How To Not Lose Your Mind During Job Application Season
POV: it’s your last semester of college. Each week is starting to feel like it’s going by a bit faster than the one before. Senioritis is getting worse by the minute, and the dreaded “G” word is creeping closer — graduation. Don't get us wrong, senior year is a blast! But, graduation means entering the “real world,” which brings on a mix of fear and excitement. In most cases, this also means getting a job. We at The Edge are here with tips to calm those nerves during job application season.
The Job Search
Congrats! You’ve hit 500+ connections on LinkedIn (we all know that’s a college student flex right now). Now what? LinkedIn is one of the best tools to utilize during your job search. The site is very customizable, letting you pick locations, position types, industries and more to help find job opportunities that match what you want. Indeed and Glassdoor are two other great options to check out as well.
Organize, Organize, Organize.
It’s hard to keep track of all the jobs you come across. Feeling overwhelmed? We highly recommend creating a Google/Excel spreadsheet to keep all of your information in one place. Columns could include job title, cities, links, emails, notes and application status. This gives you a much better picture of your progress and helps you to keep tabs on everything.
The “Fun” Part
Let’s face it; no one likes writing cover letters, but when a job gives the option to submit a cover letter, do it. To have a stellar cover letter, you have to sell yourself to the company. Give them reasons that you are interested in the company and why you would make a perfect fit for the position. Once you knock out that first cover letter, keep a copy! Rewriting them from scratch is a waste of time. Instead, take that first cover letter and make tweaks to it for each application. Only having to make slight changes will save you a lot of time and energy.
The real star of the show is your resume. Having a polished, concise and attention-grabbing resume is incredibly important when applying for jobs. Your resume should include your education, professional experience, campus involvement and skills. Also, make sure to use action words at the beginning of each bullet point. For example, say you had a past internship working in marketing. Use words to describe that experience such as “created,” “promoted,” “executed,” “strategized” and so on. These calls-to-action are what future employers are looking for, so if you’re revisiting your resume, see if those are in there.
Take a Break
You’re not going to find every single job opportunity through one round of scrolling through LinkedIn. Job applications are posted all throughout the week, so pick a day or two each week to check back in. For example, you could carve out time on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a few hours and see what you can find. This process takes a lot of time, so don’t get frustrated if you don’t find a bunch of options in one day.
Don’t Forget...
You’re still in college! Read that again. For all of our seniors who are on the job hunt right now, don’t forget that this is your last semester. Soak up your college experience while you can because the “G” word is right around the corner. This is all about balance — the excitement for your future paired with the final stretch of your senior year. Block out time during this year's job app season, but don’t let it take over spending time with the people you love before moving on to your next chapter!