Getting Your First Job For Dummies® ge.com

Getting Your First Job

by Roberto Angulo

Cofounder of

Getting Your First Job For Dummies?

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774,

Copyright ? 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2017959385

ISBN 978-1-119-43146-6 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-43133-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-43130-5 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents at a Glance

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Part 1: Preparing Yourself Before the Job Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

CHAPTER 1: Mapping Out Your Job Search Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 CHAPTER 2: Highlighting What You Bring to an Employer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 CHAPTER 3: Figuring Out What You Want to Do. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Part 2: Starting Your Job Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

CHAPTER 4: Researching Employers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 CHAPTER 5: Getting Ready to Search for a Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 CHAPTER 6: Searching for Jobs Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 CHAPTER 7: Building a Great Online Presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Part 3: Navigating the Application Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

CHAPTER 8: Preparing Your R?sum? and Cover Letter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 CHAPTER 9: Applying for Jobs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Part 4: Acing the Interview and Getting the Offer You Want . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

CHAPTER 10: Before the Interview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 CHAPTER 11: The Interview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 CHAPTER 12: The Offer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 CHAPTER 13: Relocating for the Right Job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Part 5: Starting Your First Job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

CHAPTER 14: Learning as Much as Possible from Your Job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 CHAPTER 15: Building Your Professional Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Part 6: The Part of Tens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

CHAPTER 16: Ten Sites for Finding Your First Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 CHAPTER 17: Ten Places to Gain Skills and Become More Employable . . . . . . . . . . . 219 CHAPTER 18: Ten (Or So) Potential Benefits Besides Salary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

About This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Foolish Assumptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Icons Used in This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Beyond the Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Where to Go from Here. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

PART 1: PREPARING YOURSELF BEFORE THE JOB SEARCH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

CHAPTER 1: Mapping Out Your Job Search Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Getting Your First Part-Time Job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Securing Internships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Finding Your First Job after College. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Knowing the Importance of Your First Job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Getting exposed to an industry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Doing the job itself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Building your professional network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Setting a Goal for Yourself. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Having expectations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Creating a timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Organizing Your Search with Online Tools and Apps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Using Google Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Taking notes with Evernote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Using Google Sheets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Expanding your vocabulary with . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

CHAPTER 2: Highlighting What You Bring to an Employer. . . . . . . . 17

Identifying Your Skills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Translating your major into specific skills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Listing your soft skills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Uncovering your hidden skills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Getting feedback from your friends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Identifying areas for improvement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Detailing Your Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Taking note of volunteer work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Listing school projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Showcasing notable sports and hobbies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Sharing your background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Table of Contents v

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