Some College Grads
Find Their Dream Jobs:
This Story is for the Other 99%

BY JULIE SMITH JANESKY

If your ship isn't coming in, swim out to it.
Jonathan Winters

Congratulations. You have just earned your degree. You're on your way to living the American dream--landing the job you've always wanted and becoming the next success story. All you have to do is put the key in the door and open sesame . . . you're on your way to getting what you want--whether it's becoming a computer programmer, health care worker, business administrator, or advocate for a worthy not-for-profit association.

But now for Reality 101. What did you say? You never took that course. Well, it's not part of the college curriculum but maybe it should be. It's alternate title is "Welcome to the Real World."

The real world today is a world of multiple careers, downsizing beyond belief and little job security--a recent survey reveals that average Americans stay in their jobs just about four years.

That's where The Five O'Clock Club comes in. In today's roller coaster marketplace you've got to learn how to overcome obstacles and get the practical tips to get a first job that suits your dreams and your distinctive personality.

Did you know that a college graduate today can expect to have five careers--12 to 15 jobs--over the course of a lifetime? So chances are you'll be doing lots of different things and your first job may be very different from your next. One thing you can be sure of is that the world is rapidly changing and the job market is more competitive than ever. Lifetime careers are no longer the norm and, believe it or not, that is good news. Why? Because just as the job market changes so do your goals and dreams.

But how to you know what your goals are? How do you know where your strengths lie or even how to get your first job out of school when the old Catch-22--"we want someone with experience"--always seems to apply.

The Five O'Clock Club offers invaluable advice, coaching and a methodology that has proven successful to thousands of members who are looking for first jobs or career change. It's unlike any club you have ever joined. It's run by professionals who know the inside "secrets" for not only targeting the job you want but helping you plan your long term goals as well.

The Club helps you network, shows you what to do and what not to do on job interviews and prepares you to outshine the competition with energy and enthusiasm. And that's not all. It provides you with a "Job Survival Kit" and the knowledge that you are responsible for your own success and master of your destiny.

Olivia, a recent college graduate who joined the Five O'Clock Club, said "I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do. But after doing the Forty-Year Vision and the Seven Stories (methodologies taught by the Five O'Clock Club), I discovered inner strengths and abilities I never knew I had." Olivia realized through The Five O'Clock strategy sessions that she loved writing and it was something that "made her heart sing."

She ended up getting a job as a fact checker at a woman's magazine and is now Assistant Editor after just one year. Next month she will be writing her own fitness column.

Like Olivia, thousands of Five O'Clock members have gotten the help they needed from The Five O'Clock Club, which anticipates opening branches all over the country. What's involved? Once you join, you'll work closely with a career counselor to help you do self- assessment, develop job targets, conduct research and forge a systematic job- search campaign.

The Club teaches that this is actually "Mission Possible." Your mission is to target the job you want and go for it. Should you choose to accept this mission it will mean being honest with yourself--about your strengths and weaknesses. It means commitment and hard work.

Recent graduates are facing the best
job market in five years.
Strategy for Success: Self-Assessment and Planning
1. Self-assessment. For many grads, it may seem enticing to go after a career that pays well, being guided by the line in the movie Jerry McQuire, "Show me the money." Many college grads want prospective employers to show them the money. But if you end up with a great paycheck and a job you dread going to every day, you should rethink your objectives and concentrate on what would make you happy when Monday morning rolls around.

Joseph Campbell said, "Follow your bliss." You need to be pragmatic, but your personality, interests, skills and passion are like a compass. They will point you in the right direction if you take the time to do the work and be honest about what sparks your interest, and--as Olivia said--discover "what makes your heart sing." To find your driving force, do the self-assessment exercises in Targeting the Job You Want ($15, Five O'Clock Club Books). The Forty-Year Vision and Seven Stories exercises help you identify your gifts, values and long-term goals.

