An entry level jobs blog

New job boards come and go. I like ones that offer something different. Take One Day One Job for example. Every day they blog about one company's entry level jobs. The site was created by Will Franzen and here's what its all about;

Every day we take a look at one employer and the jobs that they are offering for recent college graduates. We scour both online and offline media
for information on jobs that you may never think to look for. Too much job seeker attention goes to the top handful of companies that hire at the entry level. We want to open your eyes to the thousands of opportunities available to
you, one day at a time.

Yahoo's Kickstart

Yahoo has launched Kickstart, a new social network for college students designed to help them find connections at potential employers.

This article from College Journal sums it up: The Sunnyvale, Calif., company today is releasing Kickstart, the service for college students to tap into a network of professionals willing to help them with internships, job prospects and career advice. Yahoo believes Kickstart will be valuable to young people who don't yet have extensive contact lists on professional social networks such as LinkedIn Corp. and who use other social networks such as Facebook Inc. primarily to communicate with friends.

Yahoo also plans to release this month a service internally code-named FireEagle that will allow individuals to indicate their location at a given moment, providing data that Web applications can draw on.

Users will be able to enter the data from various places, including social-networking sites...

How Gen X is different than Gen Y

I came across this little tidbit from a CareerBuilder survey about the biggest differences between the two generations.

The survey results reveal major differences in the way Generation Y, Generation X and baby boom employees communicate. Almost half of respondents (49 percent) noted Generation Y's preference to communicate through technology (blogs, instant messaging and text messaging, for example), as opposed to having face-to-face or phone conversations, the preferred methods of baby boomers and Generation X.

I would also add podcasts, social networks and online video to the list of preferred means of communication. This is why recruiting Gen Y is morphing into using these new forms of media.

Companies are going to have to start using these outlets to communicate and engage their prospective job candidates. This is precisely why I started Jobs in Pods.

Top 500 Entry Level Employers List is Out

As college graduation proceeds nationwide, CollegeGrad.com, the #1 Entry Level Job Site, announces the Top 500 Entry Level Employers for 2007. Great news for the class of 2007--entry level employers are increasing their hiring by 7.7% in 2007! The Top Entry Level Employers list represents more than 170,000 jobs for the class of 2007, and is available here. It details the 2007 entry level hiring plans for more than 500 employers and includes links to the home page, careers page and college page for each employer.

Experience.com provides information on entry level jobs.

Employers To Hire 20 Percent More Graduates this year

It's May and college kids are hitting the pavement. Here's what they have to look forward to.

Rising salary offers to new graduates and a 20 percent increase in hiring projections for 2006-7 should give the class of 2007 something to celebrate beyond commencement.

According to a recent poll of colleges and universities conducted by National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), employers have revised their earlier hiring projections up from 17.4 percent to 19.2 percent, meaning that employers plan to hire nearly 20 percent more new college graduates in 2006-7 than they did in 2005-6.

In addition, starting salary offers to new college graduates continue to rise. The spring 2007 issue of NACE’s Salary Survey shows that, at the bachelor’s degree level, nearly all of the majors that reported a change in their average starting salary offer reported increases.

Several factors indicate a booming job market. Business growth and expansion, as well as increased emphasis on college hiring all contribute to the rosy job outlook.

According to NACE’s survey, starting salary offers to graduates increased across the board, with the highest percent increase in marketing which rose 10.3 percent to $41,285.

The smallest increase went to liberal arts graduates whose average offer as a group rose 1.2 percent to $31,333.

NACE’s survey reports that the top paying jobs by average starting salaries in 2007 are:

-Chemical engineering ($60, 054)
-Computer engineering ($55,936)
-Industrial/manufacturing engineering ($54,769)
-Electrical/electronics and communications
-engineering ($54,599)
-Mechanical engineering ($54,587)
-Computer science ($51, 070)
-Finance ($47,905)
-Civil engineering ($47,145)
-Management information systems/business data processing ($46,568)
-Accounting ($46,508)

Podcast: Does Your Major Matter?

We talk with Katie Konrath, author of DoesYourMajorMatter.com about what qualities employers seek in recent college grads. (10 min)

Starting Salaries Trending Upward

If you are graduating this May chances are your starting salary will be better than ever. I remember my first job out of college in 1992 paid $20k. It's almost double that now according to this survey I found.

CHICAGO, April 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Job prospects and starting salaries for recent college graduates are trending upward, according to CareerBuilder.com's annual survey. Seventy-nine percent of hiring managers say they plan to hire recent college graduates this year, up from 70 percent in 2006. Nearly one-in-four hiring managers (24 percent) expect to hire more recent college graduates in 2007 compared to last year and 42 percent plan to increase starting salaries.

