As the Global Head of Talent Acquisition for Amazon, I trained our interviewers in behavioral interviewing techniques. I taught them techniques to use to always seek a full STAR (Situation or Task, Action and Result) answer. Most interviewers, even in large companies such as Amazon ...
Entry Level Hiring Up 2.4% in 2021 SEATTLE, March 1, 2021 – With an entire year of hiring uncertainty due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), you might expect that employers have simply stopped hiring entry level college grads. And you would be wrong. Hiring growth ...
Many jobs have shifted from an office work environment to remote and work from home. It's important to be ready and prepared to work remotely during these uncertain times. And it's also important to know which jobs are ideally suited for working from ...
Many job seekers ask this very simple question: “How do I find entry level jobs near me?” Use this simple four step formula: 1) define the specific type of jobs; 2) define your geography; 3) develop your job search algorithm; and 4) get daily job ...
You have probably heard the recent unemployment stats being quoted in the news. While those unemployment numbers may sound bleak, I am going to let you in on a dirty little secret about the unemployment rates you are hearing: The actual unemployment rate is higher ...
I have a friend who now lives in the US, but grew up in another country. In his home country, he negotiated for things he needed on a daily basis. Street vendors. Taxis. Stores. And yes, job offers. Almost everything was negotiable for him in ...
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has fundamentally changed most work environments. While the ability to work remotely was typically not discussed in interviews previously, it is often a key requirement now for those employers who are willing to hire new entry level college grads. You ...
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has now impacted the daily lives of nearly everyone in the world. Beyond the daily headlines, what can you be doing as a new college graduate in 2020 to prepare for your entry level job in this new reality? Here ...
As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to make daily headlines, it is important for college students and entry level employers to assess what impact it may have on hiring for 2020. While CollegeGrad.com previously reported the results of its 2020 Top Entry Level ...
You got the call to set up your internship interview. Good for you! But now what? How do you best prepare for your interview? What can you do to get ready? Simple, follow these two steps: #1 Know Them It's important to know everything ...
US Entry Level Job Market Not Yet Impacted By Coronavirus SEATTLE, February 12, 2020 ( PRLog ) – China’s Ministry of Education has issued a caution to new college graduates in China that they will likely experience difficulty getting hired after graduation, due to the impact of ...
Entry Level Hiring Up 5.5% in 2020 SEATTLE, February 4, 2020 ( Newswire.com ) – With new stock market highs, unemployment at the lowest rate in almost 50 years along with unprecedented job growth, 2020 is turning out to be a great year to be a ...
Many job seekers struggle with the concept of the interview structure. It often appears to be an intimidating question-and-answer session where the candidate is constantly on the defensive, having to answer questions in a rapid fire manner. However, while the interviewer gets to ...
Interviews are structured for the benefit of the employer, not the candidate. The employer controls the flow of the interview and gets to ask all of the questions, which the candidate then dutifully answers. It all seems very one-sided and, in reality, it is ...
I know a way to get an upgrade on every flight for only $4. I really do. I've been doing it for years and it works every time. On every flight. I'm a frequent traveler for both business and pleasure. I have traveled ...
I was recently speaking with a candidate about her interview experience. She was asked the following question in the interview: If you could meet anyone in the world, living or not, who would it be? An interesting, thought-provoking question. Even though it is not ...
If you are in college and looking to gain some resume experience , an externship may be the answer. But what exactly is an externship? And how does it differ from an internship or apprenticeship? An externship is an experiential learning opportunity for college students usually ...
You’re performing well in your job. And now it comes time to ask for a raise. Or do you ask at all? How you handle this key discussion is vitally important to determining both your career and salary trajectory. I’ve managed hundreds of ...
In my last article I talked about how to apply for jobs online . I emphasized the importance of addressing each of the job requirements in your response. But what if you don’t meet all of the job requirements? Then what? The answer is a ...