Maintain your visibility
and remain focused on your target.
This worked for Frank who joined the The Five O'Clock Club after being disappointed with his first job out of school. After graduating, Frank became an assistant account executive at a large advertising firm. He hated it. "Most of the job was just writing reports and numbers crunching," he said. But he did get to meet media reps who sold advertising space. They got out and met with lots of people during the course of a day instead of just staying in an office for ten hours. "After doing my Seven Stories, I discovered that as a kid I loved selling. I was always in the top ten when we sold cookies and raffles to raise money for the school." After completing the assessment, Frank researched jobs, developed targets, and spoke to as many people as he could. It wasn't long before Frank made the transition. He eventually ended up in an ad space sales training program with a sports magazine, which combined his talent for sales with his love for baseball and hockey.

2. Plan your campaign. To effectively plan your job search, you must first develop your job targets as Olivia and Frank did. You will need to target industries (and companies within each industry), positions and geographical locations. You will do a tremendous amount of research and begin to expand your network in your targeted industries. In addition to networking and talking to people directly, you should contact search firms and answer ads. But always bear in mind that only about 20% of jobs are listed with agencies or advertised in the newspapers.

During your campaign, you may get consulting assignments. Consulting or "temp" jobs can be a great way to explore businesses to see first hand how a company operates. As more and more companies downsize, the market for consultants grows.

Madeline, a Five O'Clock Club member, found an opportunity through a consulting assignment. "I was doing temp work at a literary agency. My boss was overwhelmed with unsolicited manuscripts. I offered to read a stack since I love reading and had plenty of time during my commute. I was hired to help full time and, after networking inside the company, I became a junior agent myself. It's funny, now I have to find someone to go through my slush pile."

Of the students surveyed,
82% have an e-mail address.

3. Develop Your Resume. The Five O'Clock Club can help you write your resume. Members are amazed at the results. You must create a resume that represents you in the best possible way. According to the Five O'Clock Club, a resume is a "marketing piece that should dynamically present you just the way you want a prospective employer to see you."

Sarah had studied law and was competing in a field where supply was greater than demand. Her resume was created in the format recommended by her law school. Guess what? It looked like hundreds of other recent legal graduates. At The Five O'Clock Club, Sarah learned how to distinguish herself from the competition. She also learned how to zero in on "her specialty" which was highlighted upfront in the resume's Summary of Qualifications.

4. Interview. The Five O'Clock Club teaches you how to interview. As stated in our book, Job Search Secrets, "It's showtime." You'll learn how to develop your lines (Two-Minute Pitch), and how to look and act the part (the consultant mentality). You'll learn the right questions to ask, what to do if your interviews are not turning into job offers, how to negotiate salary and even how to "upgrade the job."

Technology skills are important--
but so are interpersonal skills.
5. Follow-up. Recontact the people you have spoken with. You must maintain your visibility, and show your interest. One important Five O'Clock tip is to write follow-up letters--these are not typical thank you notes. They are "letters of influence." You need to address the employers issues and how you can "meet the challenge." The object is a job offer.

Strategy for Success: Understand the Trends and Issues
As you learn about trends and issues affecting the job market, consider how your particular targets may be affected. However, just because an industry may be retrenching doesn't mean you should not pursue it. The converse is also true: You do not necessarily need to go after "hot job prospects." Instead, think of how these trends influence decision makers in your target areas. Instead of dashing into a field because "it's hot, hot, hot" . . . think about whether you would like working in that particular field and how it fits in with your professional and personal goals.

Psychology students may command higher pay because
their knowledge applies to fields such as sales and marketing
Greater access to employers
According to corporate recruiters and employment experts, college students and recent graduates are facing the best job market in five years. A study from the National Association of Colleges and Employers states that 8% of colleges surveyed reported an increase in on-campus recruitment. In the same study, employers said that they will hire 16.9% more new college graduates than in 1996. Large companies, including such giants as IBM and Exxon, are returning to on-campus recruiting. Randy, a recent college grad got his job from a Fortune 500 company that way.

"They wanted me and that felt good," said Randy. Smaller and midsize firms are also entering the college recruitment arena. Students are once again visible to corporate recruiters, giving them an edge over graduates in previous years.

