BG Employers: Help me get my first real job!

[Lbelle]

Let me preface by saying yes I'm aware any job is a *real* job, but I'm talking about my first job out of college that isn't n retail or food service. I'm graduating with a B.S. in Telecommunications at the end of April, and I have been told by multiple people that in February I should start sending my resumes out. Our own Archibaldcrane has graciously helped me a TON with my resume, so that is looking good.

But what I want to know from you is basically how I should go about sending them out? I won't be able to start working anywhere until May at the earliest because I don't graduate until then, so I'm really nervous about sending out resumes and then they will forget about me. I also don't really understand the whole "send out resumes" thing. Where do I send them to? If I find a random job that looks great on Craigslist do I send my resume to them? I've had two internships, so do I send my resume to the HR people, or to the people that I actually worked for? This really confuses me...

And do I have to send everyone I give my resume to a cover letter? I've never really had to apply for a job that needed a cover letter to go with it, so any tips about cover letters would be really helpful too.

Oh, and I'd like to mention that I'm looking for a job in the entertainment industry doing anything they'll hire me for. I'd love to be an editor's assistant or work for a company using After Effects, but I'll honestly do anything.

Any advice from anyone would be really helpful, so please let me know what you think! Thanks.

[Elites]

Cover letters are a nuisance, one page not too long. Be direct and thorough with your intentions and background info. Let the first couple of sentences not make your employer throw the paper to the shredder. Monster.com is a very good place to start.

[volcanicweather]

There are some questions I have...

Where do you live and what job market are you looking at?

Are you willing to relocate?

What kind of work were you doing at your internships?

Getting a good job out of college is becoming more and more difficult unless you have inside connections somewhere. There's a reason why the term "boomerang kid" is being used so much in the media.

[The Stig]

You can go down 2 routes:

http://www.monster.com/ - put your CV there and then get molested by agencies for an interview at random companies

Or

This is occasionally a period of time where big name companies will be looking for graduates, and as such will invite you to fill in application forms and probably go through magnitude tests and assessment centres. Go to the big companies you can think of or would like to work for (airliners, IBM, microsoft) and then fill out their stuff there and see if they hook you up. Going this path means the company knows you can't start work until later anyway.

[volcanicweather]

Cover letters are a nuisance, one page not too long. Be direct and thorough with your intentions and background info. Let the first couple of sentences not make your employer throw the paper to the shredder. Monster.com is a very good place to start.

Agree about the cover letter, disagree about Monster fully. CareerBuilder is MUCH better.

As someone with professional experience who recently re-located halfway across the country with no job about 3 months ago, I'm speaking from firsthand experience on this. All I ever got on Monster was recruiter after recruiter trying to set me up with jobs I wasn't qualified for or not interested in; CareerBuilder I got interview after interview and eventually got the first job I applied for on there.

[The Stig]

Agree about the cover letter, disagree about Monster fully. CareerBuilder is MUCH better.

Going only by what's common between UK and US

Although from my 30+ interviews via Monster (got by agencies) I came to the conclusion all these people weren't really looking for someone, they were just ... bored, and wanted to interview people for lolz.

[netz]

How well did your internships go? Can you get in touch with the same people you worked for and see if they have any openings that they're looking to fill? This is your best bet -- or maybe your worst, but probably not -- since you should be a known quantity to them. If you had friendly relations with your former manager, I don't see how calling or e-mailing could possibly hurt you, and it would get you the information you need.

[Takedown3]

stripper

[Dense]

monster.com
careerbuilder.com
hotjobs.yahoo.com
dice.com (for tech jobs).

Just getting calls from agencies and dealing with questions will give you some experience and a taste of what will be expected from you in becoming gainfully employed.

There's no such thing as over-doing it as far as job applications, but it does get tedious and boring.

As for the monster vs careerbuilder, it depends a lot on the who and where. I had loads of success on monster.com, and nothing from careerbuilder. Try everything and see what fits you

[Kyumo]

This is basically about networking with people. Wherever you interned I would definitely send out a resume and let people you know who work in the field and or have some type of connection to the job you are interested in, know you are on the market for a job.

Sending your resume to Human Resources is the right way to go for jobs you have interned at and for craigslists or any other job you search on the web, they usually have you email resumes to an HR person or someone who processes the resumes.

Cover letters are nice to have but not necessary, they basically are used for you to convince them to look into your resume more over other resumes. Also cover letters are not as generic as resumes since they are written with thoughts towards the specific company and job you are applying for.

If you are looking to the enterainment industry then you have to go out and meet people that work in the enterainment industry. They don't have to neccesarily work in your field, as long as you get your name out there and make the connections which is important. Alot of people land jobs because they know someone in the company who has a position open and get the headsup about it pretty much.

So to sum it the goal is to meet alot of people, let them know you are looking and are on the market. Don't be scared to send out your resume to any jobs that seem interesting, it puts your name out there and lets all the people you meet remember you, so if an opportunity comes up that they hear about they will remember and say "hey I know someone who was interested etc."

