Graduating? Let the job hunt begin

Editor’s note: April Forristall will graduate from the University of Maine in May and is writing a series of columns, to appear Wednesdays, about her and classmates’ job-hunting experiences.

I enjoyed approximately four hours of my winter break before panic struck.

Twenty minutes into my congratulations-you-made-it-through-finals-week manicure and pedicure and deep into de-stressing mode, it hit me: I have one semester of college left.

Each worry brought on a chain reaction of responsibilities to assume in the future. Car insurance will lead to health insurance which will lead to paying for doctor appointments and prescriptions.

A few days into a stay at my parents’ house, losing more sleep each night and the threat of a migraine looming, I faced these problems the same way I do most unsettling situations: I shopped. For some reason, this did not help.

So I turned to my parents. My father responded by buying me a book that I now consider my survival guide. “What Color Is Your Parachute?” is a best-selling job-hunting book by Richard Nelson Bolles.

I also made a “To Do” list: Things that have to be accomplished before I graduate. First was conquering my fears and submitting something I have written these past years for publication (important for a journalism major). Second was to get an internship. That was it. Not much of a plan, but I slept better that night.

Since the day at the nail salon, I have realized something: The pros of growing up are out-weighing the cons.

Little by little I began to break out of my college mindset and worry about what’s going to happen beyond the weekend. And I wasn’t the only one.

Suddenly signs of adulthood were showing up all around me. Even friends’ voicemail messages were beginning to sound grown up. Instead of, “Hey, guys, it’s so-and-so, leave a message,” they have become “Hello, you reached so-and-so [last name included]. Please leave your name, number and the time you called, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.” The perfect message in case a potential employer returns a call.

Number three on my list: start looking for job leads.

Bolles’ book lists several worst and best ways to hunt for a job. The most successful ways to get a job include:

. Asking for job-leads from family members, friends, people in the community, staff at career centers.

. Knocking on the door of any employer, factory, or office that interests you, whether or not they have a vacancy.

(My public relations teacher told a girl the other day that, as an employer, if she could walk up to her and introduce herself with confidence, she would get hired. Period.)

. In a group with other job-hunters or by yourself, use the phonebook’s yellow pages to identify subjects or fields of interest to you in the town or city where you are and then call up the employers listed in that field to ask if they are hiring for the type of position you can do – and do well.

The least successful ways to hunt for a job include:

. Using the Internet, mailing out resumes to employers at random, answering ads in professional or trade journals appropriate to your field, answering local newspaper ads, going to private employment agencies or search firms for help, asking a former teacher or professor for job leads.

But the way I figure it, search for a job any way you can. After all, you wouldn’t just try on one outfit before a big night, so why restrain yourself to one job-hunting method?