Oh, the Places You'll Go

The Class of 2024 has been through it. 

They missed out on their high school graduations during the pandemic, spent years experiencing college via Zoom, and now that they’ve finally earned their degrees, they’ve graduated into a pretty iffy job market. 

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers , hiring is down 5.8 percent compared to this time last year. And though there are thousands of job openings, the sectors hiring the most — like leisure, hospitality, and construction — aren’t necessarily fields that require a college degree. 

So what’s a new grad to do? 

We’ve got great advice from a few seasoned pros. First, we’ll hear from Beth Hendler-Grunt, a consultant who’s helped hundreds of young people make their first moves into the working world. Then, HR expert Liz Ryan breaks down what every new grad can do right now to stand out in the application process. We’ll wrap up with a trip down memory lane, featuring one of my all-time favorite commencement speeches.

Your Next Great Step

Beth Hendler-Grunt ● Getting College Grads Hired is the founder of Next Great Step , a firm that specializes in guiding new grads through their job searches. These are the two big issues she’s seeing among the Class of 2024:

• “This generation was so affected by the pandemic, and I think that’s taken a toll on their mental health. Even if they’re brilliant and have great GPAs, many of them are struggling with anxiety, depression, self-doubt, or learning challenges.”
• “They also haven’t had as many opportunities as other grads to just talk to people and develop those social skills that are needed to be successful in an interview.”

Her best advice? Have a plan.

“You cannot haphazardly apply online, cross your fingers, and think that somebody’s going to find you. Especially as a new grad, your experience is not going to match up perfectly with those job listings — even if you stuff your resume with keywords to appeal to screening algorithms,” Hendler-Grunt tells us. 

It pays to be systematic in your search, and that means first having a solid understanding of your strengths and skills. These shouldn’t be qualities like “hardworking” or “responsible,” Hendler-Grunt says. “They should be things that you’ve demonstrated and can speak about in interviews, like you’re a great public speaker, or that you know how to sell or research.” 

“You also need a clear picture of the top industries, companies, and people you want to target through strategic networking,” she explains. “I love having new grads reach out to alumni; they’re great leads and tend to be more friendly and willing to help. There are free tools on LinkedIn to help you search for alumni who work for your target companies or who are in the same city or have the same major as you. Reach out to them, especially the ones in entry-level positions — they can help you understand what it took to get those roles.”

Putting Your Best Foot Forward

Liz Ryan , the CEO of Human Workplace , has probably screened thousands of early-career resumes, and a common mistake she sees is that new jobseekers don’t fine-tune their applications for the jobs they want. You have to “brand yourself,” Ryan tells us, and that brand should not be “new grad seeking opportunities.”

“Read job listings, browse LinkedIn profiles to see what other recent grads are doing professionally, choose a target set of 3 to 5 related job titles, and market yourself for those jobs in particular,” she says. That means thinking through your school and internship histories, pulling out the responsibilities and accomplishments that align most closely with the position you want, and editing your resume and LinkedIn profile to reflect that. 

“Casting too wide a net in your branding is more likely to hurt than help your job search,” Ryan says.

Get Inspired

I’ve had the privilege of being the commencement speaker at about a dozen colleges — from Princeton to my alma mater, the University of Virginia. (Wahoowa!) Each time, I’ve taken the assignment very seriously and I can only hope that something I said inspired these young adults in some small way.

Here’s a look back at the speech I gave to the UVA Class of 2012, plus a roundup of life lessons I’ve gathered from some great minds over the years. 

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