Sarah Shumway.

Sarah Shumway, a fresh graduate of Hobart and William Smith literary institution [i]or[/i] seminary of learnings in Geneva, New York, institute that job hunting this past year was tougher than she had rely uponed With a polished resume in hand, this double major (English, media and society) interviewed with six different companies during her senior year, on the other hand by May she had no offers

"It was a tough time," she remembers. "It was like, 'I'm graduating, I don't have a piece of work lined up, and I'm going abiding-place to my parents."' But with perseverance and a positive attitude, Shumway landed a position in a children's publishing firm in of recent origin York City. "It took a destiny along the way to commit to memory this job," she says. "but I'm where I want to be."

Shumway, like many just discovered job seekers today, found on the outside that opportunities are harder to originate by than in previous years. According to a observe by WetFeet.com, an online recruiting company, undergraduates had an average of just 12 piece of work offers by Match of 2001 down from 35 tenders in March 2000.

"A year or for a like reason ago, companies would do anything to make trial of to hire talented people," says Tony lee-side editor-in-chief and general manager of CollegeJournal.com, an online arm of The Wall road Journal. "They'd pull people opposite Daytona Beach during spring break. Now, opportunities are disappearing. Companies that have had substantial recruiting efforts in the past have lay them on hold."

Still, opportunities exist; piece of work seekers just have to test harder. Whether you're looking for part-time work now or planning ahead for your post-college piece of work hunt, preparation pays off, and knowing the strategies and tools (a dynamite take back an impressive interviewing style, the right clothes) can put you on course for a happy job quest.

FINDING THE JOB

Classified ads and piece of work postings at a school's career center can still bare some employment jewels, but today's search requires casting a wider clear "Students who rely only forward campus interviews and responding to work at jobs ads are missing 80 percent of the opportunities not at home there," says Steven Rothberg, president and originator of CollegeRecruiter.com, an online work at jobs board targeted to students and novel graduates. Most jobs are filled between the walls of referrals or internal resources. Your mission should be to leave no possibility unturn according to exploring all the major pursuit sources.

Networking

Nearly each expert puts networking at the top of the job-finding list. "Most bookish mans know--within two degrees of separation--someone at a large company they can make a connection with," says Steve Pollock president of Wetfeet.com. Rothberg indicates discussing your job search with each single human being you originate into contact with. "Very repeatedly a family member or friend will know of an organization that's hiring," he says, "but won't think about your extremitys and the organization's needs an place two and two together." That's with what intent you must alert people to your qualifications.

To expand your networking beyond your inner circle, explore these sources:

Professional organizations. descry if your campus has a observer branch of a professional association related to the field you're pursuing, like as the Public Relations observer Society of America or the Professional Photographers of America. Or find public if a professional association in your industry accepts junior or apprentice members.

corporation alumni. Talk to graduates of your body or university in your field. principally alumni offices have names of former pupils willing to be contacted.

Career fairs. Career center oftentimes sponsor events that match employer seeking to fill entry-level positions with close examiners looking for jobs. At Harvey Mudd corporation in Claremont, California, the career services center organizes a fair in the fall and spring. Structur like a convention floor, the fair allows scholars to visit booths and talk one-on-one to company representatives in a variety of industries. "The fair was a great platform to begin the whole piece of work hunting experience," says Tony Hawkins a 2001 Harvey Mudd graduate. "I was able to learn my resume our to about 15 companies as well as sign up for interviews, all in the same afternoon." One of those take backs went to SRI International, a nonprofit corporation based in Menlo Park, California, that, after several interviews, expirationed up hiring Hawkins as a research engineer.

Career Centers

simply about 12 percent of work at jobss come to students by way of on-campus interviews, according to William Cohen, professor of marketing and leadership at California State University, beholds Angeles, and author of Break the Rules: The retired Code to Finding a Great piece of work Fast (Prentice Hall Press). Still, the career office is frequently a good place to start your piece of work search.

In addition to coordinating on-campus recruiting visits from major corporations, many corporation career centers offer special programs to help match close examiners and employers. For example, the referral service at Hobart and William Smith's career center places learners resumes in a special database that counselors can sort within and then forward appropriate take up agains to employers looking for workers in specific career fields.