Dear Soon-To-Be College Graduate

I meet a lot of recent college grads, usually one per week. Sometimes it’s a friend of mine who asks me to meet with their kid because they’re anxious that the kid doesn’t have a job lined up. Sometimes it’s the grad themselves wanting to pick my brain about the marketing business. (By the way, I can’t STAND the phrase “pick your brain.”) I (almost) always say yes and meet them to drop a few knowledge bombs. We usually meet for coffee, and I give them my insights into this industry. Sometimes, this takes five to 10 minutes; I’m not that smart. Then, I give them advice on how to find a job. I only wished that some of these kids would talk to me in their first or second year of school. Mid-May is usually too late to fix all the mistakes a freshly-minted grad makes.

A couple of years ago, my colleague Katie Rossberg shared a note to recent grads detailing tips to follow after you get the job, but I figured I’d drop some of my own on how to get a job as a recent college grad:

1. Please, please, please do not start your cover letter by saying “Dear _____, I am a recent graduate of ___________.” Everyone does that. Stop it. Be more original.
2. Clean your digital dirt. The first thing a potential employer will do is “Google you” and if your Instagram profile picture is you in a thong doing keg stands your freshman year, you might as well not apply.
3. Be persistent. Call, email, AND drop off a resume in person. If you haven’t heard anything, follow up again. And again. If you apply for a job, it’s your job to follow up, not theirs. If they never hear from you after the first email, they can only assume you didn’t want the job.
4. Get an internship. Apply for internships in your first or second year of school, not after you graduate.
5. Get a job, any job, and keep it. Yes, you’re a full-time student but even if you only work a few hours a week at Cracker Barrel, it shows that you’re not afraid to work and that you can get along with people. Job hopping every three months shows major character flaws. Your very first job shouldn’t be at 22 or 23.
6. Get a LinkedIn account. Fill it out. Make connections. You’re going to need them, and it’s the easiest way to showcase your education, interests, and skills.
7. Write a thank you note or send a small thank you gift after the interview. The hiring manager sifted through 37 resumes, interviewed 11, and you were the only one to send a personal note or gift. There’s a 99 percent chance you’ll get it because they see that you “get it.”
8. Tell your parents to butt out. If one of your parents calls or asks about the job for you, then all hope is lost. You need to make connections. You need to apply. You need to go to the interview. Your parents have to take the training wheels off; hopefully, this happened at age seven, not last week.
9. Use spell check — and bribe an English major to proof your stuff. Knowing the difference between “your” and “you’re” is important, but knowing that someone misspells “everyday” every day in a resume is quite amusing to me. 
10. Be flexible. Chances are you don’t know exactly what you want to do at 22 and that’s OK. But you’re going to have to expand your options and be flexible to get a career in your desired field. Very few folks start out at the top. Sorry, that’s just how it works. Take the entry-level position and then prove yourself.