Please please please give me any advice on how to secure my first *real* full-time job post-college.

In My Humble Opinion
1

It would be difficult for me to overstate how desperate I’m becoming with all of this. I graduated in March with a BA in Communication and - at the rate I’ve been going - I seem to be securing a job interview every 6-8 weeks. Although I’ve had several of them by now, none of them have amounted to an offer, and most of the time it ends up that the potential employer never contacts me back.

I’m getting incredibly demoralized here, since I just cannot. seem. to. escape. the same dead-end part-time job that I’ve had since I was nineteen. I’m almost at the point where I feel I might have to suck it up and pony up some $$$ for a MA degree, even though a big part of me thinks that that would be a waste of time and money.

All of this is compounded by the fact that, at my age (26), I feel that I might already be doomed to this meandering dead-end employment situation for the rest of my working life.

So yeah, any and all advice would be appreciated.

2

What field are you breaking into?

3

Where do you live, and are you open to relocating? Some places are going to be better than others. And yeah, what type of job are looking for?

You might have to reach out to friends and/or friends of parents or parents of friends. Having an advocate for you on the inside can often make all the difference. If you’re just submitting resumes, you might get lost in the crowd.

4

Here’s what I used to tell (before I retired) students.

  1. I want to see your portfolio. Don’t have much of one? Find an internship, do volunteer work, anything that lets you build up samples.

  2. Build up your interview skills. Show confidence as well as skill. Interact, don’t just answer questions.

And frankly, do you want to teach? If the answer is no, don’t go for an MA in Communications.

5

Take all advice with a grain of salt, specially from older folks. Things have changed, even in the last 5 years.

Check out Ask a Manager. Allison has been blogging about work stuff for a long time, and has a free e-book about preparing for an interview which answers some basic questions.

If your applications are regularly getting you interviews, then it’s probably not your qualifications – it’s probably you. Sorry to be blunt. Do you have a trustworthy friend who can mock-interview you?

6

Can you post the research you did on job availability of positions that need a BA in Communications? What did that research say was your best bet in terms of jobs after you graduated?

7

Listen to Allan Sherman’s sage advice here: When I Was A Lad.

8

Like Araminty said, if you are getting interviews, but no offers, it’s you. Or, more precisely, your interviewing. Good news is, it is eminently fixable. (If you were not getting interviews, it’d be much harder to fix). Below is a wall of text. If you follow the advise therein, your odds will improve. A lot. I should articulate how I came by this and what experience might give some weight to these points, but I won’t. Sorry.

So, two things to fix this: preparation and practice.
1 create product.
1.a.
There are many lists on the web with common interview questions, some with suggested answers. Like here: Top 50 Popular Job Interview Questions. Start by answering these questions -specifically for you- and create a document with those answers. Then practice giving those answers, out loud. (“Saying” it in your head does not count). This should give rise to re-writes. Keep doing this until you can do it as easily as giving your address. Now answer them while you film yourself w/ your phone, and try to smile as you speak. Keep repeating until you remember to smile every time, and the smile doesn’t look forced. Odds are this will take you a long time, but anyone can ultimately get there.

1.b Come up with at least 3, preferably 5, anecdotes, about 2 minutes long each. Work them till you can make any of them serve to make at least a couple points (make sure they have a point!) depending on how you end them. Some of these should be able to function as answers in 1.a.

1.c. Write a list of questions to ask the interviewers. While by necessity they will be generic now, try to customize them to the Company/position before the interview. But have a list of questions memorized.

1.d Write a short sales pitch as to the benefit for the company of hiring you. Ideally referring to stuff in 1a and 1b. Even more ideally solving a problem they have or might eventually have. When you have an interview coming up, after researching the company you are to interview with, (you research them, right?) taylor it. This is not easy. But if you cannot articulate a case for hiring you, how can they? Don’t oversell. Practice and film. When you review it, are you buying it?

  1. Practice
    2.a Aside from the practice already described above, have friends/family interview you. Give them 50 questions to choose from, but let them improvise. Tape this. They will have feedback, and listen to it (they may have a point), but review the tape. Would you hire you?
    2b. If you don’t mind doing something arguably unethical: Apply for jobs you don’t really want. You will be supremely relaxed, yet interviewing for real. If you keep an open mind, IMO it ceases to be possibly unethical, and you might find a career you weren’t looking for.

