jasonbolton.com

Looking For Work? Network!

If you are one of many new college graduates out there who are looking for work in a highly competitive environment, make sure you network with many professionals in your field and ask many questions. Twitter is a great way to do this, because you can connect with people all across the world. Many professionals over-emphasize the topic of this post to current graduates and job seekers, yet it baffles me that some people still do not follow it. Trust me, I was there once.

I recently graduated from Memphis College of Art in 2008 with a major in Graphic Design. I worked a short internship at a design firm in Memphis before starting my job search. Months passed by without much progression. I would get an interview here and there, but with many candidates applying for the same position, I constantly heard that I was not qualified enough.

I finally relocated to San Francisco because I believed there was more of an opportunity to land a job there than in Memphis where the competition was greater due to fewer design firms. The first couple of months were tough, but eventually work finally came through for me. I now currently have four recurring contract jobs all in the design industry. How did I go about getting the four jobs?

First, I used my sister who is a professional in the web design industry to help introduce me to many of her fellow designers. I was using the best connection I could to help me connect with more people who are in the field I was trying to get my foot in. My sister then used Twitter to simply say, "Anybody looking for an entry level graphic/web designer that can do some CSS, too? Hire my brother!". She did this twice and both times resulted in new job opportunities for me. I also got a recurring contract job through one of her friends who knew I was looking for work and referred me to the company who needed a designer. In the short span of three months from January to March 2009, I had three contract jobs and one internship.

Professionals are always looking out for new graduates and job seekers in the same field because they know that once upon a time they were there in the same position relying on others to help them out in their job search. Not only do they have a library of great advice for you, but they also may know someone at a company who is looking for help or may have a connection that knows someone who may be looking for help.