Most college grads today can expect
to have five careers in their lifetime.
Higher demand for certain fields of study
Graduates most in demand include those from the following disciplines: information technology (including multimedia programmers), computer science, sales and marketing, environmental law and mediation specialists. But the student with an accounting or finance background and solid computer skills is also highly valued. Any student with computer skills and some related work experience is also in demand, reflecting the value of internships and volunteering for students who want exposure to their preferred fields.

According to the Occupational Outlook Quarterly (Summer 1996), fields that continue to show growth include:

• management analysis
  
• employment interviewers
  
• food service
  
• lodging managers
  
• engineering
  
• mathematical and natural science managers

Of the employers included in the NACE December 1995 survey, 64.7% will hire more graduates into service jobs and 59.6% will hire more graduates into manufacturing. In addition, nonretail sales positions are increasing, including marketing and sales supervisors, securities and financial services sales, advertising sales and some business service sales.

If you have a Forty-Year Vision,
you have a continual focus on your long-term goals.

Earnings depend upon field of study
According to a December 1996 study conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the earnings of 29% of all male engineering students rank among the top fifth of all male wage earners, while only 9% of them are among the bottom fifth of all male wage earners. By contrast, male social work graduates find themselves at the opposite end of the statistical spectrum: only 4% are in the top fifth of all male wage earners, and 43% are in the bottom fifth.

While it is not surprising that some areas of study will yield higher pay than others, some liberal arts degrees--such as political science and government or psychology--also hold the promise of greater pay than, for example, social work, philosophy or religion. One reason psychology students may command higher pay is that the knowledge base they've acquired is applicable in fields such as sales and marketing.

The NACE employer survey also indicates that there has been a decline in wages and hiring in such fields as nursing, mathematics, sociology and health sciences.

Women should also note that pay disparities between men and women with the same educational background still exist to some degree, depending on the field of study. For example, pharmacy graduates age 25-34 attain median annual earnings of $49,000 for men and $47,510 for women, still well above the median earnings for both genders in that age group ($35,700 for men and $29,660 for women). Gender differences in median annual earnings in engineering, however, are markedly smaller: $43,520 for men as opposed to $43,280 for women.

Still more job seekers than jobs
While the overall job outlook is better than it has been in the recent past for college job seekers, there are still more applicants than jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 1994 and 2005, over 75% of all college graduates entering the labor force can expect to find college-level jobs. But since about 25% will not be college-level jobs, there will be stiffer competition among graduates for the jobs available, making it even more critical for today's graduates to distinguish themselves from their competitors.

Technology
In addition to sharp job-seeking skills, today's graduates must display a greater level of technological skills than ever before. The Corporate Technology Directory, a list of growth companies, identifies 23% of those firms as software services providers. The Internet is quickly becoming a hot job-search tool--and not just for those who post their resumes. Students now have access to new kinds of networking opportunities, such as newsgroup contacts that develop into electronic relationships, chat rooms and e-mail.

Methods of obtaining information on companies and individuals have also expanded dramatically. Students can obtain a lot of information by visiting a company's home page. More than half the students surveyed by Bernard Hodes Advertising indicated that they have used the World Wide Web to obtain job-search information. Of the students surveyed, 97% indicated that they have access to a computer, and 85% have an e-mail address. In addition, services such as HeadHunter.net match job seekers with job listings posted on the net. The Internet is one way job seekers look for work. Despite all the jobs that have been downsized in corporate America, technology jobs are growing. According to Business Week, American Airlines downsized 5,000 employees between 1992 and 1994, but the airline added more than 2,200 to their information services area.

Interpersonal Skills
As important as technology skills are, interpersonal skills are also critical. Job seekers must use communication skills to network, write effectively and think and talk on their feet. Sharp writing skills will enable workers to generate documents that get results. Presentation skills and marketing ability are also key. Applicants must be able to sell the skills they possess. Also, individuals who are bilingual will also have a decided advantage.

