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For recent college grads, it's incredibly difficult in today's labor market to land a job interview for an entry-level job, and it's even more challenging to move on in the process and get a job offer. But let's say you did finally get an interview—and the job offer—after a long and tedious job search. And you accept, excited to start your first real job out of college. Although you're relieved that you found employment, there's one question that keeps popping up in your head: Now what?
You've been so focused on finding a job that you haven't thought about what you'll do once get one. Naturally, you know you'll do your job to the best of your ability. You'll work hard and complete your tasks and assignments in a timely manner. You want to make a good first impression, after all. But this is an entry-level job; you won't work, and certainly don't want to work, this job forever. So how can you ensure you'll be successful in your new job so you get promoted? How can you stand out and impress your manager? How do you prove your value as a young employee?
Here are some tips all recent college grads should follow if they want to stand out in an entry-level job:
Prioritize Skill Development
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When you're fresh out of college, you have limited work experience. You probably have a handful of skills you've developed from part-time jobs, internships, and volunteer work. Whatever the case, you were valuable enough to hire. The company thought you had the potential to make or save them money. It's your job to prove them right. But it's not just enough to do your job and do it well. In order to stand out and grow your career and get that promotion, you need to continue to prove your value. You need to focus on developing your skills.
One of the best things you can do as a recent college grad in an entry-level job is prioritize skill development. Take online courses, volunteer to help on projects, and look for ways to challenge yourself. Be proactive and take initiative. Try to get as much experience as you can on the job. Developing your skills and proving how valuable you are to your employer will help you stand out and get promoted over your peers, even if you're the newest member on the team.
Under Promise & Over Deliver
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As a recent college grad looking to stand out in an entry-level job, sometimes it takes a little finessing to get the results you want. Our second tip is to find ways to under promise and over deliver on every assignment that's given to you. It's actually the best advice J.T. O'Donnell, Work It Daily's founder and CEO, was given when she was a recent college grad. "When I regularly exceeded expectations it helped me to stand out and get promoted faster," she says.
Whatever you do, don't be too eager in your new job when it comes to promising a certain level of productivity. You don't want to over promise and under deliver. You want to manage your boss's expectations, and then exceed them whenever you can.
Keep Track Of Your Accomplishments
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When it comes time for your performance review, or when you decide to ask your boss for a raise or promotion, you'll want to have hard evidence of your value as an employee. This is why you should keep track of your accomplishments.
Keeping track of your accomplishments will help you stand out because you'll be able to prove to your manager just how valuable you really are as an employee. And the best way to document your value as a business-of-one is to quantify your work experience and accomplishments, specifically on your resume and LinkedIn profile. Update your resume and LinkedIn profile every month with quantified bullet points so you don't forget any important information. This way, when it comes time for your performance review, you'll be able to show your boss how you made or saved the company money and, therefore, justify a raise or promotion.
As a recent college grad looking for a job, what you lack in experience, you can make up for with enthusiasm. But once you land your first job out of school, that won't be enough to stand out at work. If you want to stand out in an entry-level job as a recent college grad, follow these three tips.
Good luck! We're here for you if you need any more help navigating the post-grad work life.
In fact, we'd love it if you signed up for Work It Daily's Power Hour Event Subscription! Get your career questions answered in our next live event!
Is your job search turning into a grind with no end in sight? It may be time to take a step back and reevaluate your entire approach.
In cold weather climates, the beginning of spring is a time to clean the house and get organized—a practice known as spring cleaning. Through the years, spring cleaning has taken on a larger meaning with people using the time to organize and declutter things in their lives.
For professionals on the job hunt, a little spring cleaning (metaphorically speaking) could be a great way to reinvigorate your job search. Here are a few strategies your job search spring cleaning should include.
Reevaluate Your Job Search Approach
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Make a list of the last handful of jobs you applied for and see if you can identify any positive or negative trends. Consider things like:
How did I learn about this job?
How did I apply for the job?
Did I earn an interview?
What was the ultimate result?
A lot can be learned about your job search approach just by answering these questions and identifying patterns. For example:
Negative Trends
You discovered five jobs through job boards, applied to all of them via the job boards, and never heard back from any of them.
