This news clip aired just seven months ago in the DC area and, although it’s noted that the economy is “getting better”, it makes me wonder if we have really seen much of a change since January. I know some local economies are in a better place than others (check out the June 2010 local unemployment stats) but I can’t help feeling as if this recent graduate’s story is different than those who have graduated since. As 54% of Americans under the age of 25 remain jobless it’s hard not to look back on our education and ask, was the tuition (or debt) really worth the risk?

It’s stories like these that do make me question the theory of college, but there is no doubt in my mind that the value of higher education is still necessary. It just may take a little longer to reap the benefits.

With that being said, spending a few days on the shore in New Jersey (no, not like the show) at my grandmas house helped me take a little off time from the search. This gave me a time to say positive, which is so important in this process. When you’re down, you’re down, but I’ve made some great connections in the past few weeks and I’m confident these professionals will lend a helping hand in the near future.

Other than that, I’m still working on my internship and I have two prospective positions in the works for next week. Hope they go well! Stay tuned for updates and I hope you all have a great weekend.

@JoblessGrad2010

Photo: http://www.conservapedia.com/New_Jersey

“I moved home but knew my parents weren’t going to dish out money after graduation so I worked at J. Crew,” said Louise. “My goal was to be somewhere by September 1^st but I began working 40 hours a week and I found myself not looking for jobs at all. I felt myself being lazy and miserable living back at home.”

Louise quickly realized she needed more time to search for jobs and, in an effort to begin networking in Boston, she transferred to the J. Crew in the city. Within one day, Louise received a call that eventually changed her summer plans for good.

A few weeks prior, Louise applied to one of the top advertising internships in the country at Mullen. Roughly 1,000 applications are submitted by young hopefuls at the turn of each academic season for only 25 spots at the agency.

“I’m so lucky I got this internship,” said Louise.  “It’s stressful but it’s the kind of stressful where its so fascinating that you’re learning. I actually want to go to work every morning.”

Louise was selected to be an intern in the PR department among other departments such as brand planning, account services, analytics, media, creative, etc. She works each day from 9:00 to 5:30 and admits it’s unlike any other internship program she’s ever participated in.

“From the first day you are put onto real accounts,” she said. “You are in contact with the client and they have you doing everything a normal entry-level person would do after being hired. Some things are confidential. They really trust the interns and they want you to see the real life workings of an advertising agency.”

Some of Louise’s daily tasks include creating media lists, writing press releases, making sure pitches are received and evaluating whether publications are going to print the story.

“The big thing with PR right now is completely relied on social media,” she said. “You have to know what people are talking about out there. I help monitor and update the Twitter and Facebook accounts throughout the day for clients.”

The great thing about Mullen’s internship program is that is has a weekly class called Lunch and Learn where the interns from various departments gather together to listen to teachings from the agency’s employees.

“There are very few places that are young, dynamic and integrated like Mullen,” said Louise. “It is truly a fun environment to work in.”

Louise will complete the internship in August and she aspires to continue working in the PR side of an advertising agency.

If you’re anything like Louise, adding another internship to your resume is not only a logical option, but it gives you the opportunity to network in your area. Both Louise and I went to school outside of our current network so Louise is definitely on the right track to using these connections in the future.

This may seem somewhat unrelated to the job search but I thought it may provoke some food for thought. Where would we be today without Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Craigslist for our job search? Most of us seem to rely on these social networks and forget that searching for jobs the old fashioned way still exists. I’ve discussed this before, but what happened to a simple phone call or meeting with a professional? I’m sorry but sometimes email just doesn’t cut it.

This weekend I challenge you to think of alternative methods of searching for a job. Using social media as a tool is cetainly beneficial but allowing it to take over an entire search may make you feel like you’re running in circles.

On another note, You Don’t Get to 500 Million Friends Without Making a few Enemies will hit theaters this October.

I recently found the above video and thought it make spark a little interest for you readers. It’s pretty motivational actually. Did you know the average time it takes to get a job is 3-4 months is a good economy? I’m at two months in a poor economy so, realizing that finding a job doesn’t happen overnight, has to be motivating enough to keep us truckin’.

The first things that’s recommended to us job seekers in this video is to take a moment to calm down. We spend so much time stressing about what we don’t have that realizing what we do have may help us push forward. The next thing to think about it how fear plays a role in our decisions and, unfortunately, fear can lead to poor outcomes.

The most valuable piece of information here is getting into “I’ll take anything” mode. None of us want to live in a city we don’t like, have a job we’re unsatisfied with, or feel like we’re not making enough money to support our lifestyles. So let’s continue to stay positive by tapping into our professional network and remembering Rome wasn’t built in a day.

@JoblessGrad2010

Remember when I mentioned a position at my dream company opened up two weeks ago? Well, I started the week by actually calling the hiring manager. Yes, that’s right I said it, calling her office. It wasn’t until a few days before this that I completely forgot calling professional people was an option. I guess it’s a combination of how we rely so much on email that the art of speaking to someone via telephone seems out of line. But, then again, we’d never miss a text or call on our cell phones that live so near and dear to our hearts.

That day I told myself I would finally make the call. I was nervous, I was putting myself on the line, and I could face rejection, but, you know what, I needed to get some answers. Then, after mustering up all the confidence in the world, I listened to eight rings and was sent to voicemail. Bummer but I left one anyway.

