What can new grads do with their degree?

When it comes to looking for an entry-level role post-graduation, my advice is to think outside the box. And by “box,” I mean the major printed on your degree.

One of the hardest parts of looking for a job is knowing what jobs to look for and what types of employers to apply. It can be difficult to step outside the comfort zone of your major, but you should do so in order to maximize the chances of you landing meaningful work right out of school – especially in our current economic climate.

For example, since I will graduate with a Bachelor of Journalism in the spring, it makes sense for me to apply to traditional journalism jobs such as news reporting, writing, editing and all the variations in between.

The truth is, however, that I’m probably qualified to work in other roles too, such as public relations, technical writing, designing layouts, analysing and researching, among other things. If I went on to law school or teacher’s college, I could also become a lawyer or a teacher.

I should also look at roles in companies of all backgrounds, not just news organizations. Big business, all levels of government, law enforcement agencies, advertising and marketing firms, non-profit agencies, and universities and colleges all employ people with backgrounds in journalism.

I’m just using myself as an example, of course, but the same goes for almost any undergraduate degree.

Concordia University’s Career and Placement Services (CAPS) has a great resource on their website, called What Can I Do With My Major?, which gives students and recent grads a good idea of what’s out there in terms of potential jobs and potential employers, as well as the skills you’ve probably acquired over the duration of your degree.

So far, there are more than 25 “majors” listed under the categories of Arts & Science, Engineering & Computing Science, Business and Fine Arts. Most of them are fairly common and can probably be found at most universities across the country, such as economics, history, engineering from civil to mechanical to software, business management and administration, and theatre.

Each document gives you examples of jobs acquired by recent grads in that program, potential work settings, skills and characteristics, as well as professional associations you should be aware of as you pursue a career in that industry. It also gives you a few examples of notable grads who have the same degree, in case you wanted some interesting trivia to throw out there at your next party.

If you can’t find your major on What Can I Do With My Major?, ask your peers, your profs and other contacts in your industry to find out what kinds of jobs you could be doing with your degree. If your university’s career centre is as good as Concordia’s, it should also have program-specific information for you.

Once you learn more about what you’re capable of, you’ll have the upper hand and be confident enough to apply for jobs most people with your degree wouldn’t think of.

Cross-posted in the Learn section of TalentEgg.ca and on the TalentEgg blog.

Internships after graduation

Daniel’s post yesterday (on the TalentEgg blog) about doing internships after graduation is right on the money.

However, I would encourage everyone to consider an internship even before they’re “stuck” because competition for internships can be fierce in certain industries!Yesterday was the first of many holiday get-togethers that will be happening in my extended family over the next few weeks.

Since I will be the next person in my family to graduate from university, I was bombarded with questions from well-meaning relatives about my career prospects come April.

I told them that although I don’t have anything lined up yet, I’ve been applying for summer reporting internships at newspapers across the country since the beginning of November and deadlines for other internships continue through the end of February so far. 

“Internships?” they said. “Shouldn’t you be looking for a real job?” 

I don’t blame them for thinking that internships are just what students do while they’re in school to get experience. A lot of students and new grads looking for jobs think that as well. They’re short term, low-paying (or no-pay) positions with no guarantee of staying on with the company once your weeks or months are up, created to give entry-level candidates a chance to see what it’s like to work in the “real world.”

Some entry-level roles require experience beyond what you may have been able to acquire while in university. And, like “real” positions, internship application deadlines can start six months or more before the job term begins. Employers have to look over hundreds or even thousands of cover letters, resumes and portfolios before selecting the right candidate(s). 

Timing is everything and knowing when employers are accepting internship applications is key. If you miss the deadline, you’ll have to wait until next year to apply again.

Unlike long-term full-time roles, however, employers may not make a great effort to recruit for their internships. In my experience in the journalism program at Ryerson, big and small employers looking for interns ask the departmental secretary to send e-mails containing information about the internships to students and recent alumni. They may hold informational sessions at the university, but that is fairly rare and usually done by only the largest companies.

For a broader list of internship possibilities, I would suggest CampusAccess.com’s directory of internship programs or Concordia University’s Canadian internships page, but you can probably find lists of program-specific internships at your university’s career centre or even at your department’s office.

Cross-posted on the TalentEgg blog.

Vacation time

I have a month off starting yesterday. Other than doing some online work for TalentEgg, which I am very excited about, and Christmas, of course, my schedule is pretty open.

I’m not a huge list person, but I decided to make a holiday to-do list so I can feel like I’m actually accomplishing something over the next four weeks or so.