Job search is a two-way street. Meaning that you can both find jobs and they can find you. The latter is achieved by posting your resume to a job site (ideally an entry level job site like CollegeGrad.com) or directly to an employer ...
It’s a simple fact of college life: some degrees are more valuable than others when it comes to getting a job. So while your friends may be receiving one, two, three or more offers, you might be stuck with none. And then wondering why ...
Your resume is an important tool to aid you in your job search. However, a poor resume can negatively impact your job search. When you create your resume, you need to create it to be both searchable and findable. You create your searchable resume by ...
My apologies up front to all those who have already graduated with one of these majors. You already know the unfortunate job search reality of having one of these majors on your resume. Most are a path to nowhere specific or at least a very ...
In reviewing all of the entry level job postings at CollegeGrad.com, there are certain majors where the demand continues to outstrip supply. Note that general industry growth may not be reflected in entry level hiring. The best majors for entry level are where there ...
Doing your resume. Yuck. That’s the reaction most people have to the idea of having to write a resume. Especially when you’re doing it for the first time, writing your resume from scratch. Or maybe you have a poor resume that hasn’t ...
Resumes started out as purely paper documents. While the paper resume still exists (yes, the paper resume is what is typically used during the interview), the resume is stored and transmitted in digital formats . That digital resume can be in a format that is designed ...
One of the main difficulties for job seekers is that it requires a large amount of individual effort. And many times that individual effort is tedious manual searching. Your job search typically will not proceed forward unless you put in the effort to take the ...
How much are you worth? Do you know? Are you sure? Salary is one of the more difficult areas to assess in job search. Why? Because it is heavily dependent on others, not just you. What you do personally can and will affect your salary ...
When thinking about your future career, consider also how you got to where you are. It's likely you owe much to your parents, and they continue to affect our lives as adults. Think about how they led you, guided you and mentored you in ...
So how much can you expect to earn on a typical summer internship ? First of all, “typical” doesn’t really exist. There are a large number of employers (see the list below) who pay their interns more than the average annual wage for experienced workers ...
“I keep sending out my resume and I’m not getting any interviews. What’s wrong with me?” It may not be you. It may be your resume. If you are an awesome person and your resume sucks , no one will know you are awesome ...
You received a job offer. Congratulations! Yet you still have some important steps to take to bring your job search to a conclusion. There are two basic approaches to job offer negotiation: Acceptable job offer negotiation : where you would still accept the offer if nothing ...
Your resume is your digital representation of you. It is NOT paper and shouldn't be thought of as paper. That's old school. No one prints resumes and sends them off via mail anymore. A well written resume should serve three purposes: 1) survive ...
I’ve conducted over 2,000 interviews and have trained others in interviewing techniques covering hundreds of thousands of additional interviews. I have consistently trained others to avoid quickly forming first impressions in the interview, emphasizing the importance of competency-based behaviorally interviewing to dive ...
A user recently asked: “What are power words for resumes?” There are power words, but they are not what you think. Most resume guides tell you that power words are verbs like “delivered” and “developed” and “responsible for” etc. But the real power words are ...
A resume is a living, breathing document. As such, it is subject to change over the course of your career . Sometimes the most difficult work for a writer is editing and updating their own work. The same applies to resumes. When the time comes to ...
Have you ever wondered how the interview is going during or after the interview? Are there any telltale signs that will indicate how things are going? Yes, there are. If you are adept (and I mean truly adept) at reading body language , you can read ...
You’ve probably seen word clouds before. Here is an example of a word cloud: This word cloud was generated from a job posting at CollegeGrad.com using a free online tool at JasonDavies.com/wordcloud . A word cloud is a graphical representation of a ...
I’ve got three awesome interview hacks. Actually, I’ve got a lot more than three, but if you just use these three, they will set you apart from your competition and generate job offers. Why? Because almost no other candidates use them. First, best ...
