My boyfriend sent me a Wait But Why article a few months ago about picking the right career, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Towards the beginning of the article, there is a pie chart that breaks down a long lifetime into a few major life points: slightly more than half of a lifespan is spent on sleep and self-care, a fourth makes up childhood, and the remaining fourth is split between work and free time.
Only one-fourth of a lifetime, outside of childhood and fulfilling living needs, remains to genuinely make use of. And half of that time will be spent working? Why would you waste your time doing a job you dislike or hate?!
I understand there are many reasons people must take atrocious or unappealing jobs due to necessity, and I am super privileged to do something I enjoy. But for those that can do some searching, I feel that there are many great opportunities that people may not realize are out there (particularly entry-level jobs), and I want to help walk you through some of the steps I took (or wish I had).
What is Your Motivation?
You’ll probably have a different threshold of how hard, how much, and what kinds of jobs you’re willing to work, depending on your situation. If you’re looking for some extra spending money on the side, you may be a little pickier and less determined to get a job than if you’re relying on your job(s) to support you. Before you start looking for jobs, decide why you plan on working, so you can better direct your search.
I started job hunting the summer after my freshman year of college, when I started having to ration my ramen. Okay, that’s an overstatement, but I was down to the last few hundred dollars of my student loans, and I was really struggling to find enough food money by the end of the semester.
Keep Your Schedule in Mind
Once you know how much you are willing to put into your job, you need to think about the timing. You may find the “perfect” position, but if it doesn’t fit around your academic or personal schedule, then you may not be able to work the job. Consider what you would be willing to and can sacrifice to make time for your occupation. Can you rearrange your academic schedule? Are you able to move a commitment to a different day or time?
Since I had already completed my registration and the semester was approaching, I didn’t have a lot of flexibility with my class schedule. I had class every morning and needed to find positions that let me either work in the evenings or after my class times. Since I was willing to forgo my extracurricular activities for whatever position I received, I was able to free up most of my afternoons as “potential work time”.
What Are Your Interests and Qualifications?
Applying for a job you are not qualified for is typically a waste of time. Recruiters often look to ensure that the minimum requirements are met before sending the application. Unless you have a valuable skill that you bring to the table that overcomes your deficit(s), then I would advise against applying for those opportunities. That being said, if it is a position that you really you can still apply.
Going into the job market, I had little life experience and no work experience (other than a few semesters of research). I also had zero idea what I wanted to do. I just knew that I didn’t want to work in the food or retail industry. I had no interest in those things. I also wanted my job to be meaningful.
I was pre-health-something at the time, and have done volunteer work with kids in the past, so I figured that something health or camp-related would be interesting to do.
Where to Start Looking
There are three ways, in my opinion, that you can approach job hunting: job websites, school/employment resources, and networking. I would recommend utilizing all three to get the widest variety of opportunities.
Job Websites – Start by perusing a job posting website to see what the options are in your area. Some sites also provide salary breakdowns and detailed job descriptions, and make it fairly easy to filter out results you don’t qualify for. This is a fast way to access a lot of information, but it may become overwhelming if you’re not really sure what you’re looking for.
School/Employment Resources – This may be a combination of print and online searching, depending on where you go. School career departments and employment centers sometimes have great local opportunities that are not listed on large job posting websites or other print sources or that may not be as well-advertised. This is another great way to find awesome, less competitive positions since they are often less well-known and may be more geared toward your experience level. Newspapers and fliers are also great places to look for interesting opportunities.
Networking and Connections – I personally hate relying on my distant connections to give me an “in” (really though, like what is this “friend of a friend’s brother’s wife” business?) I find it lazy. I believe that taking the time to actually interact with people will yield better relationships, and you may be able to score a job from the source. (Why ask your friend’s dad to talk to someone to maybe find you a job at a hospital, when you can ask the hospital director, whom you chatted with last week, himself? Just saying!) You can meet many influential people at community events, or potentially at career fairs or conferences. If you find yourself interested in their line of work, it doesn’t hurt to ask for their contact information or advice on getting a position in that specific field. I have gotten some amazing leads this way; unfortunately, I haven’t been in the position to follow through on them.
Tip: Try typing “no experience” into the search bar to look for jobs that have few to no requirements. You can do this along with a specific field you’re considering working in (for example, “health, no experience”).
Narrowing Down the Options
So now that you have so many things to look at that you don’t know what to look at first, you can start narrowing down the options.
Start as broadly as possible, but not too broadly (I’m so helpful, I know). Here, again, I like to start with the job search websites. I swear by Indeed.com, but you’re welcome to use whatever site you’re most comfortable with. If you’ve decided that you want a job in a specific field or a specific position (e.g., health, sales, cashier, hostess), go ahead and enter that in the search bar. Next, filter out the job types and experience levels you’re not interested in. Looking for full-time, entry-level jobs? Make sure those are the only boxes selected.
Once you have those criteria selected, you can start picking jobs. At this point in the search, I typically open a new tab for every job title that sounds like something I would be willing to do. You can also save a link for each page, but I find it easier to close tabs later on than to try to delete the correct link when there are 50+.
Go through as many pages of results as you can and try to avoid selecting duplicate postings. Once you finish, start eliminating tabs of jobs that do not fit in your schedule or have qualifications you may not satisfy. If there are any positions you know you absolutely would not do or do not fall into your criteria, eliminate those as well.
Once you have narrowed down the entries from your selected job site, factor in any opportunities from school or employment resources. (My school has an online job posting site, so I followed the process of opening dozens of tabs and eliminating those that did not work.) Finally, if you had any interesting leads or opportunities, incorporate those into your list as well. This should provide you with a decently sized list of options to choose from, with hopefully some opportunities that you are excited about.
Applying
Start with your top 4-5 choices and apply to those first. Make sure your resume is well-made, and take time to double and triple-check your application. Asking one or two people to read it over is always a bonus, because they may catch mistakes that you missed (I know this is common sense, but it’s easy to forget when you’re in a rush!). I do not recommend applying for more than 5 positions in a week; however, if you do not hear back from the first round, you can submit your second round of applications the following week.
Happy (job) Hunting!
Disclaimer: This commentary is based on my personal opinion. I recommend consulting a career and/or academic advisor and your support system before making any major decisions. They may also be able to provide you with more guided help to approach your job search.