Job Search For Young People:
A Five O’Clock Club Case Study
by Sharon Kassakian

One of the unwritten rules for career coaches is never try to counsel a spouse! Sometimes, however, sons and daughters are more receptive to advice—in my case, the fact that I am both a career advisor at a college and a Five O’Clock Club counselor might have carried some weight.

Having heard me talk about the Five O’Clock Club for years, my daughter Jennie decided to put the Club methodology to work. For example, we never tire of pointing out that networking is one of the four ways to generate interviews. Direct contact is often not given its due, since people usually misidentify direct contact as networking (direct contact means reaching out to someone when you don’t have a networking lead). Search firms and ads are the other two sources of interview leads.

Acquiring Experience to Improve the Résumé
 Jennie majored in biology with an environmental concentration, and minored in economics. She dreamed of landing a job as an Environmental Consultant. During her senior year, two environmental consulting firms came to campus to recruit. She was selected to be interviewed by one and was actually offered a job in Washington, DC. She turned this down because she did not want to move to that area. The other was based in Boston—where she really wanted to work—but, reviewing her résumé, the recruiter decided not to interview her because her skills “did not match their needs.” 

Somewhat demoralized, she decided to follow a crucial piece of Five O’Clock Club advice: if you don’t have the experience you need, get it. To make herself more marketable she accepted a five-month paid internship at the University of Maine to conduct underwater lobster research. One of Jennie’s passions is scuba diving and the internship offered her the opportunity to hone her research skills and do something she loved—even though the water temperature was only 54 degrees!

If you don’t have the
experience you need, get it!

A Second Target: Part of the Strategy
At the end of the internship she renewed her job search. Her primary target had not changed: she still wanted to work at an environmental consulting firm in Boston. Because there weren’t many such firms in Boston, she expanded her search by developing a second target (based on experience gained through another internship): financial services companies. With excellent writing, research and analytical skills there were many things she could do. First, she contacted an employment agency that concentrated in the financial service field. She was sent on a number of interviews for administrative assistant positions for which she was clearly overqualified and which did not interest her.

The jobs that were of interest, i.e., entry level financial analyst positions, were usually filled by the campus recruiters. Because she had already graduated, she did not have access to these people.  Although she knew there were jobs at these firms, getting to the right people with the right message proved to be very difficult. She risked everything one day by being candid with an HR officer. She answered the question ‘What would she like to do?’ by telling the recruiter exactly what she wanted to do. Apparently from her résumé and presentation the recruiter saw her as a desirable candidate and passed her résumé on. As a result she was interviewed for a position as a writer- researcher, which was of great interest. 

A Friend Encourages Her to Reapply
Jennie intensified her efforts, and during a six-week period lined up interviews for several positions, in some cases being asked back for second and third interviews—primarily in her secondary target, financial services. Environmental consulting was still eluding her. One evening in Boston she ran into a friend who happened to be employed at the environmental consulting firm that was at the top of her list, where she had applied, without success, many months previously. Her friend encouraged her to reapply. Much to Jennie’s surprise the firm still had the original résumé, but she submitted a revised version to highlight her additional skills. She was quickly called in for an interview, which resulted in second and third interviews. Following the last meeting, she wrote strong letters to the four people whom she had met. She included information that reinforced issues discussed in the interview.

Follow-up, follow-up.

Less Money, but a Brighter Future
Jennie followed up this way on all her interviews during the six-week period. She received three simultaneous job offers, but the choice was really between two: one as a researcher in environmental consulting and the other a research writer in financial services. The latter paid $10,000 more than the former, but Jennie decided to go with her dream job in environmental consulting. 

This job search, resulting in a job she really wanted and that positions her well for the future, was a lot of hard work. She was amazed at what she accomplished in less than two months by rigorously applying the Five O’Clock Club methodology.  And now come the next steps: settling into the new job, keeping her skills fresh—and managing her career for the long run.