Unfortunately, the job search for recent college graduates can be difficult. Fortunately, here are immediately useful job search tips or advice to help the job seeker land a job.

1. Volunteer

Problem: Job seekers find it hard to get a job without experience, but it’s hard to get experience without a job! Solution: If you don’t get a job in your chosen occupation, volunteer to do similar work for free one or two days a week. In particular, volunteer with an organization you would love to work for. Or volunteer at a non-profit organization. They always want free labor, they will jump at the opportunity for you to volunteer and then gain work experience to help you in your job search and get paid work.

Examples: (A) An art student wanted to work in an art gallery, but could not find that job. As I recommended, she volunteered to host art exhibition openings at an art museum one day a week. Question = Guess who she met at those inaugurations? Answer = she She met art gallery owners and one of them hired her. (B) An IT student had a hard time finding a job, so he took my advice to volunteer in computer programming at a non-profit trade association. Why volunteer with a trade association? Because the members of the association were executives of more than 100 companies. His work ethic and computer programming impressed the association’s CEO so fantastically that he introduced the IT major to the executives of the association’s member companies, and that’s how he landed his dream IT job.

2. Take a low-paying job, but only at a prestigious organization

Note to job seekers: Less salary can help you earn MUCH more salary! This is especially true if you make less money in a famous or prestigious organization.

Example: When I graduated from college, I got a job earning 50% less than other people who graduated from college with the same major. But my job was in a prestigious and world famous organization. I gained tremendous work experience and learned much more than my fellow graduates who were earning much more but working in low-profile organizations in the same industry. Also, my work at that prestigious organization later helped me get into graduate school. On the contrary, my colleagues earned more, but their work experiences and the amount they learned was much less than mine. So be prepared to take a job that pays less, especially if you can use it as a “springboard” to your (A) learning and (B) future success.

3. Contact people who “owe you or your family a favor”

Make a list of people who would be happy to do you or your family members a favor. Call them on the phone (don’t send emails) and ask them to give you the names of people they know who you can contact in your job search.

First, phone the people whose income is based on your family’s pay, such as doctors, dentists, accountants, clergy, and bankers. Second, call people you helped, like neighbors you took care of or shoveled snow for. Third, call the people you helped in college, for example, students, professors you helped, campus leaders, and administrators you helped. If they feel any concern about your income, or gratitude for the kindness you have shown them, they will take the opportunity to provide you with the names and phone numbers of people who work in their chosen field. Ready! Then, call the people you were referred to as part of your job search.

4. Stop hallucinating that you will find a job through online job sites

Yes, you may be delighted that you can sit in your apartment or in the basement of your parents’ house, and do nothing but apply for jobs online while listening to music and texting your friends. Don’t bet your job search on it! Recommendation = Waste – oops! I mean spend: just 60 minutes/day or less on online job search sites. Hundreds of people apply for every job there. Your chance of being picked out of the crowd, called and interviewed is equal to the chance of a snowball in you-know-where. Solution: Phone people who can provide you with information about potential employers. And then call those references. That is a super effective job search strategy.

5. Low-Tech & High-Touch help your job search more than High-Tech & Low-Touch

Managers who can hire you receive more than 100 emails a day, plus phone calls from job seekers they don’t know and don’t feel the need to talk to.

But they receive few or no phone calls from job seekers beginning with “[Name of person manager knows] suggested I contact you for career advice” nor (b) handwritten “Thank you” notes sent in the mail after speaking with job seekers. You’ll stand out from the crown of job seekers as you earn ‘points’ Your low-tech, high-touch style will be deeply valued and remembered by those managers when job opportunities arise.

COPYRIGHT 2011 MICHAEL MERCER, http://www.JobHuntingMadeEasy.com