The common pattern here is applying through job boards. This isn't to say that job boards don't serve a purpose in the job search process, but they have their limitations, and you can't run your job search entirely off of them. When you apply through a job board, there's a good chance that your materials will never get past the applicant tracking system (ATS) and never be seen by an actual person.
One simple fix is to research who the hiring manager or recruiter is that posted the position and email your materials to them directly.
The more efficient fix would be to take a proactive approach by putting together a bucket list of companies that you want to work for and start making connections on LinkedIn with people who work at those companies. You may already know some people who work there or have connections that can refer you to some individuals.
This is a great way to network your way onto a company's radar.
Positive Trends
You applied to three jobs via referral, were invited to two job interviews, and made it through multiple rounds of interviews for one of the jobs before being passed over for someone with a little more experience.
The pattern here is that getting referred to a job by a professional acquaintance is a great way to land a job interview. This indicates that you're leveraging your network well and you should continue to focus on your networking efforts.
The next step is to review the interview process and determine what went well and what needs to be improved. Sometimes the interviewer will provide feedback, and that feedback can be valuable. However, not everyone is comfortable with giving feedback.
Chances are you probably have a good idea about areas of improvement and the skills you need to gain. Put together a plan for addressing those shortfalls.
The good news in making it deep into any interview process is that it indicates that the company likes you as a potential employee (even if the timing just wasn't right) and the experience could be a roadmap to a job with that company at a later date, or another similar opportunity elsewhere.
Give Your Resume & Cover Letter Some Much-Needed Attention
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Are you continuously sending similar resumes and cover letters to each job opening with only minor adjustments? If so, your strategy needs some serious spring cleaning.
The reason why it's so important to tailor your resume is that throughout your career, you acquire numerous skills, but the job you're applying for may only be focusing on 6-8 of those skills. In that case, those skills must rise to the top of the resume with quantifiable examples of how you successfully used those skills at previous jobs.
Remember, recruiters go through hundreds of resumes. They need to be able to tell from a quick glance whether or not you're a potential candidate for the position.
While updating your resume, you could also spruce up your LinkedIn profile by highlighting the skill sets that you want to be noticed for by recruiters.
As for writing a good cover letter, the key to success is writing a disruptive cover letter. When you write a disruptive cover letter, you're basically telling a story. The story should focus on how you connect with the particular company and job position. The story could also focus on your personal journey, and how you got to where you currently are in your career.
If your resumes and cover letters aren't unique, now is the time to clean things up and get on track.
Build Your Personal Brand
Just because you're looking for work doesn't mean that you don't have anything to offer. Use previous career experiences and passions to build your personal brand.
Ask yourself, "How do I want other professionals to view me?"
Pick an area of expertise and start sharing your knowledge and experience with your professional network by pushing out content on your LinkedIn and social media accounts. Good content can include blogs, social media posts, and videos.
By sharing content about your experiences and passions, you slowly build your personal brand, and others will start to notice. The content could lead to good discussions with others in your network. It could also lead to reconnecting with connections that you haven't spoken to in years, or making new connections.
You never know when one of these connections could turn into a job lead or referral. The trick is to get on people's radars. So, when you're cleaning up your job search, be sure to build a plan for personal branding.
Maintain Healthy Habits During Your Job Search
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Your job search is important, but it's even more important to know when to pull back and focus on personal health and spending time with family and friends.
There are actually things that you can do for your own enjoyment that could help your job search in the long run, such as:
Grab coffee with a friend - It's good to engage in light conversation with friends during challenging times. And if your job search does come up, remember that most people have been through it themselves and you never know when a friend may provide you with a good idea or lead on a job.
Volunteer - Volunteering is a great way to get involved in the community and help others. In addition, if you develop a little bit of a career gap while looking for a job, you can always talk about how you filled that time volunteering, if you're asked about it during a job interview.
Continue to focus on other passions - Are you a fitness nut? Blogger? Crafter? Continue to do the things that bring you happiness. And if you're in a position to profit from your passion through a freelance job or side hustle, even better!
Spring is the perfect time to clean up and improve your job search so you can land the job you want. If you're struggling to find a job, follow the tips above to reinvigorate your job search—and watch your career blossom!
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.