Competition
In addition to the fact cited earlier, that 25% of all college graduates will have trouble finding college-level jobs, a slow increase in overall employment is projected as well. From 1994 to 2005, employment will increase by only 14%, as opposed to the 24% growth we experienced during the period 1983 to 1994. Increased competition is one issue facing job seekers, as is their lack of experience. Students who can show any kind of experience, especially from internships or volunteering will have an edge over competitors in the marketplace.

Recent graduates and students should also remember that they can take advantage of both the social and technological changes that perplex many older job seekers, and they have an obvious edge over their lesser-educated counterparts.

Strategy for Success:
Commitment to lifelong learning
and lifelong career management
Students and recent graduates are better equipped than they may realize to handle the challenges of today's job market. They have an edge that is unique to recent generations: They are well practiced at learning, and a commitment to learning will be required of anyone who plans to continue working into the 21st century. Like the older, displaced worker, they must position themselves to overcome stiff competition and lack of experience to enter any field that they wish to pursue.

The keys to positioning yourself effectively include visibility, credibility, tenacity and uniqueness. Get to know people in your field of interest. Join trade associations. Network with others in the industry. Gain exposure and always be on the lookout for what can be done for others. Work alongside others and build up an expertise. Think of creative ways to reach people in jobs you'd like to know more about. Consider internships and volunteer work. Get involved in organizations, not just by joining, but by contributing to their efforts. Write an article for a newsletter. Assist in planning an event. Volunteer to take minutes at the next chapter meeting. Identify and promote that blend of gifts and skills that make you unique.

A commitment to lifelong learning
Rapid technological change demands an adaptive style. Individuals must be able to read situations and interpret requirements, much as the student is accustomed to doing in the classroom. Recent graduates may be more adept at this "thinking on your feet" approach; in this way, they hold an advantage over job seekers who have to learn new behaviors, new values and new expectations.

Recent graduates have already assimilated a different set of values in regard to prospective employers--or at least they should have. They should not expect permanent, long-term positions that last for 25 years. They know that they must be responsible for themselves; they must cultivate the skills needed to achieve their goals; they must pursue their own development. This does not require an "every man for himself" mentality, however. Identifying one's purpose and maintaining loyalty to it can replace loyalty to a company. But workers committed to improving their own skills and broadening their experience, can also satisfy the performance values important to a company.

The fact is that you are always "looking for a job." If you have completed your Forty-Year Vision, you have a focus on your long-term goals. The notion of a "portfolio career," in which various skills are called upon to perform different functions, includes the ability to reinvent yourself as times and needs dictate, in keeping with your long-term goals. The key will be to work smarter, not harder, to achieve your objectives.

And once you get in, remember another Five O'Clock maxim: "give something back" to someone else who may call you up in a year or two and ask you to tell them something about your job and how you got your foot in the door.

In closing, by now you realize there is no fairy godmother, no magic, and no amount of wishing and hoping that is going to open doors. The magic comes from inside--from working hard, being committed to your job search and following the methods that have been proven by thousands of members of The Five O'Clock Club.

Five O'Clock members make their own luck and in the end find an inner strength that will last forever. As Oprah Winfrey said, "Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity."

Estimated Starting Incomes for College Grads

Major Field of Study and Estimated Starting Income
Accounting - $27,787
Advertising - $21,627
Agriculture - $24,134
Chemical Engineering - $40,341
Chemistry - $28,386
Civil Engineering - $29,547
Communications - $21,640
Computer Science - $32,446
Education - $22,685
Electrical Engineering - $34,979
Financial Administration - $26,630
General Business Administration - $23,760
Geology - $28,414
Hotel, Restaurant, Inst. Management - $23,713
Human Ecology/Home Economics - $21,053
Industrial Engineering - $33,348
Journalism - $20,587
Liberal Arts/Arts and Letters - $20,860
Marketing, Sales - $24,607
Mathematics - $26,415
Mechanical Engineering - $35,369
Natural Resources - $22,554
Nursing - $29,868
Personnel Administration - $22,923
Physics - $27,087
Retailing - $22,002
Social Science - $22,333
Telecommunications - $20,680

Reproduced with permission of
the College Entrance Examination Board