The second call I made that day was previously arranged so I didn’t have to deal with the stress of calling someone blind. The call was for a position that hasn’t yet been created at a renowned adverting agency. I caught wind of this position from an alumni of my school who expressed interest after I reached out to him to have a pick-your-brain meeting. See what connecting can do? The phone interview was amazing and I couldn’t be more appreciative of someone willing to help me out.

This brings me to my next milestone from last week. It only took me nine weeks to realize that connecting with alumni really does work so I figured connecting with the alumni group in my city would probably be my best bet in speeding up this process. I emailed the President, he replied and before I knew it I received the July Newsletter highlighting “helping a new graduate out with her job search”. That new graduate happened to be me. The email list has over 1500 people and within a day, three people reached out to see how they could assist me with this process. Gotta love those alums.

Lessons learned this week: Phone calls work better than email and I love my school.

Photo: http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/iphone.jpg

I’m going to recap Week 8 for you as quickly as possible.

Monday, July 5 – Lake house with friends for the holiday but I still applied online to an advertising agency in Boston that evening

Tuesday, July 6 – Met with my internship team to gather the To Dos of the week, an IT recruiter contacted me for another job opp AND I contacted an alumni in the area who works at the agency I applied to on Monday.

Wednesday, July 7 – Worked on my internship tasks and heard from my advertising alumni friend. We set up a time to chat via telephone

Thursday, July 8 – Internship work again

Friday, July 9 – Went to the city for an interview

There ya have it, the shortened version of Week 8. I wanted to make it quick because the emotions that set in this week were far more important than the actions that took place. I guess we grads get caught in the “well I applied to five jobs this week and I’m waiting to hear back” instead of taking the time to search for those with a connection to us. I am seriously sick of sifting through lists and lists of uninteresting positions.

I dedicated the next week to solely connecting with people instead of focusing on the numbers. Is that so hard? Find out tomorrow.

I decided to take a break from the week-to-week recap of my job search today to provide a professional tip on what to do in the meantime when looking for that “career”. This video was published in the summer of 2009 and, although I don’t think it’s necessary to head back to your job at the local burger joint, I do think it’s important to suck it up and make money in the meantime to just plain live. Whether your parents are allowing you to live at home or not, you are still going to need money to tide you over in the meantime. Think gas, car repairs, insurance, transportation, cell phone bills, etc. Then when the real job comes along you can think about leaving that part time gig for the major leagues.

Stay tuned for Week 8 tomorrow.

During Week 6, two job leads contacted me to see if I could come in for an interview on Monday, June 28th. I went into the city that morning to interview with what I thought was a graphic design position. Turns out, I had replied to an advertisement on Craigslist for a position being sought by a staffing group. I was a bit confused but rolled with the punches, took a Microsoft Office skills test and interviewed with a few recruiters to see what outside companies would be a good fit for me. The whole process took about two hours.

After the interview, I scurried out of the city to a surrounding town for my second interview of the day. This interview was for an part-time (paid… thank god, now I can afford gas) internship position to promote a local artist’s new album. The project seemed to be amazing and the manager was understanding of my schedule so this was definitely a position I wanted to get.

I woke up Tuesday morning ready to roll with the job search. It turned out to be one of those feel good days for me. For starters, I heard from the staffing group and they expressed interest in sending me out to two interviews in the city! Neither felt like my dream job but I felt it necessary to make it through the interview process to feel each of the companies out.

The second and most amazing thing that’s happened this entire job search happened that Tuesday. One of the companies I am following/stalking on LinkedIn FINALLY posted a position that I would qualify for. Needlesstosay I was ecstatic so I send of a polished cover letter and resume via email AND snail mail in hopes of getting recognized.

I dedicated Wednesday to continuing the search, preparing for my interview for Thursday and shopping for a suit. Ladies, have you ever tried to look for a suit before? I can’t tell you how much I despise suits. They are the most unfeminine clothing for women which, in my book, is not OK. I settled for a black high-waisted skirt, salmon top and black blazer. Guess this is all a part of growing up.

Amongst stressing over a proper outfit and researching this company for my interview, I received a call from the internship manager who told me he wanted to hire me for the job! The news was amazing. Fun internship, paid, I can work from home, and it’s working with web design, social media and PR which is everything I enjoy. Good news!

I dedicated Thursday and Friday solely to the interviews. Turns out, Thursday’s company had great people, quiet environment, and boring job. Friday’s company had great people, upbeat, fun environment, and an OK job.

Guess you’ll have to see what happened in tomorrow’s post.

So this brings us to The Sweet Life of the Jobless College Grad, the reason we’re all here. I’ve explained this before but I began this blog not only to vent but to prove to myself I have tried and just haven’t had any success yet. Do I accept what has happened from the time I graduated until the time the blog was born? You know, I just can’t tell.

Writing allows me to not only list off tasks I’ve completed but it also helps me remember how I felt in these certain situations. I guess knowing how I felt when I took those two weeks off justifies why nothing was completed.

There are times when I could have tried harder to reach more contacts or search for more jobs in my network but launching the blog on the 24th has lend itself into a new perspective on searchinhg. Through Twitter, a number of people have expressed interest in this process and I have learned how to market this blog through social media. Let’s just say maintaining a blog and a following is a job in itself. I have met a number of helpful individuals and, believe it or not, I have learned that much more about the dos and don’ts of a search. I guess being a blogger was a good idea for not only others but also myself.

In the meantime, that day I was asked to attend two interviews the following Monday. One for a Graphic Design Assistant and another for an internship to promote a local artist’s new album. Stay tuned to hear what happened during Week 7.