Convey Your Enthusiasm-That's as Best as it Gets

Job seekers had power over the job market for many years before we were all struck with the reality of a pandemic. The truth is, job seekers pushed companies to establish regulations, standards, and competition amongst each other to attract the most qualified candidates. Candidates dictated what they enjoyed and di not enjoy. All of this information came in from interview reviews, surveys by independent parties, social media talk, and news outlets. Companies were tuned in to find the best recruitment methods and teams.

The harsh truth job seekers are forced to face in a Post-COVID-19 world is the companies hold majority of the power now. Companies get to decide who stays and who go goes, taking advantage of the millions of unemployed and desperate candidates.

So what does the market look like right now?

Julia Pollak, labor economist at ZipRecruiter, says

“There will be highly experienced, highly trained people competing with new college graduates for the same jobs, crowding out less experienced workers and taking on lower pay itself. It’s going to be an incredibly competitive labor market.”

Pollak suggest experienced job seekers list their previous experience and accomplishments and future contributions both on their resumes and cover letters to help convey their intent for the job opening. According to ZipRecruiter, this the best method to get a call back from a potential employer.

But what about college students?

“Be sure to convey lots of enthusiasm”.

Great.

We can tell you that’s not enough. While enthusiasm for the job and the company is a great plus for college students to convey during their interviews and in their applications, that’s not enough to compete with an experienced worker going to the same job, if they’re willing to accept the same compensation package.

Here’s what recent college grads need to do to your resume if you want to gain attention from employers:

1. Hire professional resume writers to help you. Now more than ever, when companies are extremely selective most intolerant of mediocre resumes, recruiters, and resume writers have your back. Build a team around you to help you get hired. In fact, SkillCount has a personal network of recruiters and professionally accredited HR professionals to become your champions.

2. Change your resume style. As a recent college grad, you may not have the same level of 3–5 years of experience in your chosen field. We’re here to tell you THAT IS OKAY. As long as you have the correct resume format to convey your resume story. A combination type resume is perfect for job seekers that are changing careers, or building one. A combination resume incorporates the best of functional and chronological resumes. They highlight accomplishments and soft skills. Now THAT’S how you effectively convey enthusiasm in a resume.

3. Learn a practical money saving skill, your competitors don’t have. You’re in competition with job seekers that have 3–5 years of work experience already. Surely they’re familiar with the job and professional conduct. If they know how to use excel, you become a master at excel. Learn how to use excel in a way that helps save the company money. If you’re a UX designer, create a mock up for a web design with a unique angle. If you’re a data analyst, scrap up public Twitter data and do an analysis on excel.

4. VALUE VALIDATION PROJECTS. This is our favorite, and most used advice. The projects that you do, explained in number 3, are called VVPs. Send these projects over to the hiring managers. Do your research and grab the email address of the HR manager and send over your resume, cover letter and VVP. Give them a little summary in the email about how and why you created the project and how you can discuss more on a phone call with them if they’re interested. Then bring the project in the interview and talk about it. Good VVPs are sure to beat experience any day. How do I know? When I was interviewing, I landed 3 offers above my asking salary purely because of my VVPs. I’ll tell you that story in another post.

5. Answer the behavioral questions by pulling experiences from college group projects. Hiring managers don’t necessarily hear about how you stepped up as a leader when you worked the summer job at the arcade when you were 16. While that shows you’ve built character, it’s not a relevant experience as a professional in the job market.

While “conveying enthusiasm” is great, it’s not the most helpful advice. Don’t miss an opportunity because of bad advice. Reach out to SkillCount and build a team of network around you.

For more information and general career advice, click here.