Guest Column Out of college and on the job hunt Advice for today’s Benjamin Braddock BY JUD SAVISKAS

Guest Column
Out of college and on the job hunt
Advice for today’s Benjamin Braddock
BY JUD SAVISKAS

Forty years ago, a bewildered Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman, “The Graduate”) was given a one-word bit of career advice: “Plastics.” Give this same advice to your 2007-graduate son and daughter and you may have to brace yourself for next month’s credit card bill with lots of charges for must-have new interview clothes.

Readers who remember the release of the movie may need some advice of their own on when to offer and when to refrain from giving unsolicited career advice to their children. Don’t be surprised if, in the coming months, you find your anxiety level rises along with your child’s as she/he searches for the “perfect” first job. As with many other “life-changing” events and this is a big one there are different stages that parent and child will go through, separately and together, which are fairly common and consistent for most families with a new college graduate. We call it the post-graduation PLAN:

• Stage One: Play. The graduate has worked hard and wants to take a break, travel and play with friends for a few weeks. That’s OK.

• Stage Two: Lackadaisical. The graduate says he/she is looking for a job, but primarily online. Or are they just IMing their buddies? Is this their way of networking? A sense of urgency is lacking. That’s to be expected.

• Stage Three: Action. It’s a month or two past post-graduation play or travel and there are no real job prospects. Resentment is building up on both sides of the generation gap, especially if under the same roof (again). It’s time to take action with a more pro-active, multidimensional, job-hunting strategy.

• Stage Four: Nervousness. This may come in two stages. The graduate’s friends have all gotten jobs but he/she has not. Or, the graduate has gotten a real job, and not only hates the job, but hates the chosen profession. Now what?

Get some satisfaction

The Class of 2007 is no more guaranteed job satisfaction than were their parents. But there are actions new graduates can take to dodge a lifelong career bad fit. Generally speaking, young people have the flexibility to initiate some of the following job changes if their first job is not what they hoped it would be:

• Ask for additional responsibilities to make the job more interesting.

• Ask outright for or cultivate another job supervisor.

• When a challenging new assignment needs to get done, volunteer for the task.

• Ask for a raise only after proving you have earned it.

• If the first job ends abruptly, temp or look for a part-time job that might be more rewarding. This affords the opportunity to try different work environments and get your foot in the door of many different organizations. This can also lead to more satisfying, full-time employment.

• Volunteer for your alumni association. Attend its functions to make new contacts and to network.

• Reduce your first-job stress by exercising more. Join the company softball team to meet colleagues from other departments and players on other teams. This could lead to a new job.

• Leave the office at 5 p.m. and don’t return over the weekend (unless you took on more responsibilities). You’re the new hire, not the CEO!

Objective assessment

However, if half or more of these options are not doable, then the new graduate may need to rethink the chosen profession. Job dissatisfaction may not actually be with the job but with the career, in general. According to one national survey conducted by an online job posting service, nearly one out of four workers says he/she is dissatisfied with his/her job. Six in 10 workers say they plan to leave their jobs for other pursuits in the next two years. If a new college graduate doesn’t already have a keen interest or a passion for something, an objective assessment by a career coach of his or her skills, values, personal interests and other things can provide the guidance needed to identify a new, more satisfying career. The good news is that having this “career crisis” at the start of a career beats a “midlife career crisis” hands down.

Jud Saviskas is the founder and CEO of Student Futures Inc. (www.studentfutures.com), a Stamford-based career coaching company for college students/recent grads, and the developer of the Career Planning Partner, a customized career counseling Web site for colleges nationwide that will launch in August.

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