How do I get that first post-college job?

The resume game has always seemed like a ton of work for a very little payback. That is, you can spend hours upon hours tweaking or rewriting your resume for every position you apply for, only to be met with rejection. The argument goes that it will make the difference in that ONE job that you ultimately land, so its worth it in the long run. But still, it seems like a lot of wasted effort to me, and I've always spent far more time working the human angle. I've landed only full-time job via cold internet submission. Every other full-time job I've had I've landed because of personal contacts in the company. So, while your resume should be watertight in terms of grammar, punctuation, etc., I believe your energies should go toward networking, or lacking networking opportunities, cold calling. Two anecdotes: 1) My fiance got her college internship by looking at a directory of actuaries in her city and calling every single one. A retired actuary she called met with her, decided he liked her, called up his cronies, and found her the internship. The bosses at her internship then found her a full-time job upon graduation. 2) I landed my first job through a temp agency. It was a two-day contact stuffing envelopes, but was sufficient enough time to impress the company. So they kept me on another two days. Then two weeks. Then offered me a job as an editorial assistant. Six months after that I was a full-blown editor. I switched careers after that job, but it set me in motion.... And in Seattle at least, temp agencies is how many people break into the high tech sector. Both anecdotes are meant to illustrate how important the human touch is. Meet people and impress them - that's the ticket.

I was recently laid off a year into my first post-college job. It took me five months, but I found something. Here's what worked for me: - I made sure to put a TON of time and effort into my resume. While your resume won't get you the job, it might cause you to NOT get an interview. I had my college, coworkers, employers, a career placement firm (free to us when we were laid off) all take a look at it. I always tend to err on the side of not writing too much - put yourself in the hiring manager's shoes. What would you think if your resume came across your desk? As for what to put on the resume, I made sure to put my relevant experience and skills first. As an engineer, people tend to care more about what you can do than what you learned in school. Also, I didn't do much to tailor it to each employer, but my search was pretty focused. YMMV. - For cover letters, I kind of have a general idea of what I want to say in it, but I write it by hand each time. Make sure the reader knows you're talking about the specific job/company. None of this generic "I am very interested in a position at your company". I also tried to keep it short and sweet. - Networking. This was by far the most important. It really is all about who you know these days. If you don't already have one, a LinkedIn profile can be great in finding common connections. Anytime I applied for a job, I searched my LI network to see if anyone I knew was connected with someone at the company. Hiring managers tend to be much more interested if their resume came from someone they know, rather than from the internet. This got me more interviews than anything else. Side note: have you considered technical writing? Greater Boston / Northern MA / southern NH is a tech goldmine. I'm an engineer so I can't really say much beyond that.

ugh I need to second what litnerd said. I also graduated in 2007 with a BA in English. I waited tables for a bit, then went to a temp agency and eventually got a full time job as a "sales assistant" basically faxing and emailing all day. It was dull, boring work for little pay. I moved to live with my boyfriend and waited tables again until my dad gave me some insider info about a woman he works with who was retiring. I applied to that job with my dad as a reference and got it. It's in customer service. So my advise to you is if you are looking for office work - go register at every temp agency around, apply for entry level sales and customer service jobs. These are the types of jobs you are most likely to get (sorry if I'm crushing your dream here). Have relatives and friends keep their feelers out for openings for you to apply to. If you can, go out and canvas office buildings,, dropping off resumes in person. I have never ever ever gotten a single interview from a job I applied to on line and I apply to 5 jobs a week online. To me its like playing the lottery - one day I'll have to hit and get an interiew, right? If you are looking for the quickest way to make money - wait tables or bartend. I made more money doing that than any other job I have had, including my current job (but I need health benefits now). Keep plugging away at your job search. Teh employment situation out there is really as bad as people are saying it is. Looking for a job is now a full time job in itself. A shot is the dark guess is that you'll need to send out hundreds of resumes before you get a job offer.

Is there a reason you are not working with your alma mater's career services department? This is what they are paid to do for you. I'm sure people will have advice for you, but career services will have connections and people who can sit down and work with you on all this stuff.

Have a friend read and proof your copies of stuff before you mail them. My old supervisor said she'd toss a resume if she found a typo on the first page. I know money is important but if you're not having any luck with the "I'd love to but I need more experience" thing, ask about paid internships or do informational interviews. I totally wasn't qualified to do my current job until after I graduated but I was hired as an intern with keeping the job on the condition I finish my degree. Good luck!

I read a lot of resumes at work, what with working at a temp agency. This may seems obvious, especially if you're an English major, but for the love of god: Make sure every verb tense on your resume matches.

Have you exhausted the opportunities of working through everybody you know, and everybody your parents know? In this economy, I imagine the competition for entry level jobs is brutal. Anything you can do to work connections to jump to the lead of the line (so to speak) is going to be a huge advantage. For all you know, your parent's insurance agent lives next door to somebody that could hire you. Blake137's idea of asking for info, not jobs is good too. See if you can buy a coffee for a few people in your field. Once they make that personal connection with you they are much more likely to offer up help.

What kind of volunteering are you doing right now?

I graduated with a BA in English in 2007. The recession hadn't hit yet, but finding a job was still a major pain in the neck, especially with my degree. I went on a few interviews through a recruiter, but nothing panned out. My now father-in-law literally sent an email to everyone he knew, singing my praises and asking if anyone knew of anything for me. Not long after, I got a call to come into a business and help prepare for a lawsuit by completing an extremely tedious, time-consuming task. One week later, I had a permanent, full-time job. So, what I'm trying to say here is, use any connections available to you, whether they're yours, your parents', your friends' parents', etc. From my short experience in the working world, "who you know" is way more important than "what you know" when it comes to getting hired. It may be sad, but it's often true.