"As the skilled labor force shrinks, the demand for educated workers will continue to increase, and you'll see more hiring managers at college campuses recruiting and developing relationships early," said Brent Rasmussen, chief operating officer of CareerBuilder.com.

Forty-two percent of hiring managers anticipate increasing starting salaries for recent college graduates in 2007 and only four percent plan to decrease them. Thirty-six percent of hiring managers expect to offer between $30,000 and $40,000 compared to 28 percent in 2006. An additional 16 percent will offer between $40,000 and $50,000 and 12 percent will offer more than $50,000.

When asked about minimum GPA requirements, one-third of the hiring managers surveyed said they require a 3.0 and above and one-in-ten requires a 3.5 and above. However, if you didn't quite make the grade, opportunities are still available if you know how to sell yourself.

Working in the IT Industry

Just published a new podcast over on Jobs in Pods, about working inside the information technology industry. I interview a technical recruiter who has a lot of helpful advice and information particularly for college grads entering the field.

Top cities for entry level jobs

Top 25 cities account for more than 34,000 entry level positions for college grads.
As the class of 2007 finalizes their post-graduation plans, CollegeGrad.com, announces the Top 25 cities for entry level job openings. The list represents more than 34,000 jobs for entry level job seekers. The list is available online at job postings for each city.

New York and Los Angeles top the list for cities with the most entry level job openings. Houston, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, PA round out the Top 5. New York, the largest city on the list, accounts for about 3,300 entry level jobs, while Los Angeles accounts for about 2,800 jobs. Miami, Chicago, Tampa, Dallas and St. Louis round out the top ten, all with more than 1,600 entry level jobs.

How your Email Signature can aid your job search

I got an email yesterday from a student editor who works at Experience. He wanted to link to some of my content which of course I agreed to. But his email caught my eye for another reason.

His email signature.

Clint is a job seeker who 'gets it'. His email signature is a great personal marketing tool. Every student should follow his lead. And so, I'm presenting him with the job search marketing tactic award of the month.

-----

Sincerely,
Clint James

I graduate in May! Download my contact info to hire me by clicking on a link below.

http://clintjames.emurse.com/ <----- My Resume'
http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/PersonDetail.aspx?PersonID=-142408 <---- ZoomInfo Profile

Other Links of Interest
www.szlichtaandramsey.com <----- My office
http://blogs.experience.com/technologychannel/index.html <----- My technology blog

Searching for a job after college, Part I

One of my readers was kind enough to share his job hunting experience in the form of his new blog. His name is Alexander Kharlamov and here is the beginning story of his job hunt. You can then finish reading it over at his blog.

In 2003, I graduated from Stony Brook University with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. In retrospect, I could not have picked a less appropriate time to enter the job market. During my senior year, I met some recent computer science graduates driving trucks or working in a deli – the job market was so atrocious that they could not land an offer.

There were very few companies willing to hire recent grads, because a lot of people with 10 or more years of experience were jobless, and were willing to work for entry-level salaries. Those that did hire set impossibly high standards – 3.5 (out of 4.0) GPA, degree with honors, and years of real world experience in a big corporation – right after you graduate. My GPA was below 3.0 and I graduated with no honors whatsoever.

Nevertheless, with hard work, I found the career of my dreams. After coming home from my temporary job, I put in 4-5 hours daily into my job searching. At the time I wished there was a complete guide to job hunting, but there was none. With this article (split in multiple parts due to length) I hope to fill the void for that guide. If you’re not a recent college grad, you should still read on, because some of the items you will discover will come as a surprise to even the most experienced job hunters.

The single most important thing you have to realize is searching for a good job is a full-time job in itself. Fully expect spending a few hours job hunting, even if you have taken a temporary “McJob” to make ends meet. Make sure you’re ready, mentally and physically, for the search. The easy part ended when you graduated college.

Continued >>

Read and write internship reviews

Internship Evaluation's hope is to have a single website people can go to to find an internship review about any company. The idea is that everyone wants to know about the company they are applying to before they do an internship there.

College Grad Starting Salaries

Here are the top starting salaries for June 2006 college graduates by major.

$56,269 Chemical Engineering
$53,096 ComputerEngineering
$53,500 Electrical Engineering
$50,744 Computer Science
$51,808 Mechanical Engineering
$47,182 Information Science
$45,391 Management Information Systems
$44,928 Accounting
$41,115 Business Administration
$37,191 Marketing
$32,870 Liberal Arts
$30,369 Psychology

Source: naceweb.org

>> Please vote for this blog if you like what I write.