You finally have the coveted interview lined up. Yet to be fully prepared, there is still one step left for you to take before the interview. What is it? Practice. You need to practice interview, or mock interview , before your actual interview. But most candidates ...
We have all seen clickbait. Yes, it can be irritating. And sometimes rather corny. But it’s also effective. If it didn’t work, advertisers wouldn’t use it. The entire point of clickbait is to get you to want more so that you click ...
Congratulations! You’ve been called to schedule your on-site interview . This will be the next and possibly the final step on your path to a job offer . Take time in advance to prep for what you will be doing to make your interview day ...
A question recently came up from a job seeker: “Should I be using LinkedIn in my job search?” The answer is yes, but how you use LinkedIn is equally important. LinkedIn is the largest business networking site on the planet. Think of it as a ...
Over the course of my career, I have reviewed more than 100,000 resumes. As a corollary, it’s also important to note how many resumes I have not reviewed . It is a number several times higher than the number actually reviewed. The resumes not ...
The classic interview non-question is: Tell me about yourself . It’s not a question and it’s not considered to be a very good interview question, since it is vague and not specific. Yet it has one thing in common with the very best ...
Most of my blog articles are focused on the mechanics of how to find a job. I spend a lot of time showing readers how the job search process works and what you can do to master that process. The reason for that is that ...
Social media can be your friend or your foe in your job search, depending on how you use it. While you’ve likely been using social media for, well, social reasons, it has the power and reach to greatly expand your job search, if used ...
In my role as VP Global Talent Acquisition for Amazon, I trained Amazon interviewers on how to interview. This training consisted of competency-based behavioral interviewing techniques. Yet many candidates never got to the final round of interviews due to failing initial tech interviews. The ...
Many candidates are reluctant to drop names in their job search, thinking it will break some type of confidence. In reality the contrary is true. As long as you are not legally restricted from doing so, dropping names is fine and can enhance your opportunities ...
A more recent tech element in job search is the use of the video interview or Skype interview. While in the past the interview process typically proceeded from phone screen to onsite interview , many employers are now inserting a video interview either as an intermediary ...
You’re doing something else: maybe talking with friends, eating lunch, doing some homework or even at a party. A call comes on your mobile from a number you don’t recognize. You pick up: “Hello?” The caller introduces themself as a Recruiter with an ...
Job Search 101 typically recommends pursuing every available employer and only backing away if/when you have multiple offers. The reasoning is that there are no bad employers, simply less desirable employers. Is that true? The answer is no. Just as you are not a ...
Think about college graduation last year. Some of your graduating friends likely had jobs already lined up. Yet many did not. Why were some “lucky” and some were not? The simple answer is that luck had very little to do with it. Some were prepared ...
Do you have a personal brand? Most college students would say no or at least not yet. Yet you do have a personal brand, whether you are actively cultivating it or not. Every time you post , every time you put something into words (spoken, digital ...
Some entry level jobs are a natural extension of the college degree major. For example, most Accounting majors start out as Accountants . Most Electrical Engineering majors start out as Electrical Engineers . Yet not all entry level careers fit into this tidy package. Nor do all ...
Many college students make the mistake of going to the campus job fair as if it is a career exploration event. Job fair employers are serious about hiring. And the job fair is a competitive event where you are surrounded by your college peers. So ...
There are two primary types of telephone interviews : impromptu and arranged. An impromptu phone interview is when a company representative (usually a Recruiter) calls you either based on a resume submitted or a resume or profile posted. An arranged interview is when you have a ...
You’ve been on Facebook for years, but as you begin your job search, is Facebook your friend? Or your foe? That depends entirely on how you use it. The first thing you need to do before starting a job search is to clean up ...
There is a dirty little secret in entry level jobs of which many college Seniors are not aware: most of the large entry level employers make entry level job offers in the Fall semester, not the Spring semester. Why is that important? Because many college ...