  2. Know this:
    Interviewing is a poor way to fill positions. It’s mainly a likability contest. Some people are just not likable. Maybe you are one of those. But whatever your likability base-level is, you will multiply it by smiling, especially if you can make it feel natural (by practice). You can also increase it by appearing confident (because practice). And even if it were impossible to improve your likability (which it isn’t), you can still improve your hirability by being impressive ( through preparation and practice)

If you have great answers to 50 questions, it also almost doesn’t matter if they actually ask those specific questions. If you get a different question, answer one you prepared which is somewhat close.

  1. Check for of-putting behavior. Check on video etc if you have mannerisms which might be off-putting. Often nerves can present as arrogance, shyness as rudeness etc. Humor needs to be appropriate and can easily go wrong; go for mildly funny at best. If the interview becomes about what the job can do/mean for you, that can be very off-putting. And don’t lie. People are better than they give themselves credit for at detecting lies. Often its not obvious, but they just don’t like the liar, even if they couldn’t tell you why.
9

By the way, if the stuff in my wall o’ text doesn’t work, check your references. As in, have someone call them as a prospective employer, and see what they actually say about you. I know of someone who probably didn’t know that one of his references described him as “possibly the least effective (person to fill a certain position) he had ever met”.

10

Try to cut down on the tacos.

11

The suggestion to “practice” interview by applying for positions that may not initially be of any interest is one I’ve heard before. It’s helpful IMHO since you won’t have the same jitters, so you’ll likely feel smoother … which helps tremendously with your confidence and delivery in future interviews.

Tell us a bit about what kind of jobs you’re applying for and maybe we can give more specific advice. You might be reaching too high in the company hierarchy relative to your experience, for example. Dunno.

12

Who do you think does the hiring?

13

It’s hard to give advice without knowing what you’re doing. Personal anecdote: After I graduated from college, my mother had been a stay-at home/homeschooling mom the whole time I had been alive, and my father had held the same job the whole time I’d been alive, so neither of them had any idea whatsoever about how to look for a job in the age of the Internet. One day, I was talking with a woman in her early thirties about the job search, and she mentioned job boards. “What are job boards?” I asked. And just like that, my job search became exponentially easier and more fruitful.

14

This. Many companies promote from within, so find companies you want to work for and apply for entry positions. Once you know the people and the company, and they know you, it is easier to move around, especially in medium to large companies.

15

You need more interviews. Check your PM’s.

16

Don’t rule out the possibility of getting an MA in communications because it’s a great way to get involved with things at school and build the portfolio.

I had absolutely jack shit on my resume coming out of college except one shitty internship. I wasn’t lazy or anything, just doing other things that took up the time I would have been using being in the video club. What did that leave me though? Great life and leadership experiences but absolutely NOTHING on my resume that wasn’t just schoolwork.

I went back to school and got my Master’s. This allowed me to reset my life, learn some new things and, most importantly, use the fact I was a student (and the career center) to get a kickass internship that’s been the backbone of almost every job I’ve gotten.

That being said, there is some truth to the fact that you’re getting the interviews but not the jobs. It’s probably worth practicing in front of neutral acquaintances or brutally honest friends, and research on interview tips couldn’t hurt. However, the fact you’re getting interviews should be encouraging enough because even those are hard as hell to get. Just keep grinding and keep scoring interviews…eventually one will stick.

17

Really? I could see if the OP majored in something where most jobs want a master’s degree, but I can’t imagine that many jobs in the communications field would require a master’s degree. I would also think that most communications-related jobs would value two years of experience in the field over an additional degree. Though once the OP explains what sort of job he’s looking for I reserve the right to retract what I said.

18

A Master’s isn’t needed in the communications field at all, and two years of experience would be much, much better. But the OP can’t get any experience because he’s still in the “same dead end job since 19.” All I’m saying is an easy way to get experience is to go back to school and use the school’s resources/clubs/projects/career center as an in to get the experience

19

Oh ok.

20

Don’t pigeonhole yourself because you have a communications major. You have a BA. A bank teller job maybe your path toward marketing director. Things are open to you might not be thinking about and there’s a large middle ground between dead-end job and perfect career. You can apply for a bunch of government jobs based solely on having a degree.

ETA: Where do you live?