Colleges Giving Etiquette Instruction

A growing number of colleges are preparing students for the workplace by providing etiquette training that covers a range of protocol, from what utensils to use to how to interact socially. Teaching such skills has fallen to colleges because employers expect more and there is less instruction at home.

The Baltimore Sun

Young job seekers facing 'quarterlife crisis'

Glum job seekers in 20s face a 'quarterlife crisis'

NEWS WIRE SERVICES

FORT LAUDERDALE - He thought he knew what he wanted to do with his life. So Jamie Deitchman spent nearly four years and $30,000 to get a bachelor's degree in electronics engineering. After school, he was hired to do tech support and congratulated himself on becoming an adult. There was just one problem. "I hated waking up in the morning," said Deitchman, 28. "In tech support, anyone who calls you has a problem and it's your fault. You spent the whole day talking to people having a bad day, and so you start having a bad day. I was miserable." His sister Heather was having her own career meltdown. She graduated college with good grades and a bachelor's degree in marketing, but couldn't find an opening in her field and had to take a retail job at the mall. "I had to move back in with my parents," Heather, now 25, recalled. "I was making $14,000 a year with a degree from a private university. I felt like I'd done all that work for nothing." Neither imagined finding the right career would be such a problem. But career confusion and frustration are growing sentiments among twentysomethings - so much so that an entire crop of "quarterlife crisis" books has appeared in bookstores, offering life and job advice. A recent study on aging and job satisfaction shows that workers ages 18 to 34 are more "extremely dissatisfied" with their jobs than any other age group, with nearly half feeling burned out and one in four seeking an entirely new career. Robert Morison, co-author of the 7,700-person survey and executive vice president of the Texas-based business management Concours Group, said today's twentysomethings have unusually high expectations because of the way they grew up: during a time of economic prosperity, seeing young adults making easy fortunes during the tech bubble of the 1990s. Since then, the bubble has burst, job and salary growth have slowed and positions have moved overseas. Yet young workers still want high salaries, quick promotions and moderate work hours. And for good reason, he added: They have big student debts, face soaring housing costs and are suspicious of big corporations, which many associate with corruption and downsizing as much as their parents equated them with job security and good benefits. The result, Morison said, is often a grumbling young worker and an equally annoyed Baby Boomer boss. The upside of this phenomenon: What makes this generation spoiled also makes it smart. Morison said these high expectations, when combined with a bit of patience, could eventually make today's young workers happier and healthier than generations before. "They insist that the workplace be friendly and entertaining. They insist on learning and growing," he said. "I wish I'd been more insistent early on in my career for more learning opportunities."

Best New Graduate Resume

For the next few days I'm going to showcase some award winning resumes that were announced by Career Directors International at their recent conference for resume writers.

First up is Gayle Howard's resume, "Best New Graduate Resume" (pdf). It's a 2 page resume for a recent finance grad. It also has a third page that explains the strategy behind the concept.

Furst Person provides a call center simulation service to employers.

Yale Student's Video Resume Stunt Backfires

A student from Yale, Aleksey Vayner, has become a "laughingstock" for the video resume he recently sent to some NY investment banks in hopes of landing a job.

Here's a couple of news stories about it here and here.

The resume includes various claims and achievements which are dubious to say the least. The video appears to show Vayner benchpressing 495 lbs, dancing with a scantily-clad woman and hitting a tennis ball 140 mph. It appears that his face is super-imposed over someone else. He also claims to be a CEO.

In between his athletic stunts, Mr. Vayner takes the opportunity to opine on his success.

This is a great case of how NOT to make a video resume. For one, you should be describing your VALUE to potential employers rather than boasting of your "skills". Secondly, you should'nt deceive people into thinking you are someone else.

This guy now has a trail digital dirt that could haunt him for a long time to come.

CollegeRecruiter.com offers the latest on internships and entry level jobs.

Twentysomething Job Search (video)

It's monday so lets start the week with a little humor.

Best Places To Launch A Career

BusinessWeek has introducted a new list: its "Best Places To Launch A Career" ranking. In addition to a list of top employers, an accompanying article provides insight into what recent college grads look for in an employer.

Grads find Job Hunting a Challenge

This story reflects much of the challenges many people face when starting a job hunt. They just dont have the complete toolset when it comes to a proper jobsearch.

Recent grads shed light on job hunting
Daily Free Press (subscription) - Boston,MA,USA
Many freshly minted alumni who jumped into the job market said they found job searches to be long, arduous and stressful. College ...