Job Search Skills Gained With Practice
By Jill Randolph
September 2, 2010
The following is an interview transcript with Marc Goldman, Executive Director of Yeshiva University's Career Development Center. Since 2007, Mr. Goldman has managed YU's campus career centers, providing comprehensive services to undergraduate liberal arts and business students. He is also an adjunct instructor at NYU in career, education, and life planning. Mr. Goldman completed his undergraduate work in Psychology at Cornell University and received a Master's in Counseling and Personnel Services from the University of Maryland.
Yeshiva University's undergraduate schools offer unique educational opportunities unavailable at any other University in America. At YU, students pursue a dual curriculum of a first class liberal arts, sciences, or business education along with an exceptional Jewish Studies program.
The Yeshiva University Career Development Center provides both students and employers with a comprehensive, goal-directed, and current career services department. A staff of highly skilled career counseling and employer relations professionals works on two campuses, facilitating the career planning and job searches of students from liberal arts and business curricula. A personalized approach to working with students, combined with a customized approach to working with employers has led the CDC to much success in a short time, even in the midst of a challenging economy and job market.
Jill Randolph: You have very impressive 92.5 percent job placement rate for your students. What is the secret of your success? Does your university encourage to students to use career services, is there a huge push for internships, or is it a combination of both?
Marc Goldman: First, let me clarify the placement rate. The 92.5 percent is referring to those who have a destination post-graduation. It's not only employment; it includes graduate and professional schools. The employment rate was approximately 85.5 percent, meaning of graduates who sought employment, 85.5 percent obtained a job in the class of 2009 as of November. It is still a very strong number, and the fact that even more students pursued and were accepted into graduate school gives us a very strong overall rate of destination, which makes us very proud of our students.
I attribute this success to a variety of factors. We have a very intelligent student population and a strong talent pool is always a solid starting point. Our students are disciplined, organized, and self-managing which aids in their success in finding internships, securing full-time employment and being admitted to graduate schools.
On the employment side, students throughout the university community understand the importance of networking and have built strong networks that they utilize when looking for jobs. In particular, networking has been used to great effect in students connecting with alumni and members of the student's larger community in the metropolitan New York area.
The Career Development Center's mission is to prepare students for a successful job search and to tap into resources to find jobs even in a challenging economy. There is a lot of support for our office on campus. We report to the provost and are part of the academic affairs division. The provost values our office's role in the university's mission and success. The administration strongly encourages students to take advantage of our office. There are also collaborative efforts between offices to facilitate the student's academic and career success. This collaboration enables students to tap into resources earlier in their college career, which is a really important goal.
Jill Randolph: Your mission is very progressive. Basic life skills, such as job seeking, are so important and often overlooked.
Marc Goldman: I've used the quote, "a job search is not rocket science". However, if it hasn't been discussed and put into practice, it may seem to be rocket science. There is information to learn, strategies to implement, and job-search skills gained with experience, time, successes and failures. An element of job search success is innate motivation and drive, which are qualities certain people have and others can improve upon.
My goal as a career counselor is to teach students and provide them with the tools and support to conduct a smart and savvy job search throughout their life. Ideally, they won't need us later because they will have learned successful job searching and networking skills from us.
Jill Randolph: How has searching for a job changed from the past, and how has it stayed the same?
Marc Goldman: With the economy and job market more challenging than ever before, there have been many changes.. In times like these, all efforts need to be increased, from sending resumes and making contacts, to using the web to find desirable opportunities and organizations. The time dedicated to job seeking needs to be intensified on all fronts. The old adage of finding a job is a full-time job, is now, "finding a job is a full-time job and a part-time job as well."
The advent of social media, which is playing an important role in community and relationship building, has carried over to the world of work and also to job searching. The social media phenomenon has changed how people find contacts and opportunities. For example, LinkedIn is a vast resource with millions of users. From a professional standpoint, it's a way to connect with others people know and do business with, as well as a way to find new contacts to connect with as a colleague or a potential employer. In addition, the ability to form groups has fostered the development of small communities and even discussion groups of job seekers strategizing together. It also allows like-minded individuals to post jobs; it's essentially a hub of networking and business-to-business discussion. If job seekers are not using LinkedIn, they are missing out.
LinkedIn dominates many discussions about job seeking and networking. Facebook is also utilized, but it's not as professionally oriented or as focused; it's used for many other purposes in addition to networking and job hunting.