You had a great set of interviews. Or at least it seemed like it all went well. Then you wait. And nothing happens. You wait for the phone to ring, you wait for the email, but you get nothing. What went wrong? Why didn’t ...
College students are returning to campus and some will be returning with that elusive, coveted entry level job offer in hand. If you just completed a summer internship between your Junior and Senior year, you may have received an offer for an entry level job ...
Many candidates prepare haphazardly or sometimes not at all for a phone interview. After all, it’s not a real interview, right? Wrong. The phone interview is often the first step in the interviewing process. It is as important as the on-site interview , since ...
Let me ask a really basic question: Why did you go to college? At its core, you know the answer. It wasn’t to learn, it wasn’t to socialize, it wasn’t to party. You went to college to find a job. A great ...
When college students are trying to turn their degree into a job, they often spend time trying to decide on a career path. It’s usually fairly short-term thinking on how to find a job that will pay the bills, pay back the student ...
Most job searches start off targeting one specific area, usually the geography in which the candidate lives. However, for college students, the job search is often centered on where their home town is located, which isn’t necessarily the same as where they attend college ...
I’ve conducted over 10,000 interviews in my career and met many candidates who had not done sufficient research about our company. As VP Global Talent Acquisition at Amazon, it was fairly common for candidates to say: “Well, I’m an Amazon customer and ...
I’ve been involved in hiring literally thousands of new employees over the course of my career. Although I’ve made mostly good to great hires, there is one hire, early in my career, which stands out as being my worst hire ever. I was ...
The standard for most negotiations is this: “He/she who gives a number first loses.” What this means in salary negotiation is that giving a number, any number, will put you at a disadvantage to the person with whom you are negotiating. So if the ...
I’m going to give you the most important question for your job search. And no, it’s not the most important interview question (for that, you can go to CollegeGrad.com and find that question —and the best answer). It’s the question you ...
You worked hard in your job search to get your new job. You’ve started and now, after being in your new role, you begin to realize that the job isn’t working out for you. Let’s talk about what you should do next ...
Here’s the dirty little secret about job search: 95% of it sucks. You will be spending the majority of your time doing stuff that doesn’t seem to matter and isn’t bringing you any closer to your goal of finding a new job ...
Are you miserable in your job search? If yes, here’s why: misery is easy, success takes work. Yes, I know that’s a hard one to grasp, but it’s very much related to my inertia theorem: the amount of effort necessary to be ...
There are plenty of self-proclaimed resume experts who are saying that your resume doesn’t need an objective. Did you ever notice that none of those people work in a job where they screen hundreds or thousands of resumes? If you ask the person ...
Most practiced interviewers have a standard set of questions for each competency they are evaluating. Just as you might feel you have answered the same set of questions over and over again (sometimes even within the same day), the same thing happens on the other ...
Are you ready for your interview? Are you sure? In my role as VP of Global Talent Acquisition at Amazon, I spent time training our interviewers to be great interviewers. In addition to teaching them the S-T-A-R behavioral interviewing approach , I taught ...
In my last blog article , I talked about how to use the S-T-A-R (Situation or Task, Action you took, Results you achieved) method to answer any interview question, behavioral or not, with behavioral answers. The reality is that very few interviewers use ...
In my role as VP of Global Talent Acquisition at Amazon, I took the time to personally train interviewers on how to behaviorally interview candidates. Behavioral interviewing is based on the statistics that show that past behaviors are the best predictors of future results. The ...
You apply for a job online. Then wait. And wait. Wait some more. But the phone call never comes. Why not? It may be because you are saying something with your resume that you did not realize and did not intend. Use this checklist to ...
Dads and Grads. Father’s Day is just around the corner and most colleges have graduation ceremonies in May or June. So “Dads and Grads” ends up being a catch phrase in the media for the parties and the presents for these events. But if ...
Many job searches get stuck in the mud, unable to move forward. Lots of activity, but no real results. Why? It’s often due to the hardest part of job search. What is it? Most people are afraid of rejection. And job search is all ...
