bag. The reason I thought this was because my freshman English teacher made that much and she said that was a good salary; that was the ONLY time an adult gave me any sort of guidance for what makes a good salary, so I accepted it without question.

That $50,000 in 2009 would be $60,000 today, adjusting for inflation. That, combined with Fearsville being a very low cost-of-living area, meant that metric was very good indeed… when you quantify that with where my English teacher was living and the fact that her husband made the same amount, making their home a six-figure income household.

Which is a long-winded way of saying: my initial salary expectations were $50,000. Seemed fair with my degree having cost upwards of $100,000 all in.

But that didn’t end up coming to fruition when I could not find a job to save my life. Nobody wanted to hire me and it showed with NO ONE reaching back out to me after countless job applications. I eventually reevaluated my priorities and decided my threshold was $15 an hour for my first job after college… which I did get from said temp agency. To help close the gap more I took on a weekend side hustle, which we’ll talk more about in a second.

Do NOT Work for Free

I freaking cringe when I hear folks suggesting you volunteer or take on an unpaid internships post-college. Either is great when you want to give back, but definitely not as your main gig. Psychologically speaking, this sets a shitty precedent that your work is inherently worth less than others. It makes future salary negotiations that much more fraught with insecurity and embarrassment. Plus, it’s just an unhealthy relationship here. Every relationship you are in should be equitable, and that includes your relationship with your employer. Don’t accept being paid nothing for your services and knowledge. You are worthy of a paycheck and to be compensated for the work you do.

…Or in Shitty Situations

Being worthy of a paycheck does not mean just any paycheck, either. There is an especially heinous branch of job scams out there that profits by severely underpaying you for your labor. Out of the three-ish job interviews I got after college (and before that temping role) two of them were for such scams; both would have paid me less than minimum wage if I had chosen to accept their employment offers. Your first job after college should be something you can build upon for further opportunities down the road; you cannot do that if it’s taking more from you than it’s giving.

Dabble in Strategic Part-Time Work

This tip is useful whether you’re working full time or still looking for your first job after college. When I say “strategic,” I mean something related to your field, even tangentially. For my career in marketing, anything writing-related or web-related would have helped. For someone in data analytics that could be data entry or data review. In office administration, I can see anything involving database organization. You get the idea.

This part-time work doesn’t strictly have to be 20 hours a week either; as long as it’s something consistent that you spend at least five hours a week on, it counts in my book. If you find a knack for entrepreneurship you can even quit the job search entirely and focus on growing this business.

Otherwise, there are four big reasons why part-time stuff helps:

• It fills any and all resume gaps
• This nets you a little extra money while not detracting from your job search
• It helps you understand what people look for in an employee
• This gives your skillset – and portfolio – a boost

Best of all, it will give you a LOT more experience to point to than other entry-level hopefuls. Pointing to strategic part-time work in an interview paints you as a desirable self-starter, among other rosy, feel-good things. And who knows – you might decide to return to this strategic part-time work in the future as a consultant or other seasoned professional. As my fortune cookie says, there’s no better time to start building this than today. 😊

For more info or ideas on the part-time work you should look at, pop on over to see what Daniella is doing at I Like to Dabble (this section’s headline is courtesy of her). Her stuff is a wealth of information with everything part-time related. I wish I did something like this myself; my side hustle strategy, if you could call it that, was more in the “easy and free food” category than the “career assistance” one.

Talk to Friends, Acquaintances, Colleagues, and Classmates

In other words, network in general. And no, not even coronavirus can stop your networking. It’s a skill every successful person needs to learn, even if it doesn’t come naturally. Much to the surprise of anyone who meets me now, I started out in life extremely shy and terrified to speak. I painstakingly learned the art of making connections with others, not mastering it until my mid-twenties. It was cringeworthy the first several times I’d go to networking events, but adaptability is a huge part of what being a human means. Practice makes perfect!

It helps to get your first job after college if you have a connection to the CEO, but you don’t have to. Someone else with a connection can do just as well, if not better. Did one of your friends intern at a company you’d like to work at? Do your dad’s college buddies go golfing with your future manager? Get the word out that you’re looking for work; the world is vast, and you never know who’s around to help you until you reach out and see.

Pick Up New Certifications

Earning a recognized certification means you’re motivated enough to do something with your time that’s valuable to your next employer. Some marketing-related examples include earning a certification in Google AdWords or in almost any of Hubspot’s courses, including Inbound Marketing. More general knowledge could be by becoming proficient in a coding language (HTML was the golden ticket for me). Another is becoming a master at Excel; very few know how to do pivot tables and make sexy graphs with that software.

Don’t forget to hit up your local library to see if they offer access to online certifications; mine lets you make a free Lynda account just by virtue of having a (free) library card (God, I love libraries). Take a look around and see what could benefit you. You’ll seem all the smarter and attractive for it.

Learn How to Market Yourself Properly

There are so many mistakes you might not realize you’re making; some of my past resume case studies from friends and acquaintances show this clearly. Pick up the ads for the next job you want and tailor your resume to include that ad’s wording. Do the same thing with your LinkedIn profile, including adding any relevant (even tangentially) entries to the Skills section. Make recruiters notice you!

Learn How to Deal with Failure

Failing is a part of life, like cooking or reading is. If you can’t learn how to get through it, you’re going to be seriously worse off. I would love to see someone go from the cradle to the grave in an all-around perfect life free of pain or struggle. But even the greatest lives will come with obstacles, and you need to learn how to compromise. Dust yourself off. Continue on despite the blow you’ve just sustained.

So!

Follow all of these tips and you’ll find yourself in a much better position. Specifically, you’ll be a better networker with more certifications, more connections, more money, AND be more attractive to recruiters and hiring managers.

Or just follow some of these tips and get some of these benefits, whatever floats your boat. I know what I’m about and that’s getting you into a high-paying career. Obviously, that means getting a good first job after college, one that can still help you no matter your job hops or career changes. Godspeed on your search, and make sure you’re picking up some finance skills as you advance in your career.

*To quantify, the unemployed who can’t support themselves without work.

Cover image: Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka via Unsplash