Personal branding is becoming more of a concern as well. Job seekers need to ensure that employers see appropriate information on the web about them, and if there is any questionable content, it needs to be removed.
Today employers can access a lot of information about candidates by searching with Google, such as how they are presenting themselves in the Web 2.0 community. If job seekers have not Googled themselves before their job search, they have done themselves a disservice.
Their online branding needs to be strong, and they need to control their message and convey positive value. This can be accomplished through blogging or publishing posts on message boards about specific publications or a story on the news that they found interesting. Candidates should focus their commenting efforts on professional sites and organizations, so that when they are Googled, the first sites to show up are those they have strategically commented on.
Networking is still the key way people find jobs. It's who they know and who they can connect with, which is not going to change. However, the methods of networking has changed. Also, the basic tools of a job search -- the resume, cover letter, and interviewing skills -- are still the core. But the media to distribute the application materials and conduct the interviews -- Skype for instance — are not the same as five years ago.
In the end, it's all about fit. Getting a job is about a fit between the candidate, his or her skill set, personality, and goals with an organization, as well as the organization's culture, expectations, team, and environment. The concept of finding a fit will not change over time; organizations will always seek the best match.
Jill Randolph: If a student has a common name, how should that person differentiate him or herself from others with their name?
Marc Goldman: On the topic of differentiating themselves, if I were job hunting, I would look at all of the Marc Goldmans and also the Goldmans on the web. If I started to post more on the web, I might use my middle initial and go by Marc J. Goldman, which I could also use on my resume to reinforce my identity. I would also use my middle initial on my business card so that people recognize Marc J. Goldman is not Marc A. Goldman. People can easily add an initial when they post comments.
At the top of Google's results are often Amazon book reviews and similar sites. If job seekers comment about publications, books, or products on these popular sites, they will build an identity and these posts will be seen first. It won't make any negative information disappear, but it will make it much lower in a search, so that potential employers may never even see it.
Jill Randolph: So basically, job seekers need to make comments on high profile, highly search-optimized websites?
Marc Goldman: That's a good way to put it. It would be even better to have a blog and to comment on other blogs, if they are professional and relevant. It's another way to make one's name appear with positive commentary.
Jill Randolph: What are the most common mistakes students make in their job search?
Marc Goldman: Even in this tough economy, students' habits haven't changed dramatically. People wait too long to start a job search. Many students wait until May, when they are graduating, to start looking. They are focused on their studies and their college experience and suddenly it is May and they need a job. They put off looking because they don't want to face the challenge, they are not aware they need to be already looking, or they have the luxury of not needing a job immediately.
The challenge is that the average job search -- even in a good economy -- can take three to six months, which is basically a semester. Hiring is also industry dependent. Many financial firms hire in the early fall for May graduates. Students need to know the cycle of their profession and not wait until February to apply for a finance position when those decisions were made months before. It's critical to understand the profession's hiring cycle and not wait to begin the job search.
Students also do not target or personalize their search. They send out generic, fill-in-the-blank cover letters where they have inserted an organization's name, and employers see through it instantly. And if students do not make an effort to highlight their qualifications for the specific job or organization, it will hurt their candidacy. Sending a cover letter to "Dear Hiring Manager", if they don't have a name, is not helpful either.
It adds significant value to have a resume and cover letter addressed to a specific person, and not making the effort to locate this information is a common mistake that many job seekers make. Applying for 10 jobs in 3 months will not elicit a high return; it's not nearly enough. I suggest that students apply, inquire about, or send prospecting letters to at least 10 contacts per week.
Another oversight is not doing enough homework. Students do not take the time to research companies or opportunities, even though the web is available 24 hours a day and the information is easy to obtain. They need to be proactive about researching organizations and locating basic information on the company's website for every job they are applying to, so they understand everything the jobs entail. They should also be able to speak to the information intelligently in an interview or incorporate what they have found and how they will benefit the company into their cover letter.
Quite often, the research is a missing piece of the job search process, which manifests into a generic cover letter, a generic candidate and a generic interview. These kinds of job seekers are not showing genuine enthusiasm, interest, and knowledge of the specific organization, which is a significant disadvantage to their candidacy.
Sites like Vault.com and Wetfeet.com are also places for career and industry research. A few sites even have insider information, including experienced and hands-on insight from people who have worked at the organizations and can illustrate the type of person who may fit in at that company.
Jill Randolph: Have you seen a trend towards non-traditional career paths during the recession, such as nonpaying internships, overseas jobs, or people starting their own businesses?