There are now more than 100,000 different job sites. Which are the best and how can you effectively use them? Follow these six steps: 1. Search for the right job site. The best job sites are those that are specific for your needs. These ...
Many college students think that their job search is over once they have accepted the offer. The job search may be over but the reality is that your work is just starting. Literally. What you do now will directly affect your career trajectory well into ...
Many articles have been written about the cover letter and the resume being dead. Anything based on paper is irrelevant. So in this digital age, are the cover letter and resume dead? Or at least becoming irrelevant? No, far from it. If anything, the digital ...
You’ve got an internship this summer. Good for you! You have taken a great first step on the path toward developing yourself into a top entry level candidate. Getting an internship is a good start. But it’s not enough just to have an ...
One of the most common questions asked by entry level job seekers is: “Why am I not getting any interviews?” This lament is often followed by a general description of the activities the job seeker has performed, which usually includes sending out hundreds of resumes ...
You’ve finished your resume. Great first step. But it’s only the first step. Now you need to put it into action. Many college students make the mistake of finishing their resume, then exclusively using the “post-and-pray” method for sending out their ...
If you have a low GPA, is all lost in the interview? Yes, low GPA can be a knockout factor, but not necessarily. It depends on how you handle the issue. There is no question that a low GPA can and will have an impact ...
Networking is often a difficult concept for most college students. Throughout your college career, the academic work you have done has typically focused on individual effort. A team approach may exist in some classes and labs, but at the end of the day the grade ...
College students often lament their lack of network connections in searching for a job. “Who would I know working in my profession, since I haven’t even started working yet?” Yet there is a resource available to you that most college students fail to utilize ...
You’re coming down to the final stretch. You are almost finished with your classes and the parties seem to be spilling over from the weekends into the weekdays. Some of your peers are even cutting final classes, thinking that a passing grade is really ...
The NFL Draft takes place every Spring, injecting hope and excitement into the lives of teams, players, and fans alike. College players have been demonstrating their abilities at the NFL combine and at pro days over the past several weeks to show that they have ...
In my career as a hiring manager through VP, I have reviewed approximately 100,000 resumes, conducted more than 10,000 interviews and hired more than 2,000 people at all levels. I have found that there is a consistent missing key for college students ...
I’ve been told over the years by interviewees that I was their toughest interview ever. Now, I know what you’re thinking—it sounds like I’m a tough, mean interviewer. Actually, far from it. I’m a very relaxed interviewer and my overall ...
With college graduation nearing, I am often asked by concerned parents, family members and friends, “What can I do to help?” Here are three things you can do to help the new college grad in your life find a job after graduation. 1. Be a ...
Every year, without fail, students walk into their campus career center and ask for a copy of “The List” of employers they should contact. Somehow they think there must be some sort of magical “list” of employers who are waiting for them to graduate. The ...
Many colleges and universities have an internal job board where employers post entry level jobs and internships. While it might be tempting to rely exclusively on these internally posted jobs, by doing so you would be missing out on the majority of entry level jobs ...
In my career as a hiring manager through VP, I have reviewed approximately 100,000 resumes, conducted more than 10,000 interviews and hired more than 2,000 people at all levels. Do the math: for every 100 resumes reviewed, only 10 result in interviews ...
Dozens of teams are eliminated from the tournament by the time the field is narrowed down to the NCAA Final Four. An entire season of basketball comes down to three final games to determine who wins it all. The peak of March Madness descends upon ...
You had a great interview. Everything went great, you expected an offer. But the offer never came . Why? Here are the 8 most common reasons you didn’t get the job: 1. You didn’t convince the employer you are the best candidate Many candidates ...
Looking for reasons to go back to school? Upgrading your education with an advanced degree can mean honing your skills, learning new specializations and entering the job market as a stronger, more versatile employee. Even if you've been away from school for a period ...