• Finish reading The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman. (I’m about halfway through.)
• Organize my bookmarks in Google Chrome because they’re a disgusting mess.
• Take the 17 flights of stairs up to my apartment instead of the elevator at least once per day.
• Apply for internships with deadlines through December and January.
• Update my resume.
• Buy Christmas gifts.
• Throw holiday party Dec. 13.
• Make perogies from scratch.
• Take more photos and post them here.

Maybe I’ll update this as I go along. Who knows. I have a month off – I’m a woman of leisure now!

Studying like a journalist

Assuming I don’t enrol in any more post-secondary education in the near future, today was the last study session of my university career. And boy was it a doozy.

An extension on, what I considered to be a more important assignment, our investigative features left me less than a day to study for my Media Ethics and the Law exam, which is tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. So Heather, Clare and I stayed at school studying for more than seven hours straight, from 3 p.m. to about 10:30 p.m.

I read the entire law reader in that time and also read some important court decisions on landmark cases.

Part of me acknowledges laziness on my part due to my absolute boredom with that class, but another part wonders if it’s just the nature of being a journalist and an information consumer.

When we’re writing on deadline, we don’t necessarily have the time to study and re-study background material. We remember the key details pertinent to our story and that’s about it.

I think that’s the way I’ve started to approach learning now, too. Is there anything wrong with that?

Well, this exam is worth 50 per cent of my final grade in this class, so I guess I’ll find out the answer in about three weeks.

Gen-Y, Millennials, Net Geners

It may sound silly, but I didn’t discover which generation I belonged to until this summer.

When I started working for TalentEgg in July, I realized there were a lot of employers out there who were really interested in attracting young people to their company.

Many of them wanted us to know they had an on-site gym, or weekly Rock Band parties, or flexible hours. Companies that seemed boring and straight-laced tried their best to sell the fun and flexible possibilities for entry-level hires.

Lauren Friese, who is TalentEgg’s founder and president, has not only made finding meaningful careers for students and recent grads her business, but she’s also become a Generation Y ambassador. To those of us who are actually Gen-Yers ourselves, being an “ambassador” sounds ridiculous. Why do we need ambassadors?

But to the generations that have come before us, Gen-Y ambassadors are extremely valuable if they can actually bridge the gap between the two, or three or however many generations. Lauren does that really well and has become an expert on Gen-Y in the workforce.

So, I figured out that I’m part of Generation Y as well. Typically, Gen-Yers were born between 1981 and the early 2000s. What defines us best (according to the generations before us), however, is our use of technology and our spoiled/lazy/selfish/self-entitled attitude, especially when it comes to work.

The ability to use technology is great and it’s understandable why employers would find it valuable. But what about the rest? Why are we (or why do we think we are) in such high demand if we all display those negative traits?

Assuming we all possess those traits, the reason is that our parents and grandparents, the Baby Boomers, are retiring. Although we apparently demand high salaries right from the get-go, they’re nothing compared to the bloated salaries of the Baby Boomers who have been working for decades, sometimes in the same job.

We’re also better educated than our parents and grandparents. My dad scraped by on a high school diploma for more than 15 years and went to trade school in his mid-thirties. He did manual labour, wore a tool belt and didn’t reach a management position with a six-figure income until his late forties, and he got that job because of his more than 20 years of expertise.

Now, I don’t expect a six figure income when I start. Especially not with a journalism degree. But I expect to be able to make a living, live independently and start to pay off my student loans. I think most people my age expect the same. That would probably amount to about half, or less, of what our parents might make after decades of experience.

Employers are thinking, “Awesome! They know more and cost less!”

But then there are all the things that make us unattractive to the older generations: Spending too much time with technology, all the time. Multi-tasking, but not just on work-related things. Short attention spans. Work-life balance, with a little bit of extra life. Our desire for informality and flexibility. Our expectation that we will be rewarded often for the good work we produce.

This clash seems to be popping up everywhere. Earlier this week, Don Tapscott, author of “Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World,” was on Spark on CBC Radio promoting his book and basically selling all the traditionally negative attributes of Gen-Yers, or Net Geners, as positives. It was really refreshing and made me feel really good about myself.

But then I read Steve Maich’s article in this week’s issue of Maclean’s and my ego deflated a little. Maich scoffs at the portrayal of millennials by people like Tapscott and says this is a generation difference like any other: “Young people have always thought they were smarter than their bosses, that they deserved more money, more freedom, more responsibility, and more recognition for their efforts.”

He also says the sooner employers realize that Gen-Y isn’t special or different from other youngest generations in any way, the sooner we’ll work harder and discover we can’t be successful with more life than work at work.

So which one is it? I think it’s probably a bit of both. Or at least I hope so.

But then again, I’m just a “spoiled, shallow and selfish” Gen-Yer/millennial/Net Gener. What do I know?