Marc Goldman: There has been a trending towards less traditional routes; however there are also people who are biding their time until the economy improves. The students who want to continue gaining experience and building their network will accept summer internships, even after graduation. This part-time experience builds their resume and enables them to meet professionals who may help them secure a full-time opportunity. Fewer of our students are turning to overseas jobs, but they are traveling overseas for the opportunity to explore different cultures and countries. They may be doing service or volunteer work during this time as well.
Gaining experience provides a unique opportunity and the ability to discuss the skills learned during an interview. If an employer asks a candidate what he or she did with his or her time while unemployed, the candidate can talk about trying a startup or an alternate career path and the skills he or she developed. Both show great dedication.
There are also people who are doing a number of these things in combination. One of the students I taught at NYU introduced me to the concept of a portfolio career. Basically, it is the idea of combining different career interests and types of jobs to make a career. Someone may be a part-time tour guide in New York City, a part-time editorial assistant for a publishing house, and also have a tutoring business. Together, the jobs make a full-time salary. People are doing this at all levels, not only right out of school.
Jill Randolph: It's an intelligent approach, especially if someone works in a volatile industry, because if one company goes out of business, the employee hasn't lost his or her entire income.
Marc Goldman: It's also about developing skills in multiple areas, which gives those people the possibility of pursuing a full-time job in one of three or four areas, as well as a greater chance of success.
Jill Randolph: It is also helpful in building a network quickly because of the contacts with each of the positions.
In today's economy, do you recommend that students follow their heart or is there a trend towards counseling students to be more practical when considering their education and future job prospects?
Marc Goldman: Neither my staff nor I have changed our philosophy about people following their passions and their enthusiasm in their career decision-making. Having passion, enthusiasm or a deep interest helps people maintain dedication to a field, whether it's to study it or for work. The effort level typically rises with dedication as well, leading to greater success.
Having drive and internal motivation is very important. However, when someone expresses an interest in a counseling appointment, that passion should be tempered with ways to channel it into a variety of career options. Other factors need to be considered such as financial security, life values, and the work environment. It's a combination of pursuing one's passion and doing the legwork to understand all the options.
When working with students or clients, it is important to know why they are enthusiastic about a specific opportunity or why they dislike another one. By applying this information to other areas, if one field is vanishing from the career landscape or not doing well, they can use the same skills they enjoy and pursue options B and C.
Jill Randolph: Should students hold out for a job relevant to their studies, or should they take a less relevant job if offered the opportunity, if it opens the door with a company?
Marc Goldman: The concept of plans B and C applies here as well. When looking for a job, students may need to expand their options. They should aim for their ideal position, but if they are not successful, then they need to expand to options B and C. Relevance to studies is a tough call because many people don't work in fields directly related to their studies. Liberal arts students have a broad range of options. For example, 20 psychology majors may all end up with vastly different jobs. The opposite is also true; people from 20 different majors may end up doing the same type of job. There is not always a direct connection between one's major and career path.
An engineering student obviously needs to be well prepared and have the background for engineering positions, and the same is true for accountants and nurses. These and other similar fields have a strong correlation to the academic preparation required for the position. However, an engineer could find other work, as could an accountant.
They should be open to finding a position in an organization they are excited about - where they can progress towards their ideal goal - whether it's relevant to their studies or not. A philosophy major, whose desire is to be an advertising executive, may end up in a market research position in an advertising firm where they can make contacts and position themselves for a job they are more excited about. This is a strategy both students and recent graduates should consider.
Also, job titles shouldn't be the basis of students' decision to apply for a job. They should look at the firm and consider if it is the type of employer they want to work for. They may not have the skills for the job or it may be a position they are not interested in, but if they like the company, they can apply, send the prospecting cover letter, and see if any doors open. Maybe their resume is intriguing and the company will be willing to take a chance or they may have a more appropriate position in their organization also available.
Jill Randolph: You mentioned focused cover letters. If a student is pursuing opportunities outside of their skill set, should she or he cast a wide net with a slightly less targeted cover letter?
Marc Goldman: When targeting a specific job, students should highlight the skills they have which match the job description, as well as specifically why they are interested in the organization. If they are interested in the organization, but not necessarily the job, they can still target the letter by expressing the reasoning behind their interest. They can mention the roles they would be intrigued to play. It's a slightly wider net, but mentioning roles they are considering and their interest in discussing and learning more about other opportunities makes it more targeted. They don't want to say they will take any position, even if they will.