[Abandon]

My uncle works for Verizon and said they're looking for people to fill in some of the slots they accidentally let go on Thanksgiving (cold shit, but meh, it wasn't me, shit happens)

[zoobernut]

Oh, and I'd like to mention that I'm looking for a job in the entertainment industry doing anything they'll hire me for. I'd love to be an editor's assistant or work for a company using After Effects, but I'll honestly do anything.

Any advice from anyone would be really helpful, so please let me know what you think! Thanks.

I just want to point out if you want to work with after effects you will be working as a motion graphics artist or something along those lines. In addition to your resume you will need a very strong demo reel showing far reaching capabilities with the program. I applied for a position working at the local news station at one point. The job would be to use After Effects and whatever other software I could to create their graphics packages for them, the scrolling bottom the backgrounds, the splash screens, and so forth. I almost got the job but they ended up giving it to someone internal at the last minute.

The lesson I learned from that though is for that type of job they expect a demo reel with examples that pertain specifically to the position, and during the interview I was quizzed on my knowledge of AE. The producer sat me down and showed me examples of what they create and asked me how I would make them in AE if I wanted the same look.

[Acturus]

Does your college have folks that can help coach with job hunting, or maybe networking services that provide contacts? If so, utilize it. If memory serves, my school had a network available for students that they could be a part of for a year following graduation to help with placement. It's nice to have that sort of connection with alumni from your same school as a jumping-off point for discussions.

I'm not sure what the trend is for new graduates today, but I was taught that if you are not sending responses to a specific job that is open at a company, but instead offering your name and resume as a "here I am, consider me if something opens up" situation, then a cover letter along with your resume would be useful. The cover letter should be ONE page, and briefly describe who you are and what you want. Leave as many different ways to contact you in follow up as you can.

Where possible, arrange to meet people rather than talk over the phone or email, or blind mailing. Again, I'm not sure how TeleCom works today as an industry, but where possible, face-to-face is the best way to get remembered and considered.

If applying to large companies, try to get in touch with the HR department or equivalent, rather than a particular department. My current company is massive, and has HR hubs around the area. I had the opportunity to put my name and qualifications in with the HR folks so that my name would be added to a pool of potential hires. This was helpful because the job I eventually got was never publically advertised.

Don't be afraid to consider several offers at once, if you are so lucky. Unless you are absoultely certain of what is being offered, there is no harm in asking for 24 -72 hours to consider the offer, but don't wait any longer than you have to in order to make a decision. You are probably not the only viable candidate, and in this market, it's certainly first-come-first serve.

Don't let rejection get you down either. Work multiple opportunities at one time, and try to give yourself as many possibilities as you can. I know a number of people try to focus on one job at a time, and that just delays the overall process of getting hired.

Do you know how to conduct yourself in an interview? If not, discuss with your college on coaching or training to do so. If your school doesn't offer any of this, look for books, videos, online resources to help. Interviews are always make-or-break situations. I lost so many job opportunities because my interviews positively sucked. But, I learned quickly and was all the better for it.

[Lbelle]

There are some questions I have...

Where do you live and what job market are you looking at?

Are you willing to relocate?

What kind of work were you doing at your internships?

First thanks EVERYONE for the very helpful responses. I'd like to just answer these quickly (I'm in class) so others have a better idea of what I'm asking for.

Right now I'm in Florida, going to the University of Florida in Gainesville. I'm ABSOLUTELY willing to relocate. I want a job in California, but I'd definitely relocate anywhere if the job was right. I have it on my resume as something like "willing an eager to relocate for opportunities" or something.

I worked at G4 TV for one internship getting b-roll, capturing footage, doing random errands, but it was mostly capturing footage. The other internship was at 20th Century Fox. For that it was a ton of running around being a messenger type person, reading scripts, writing coverage, getting coffee for execs, that kinda stuff. I was basically an assistant for my boss most of the time.

I do have a really good relationship with all the people that I worked with at both places, and have kept in touch with a lot of them through facebook. I'll be asking them to check if they or anyone they know need a person for sure. My uncle is also really well connected in the industry also so he might be able to hook me up too. I have a lot of connections already, and I know how important networking is so I'm doing really well in that department I think.

@Zoobernut: I agree that I should start getting a demo reel together. What kind of things would be best to have on there so that I can make it look awesome/impressive?

[zoobernut]

Don't put anything in your demo reel that isn't amazing art. Cater your demo reel to show specific skills required by the job you want. If you want a motion graphics job show motion graphics. Make several small videos in AE showing a different techniques and abilities.

Watch the news and see the sorts of graphics they create and do a couple of examples of how you would solve those issues and fill the spots. Show that you can create a looping animation that is short but can be looped infinitely. (this is important for the ticker at the bottom of the screen in the news)

Create a transition screen those are used all the time. MTV and Comedy Central also are good examples of tv stations that use motion graphics extensively.

I would keep the whole demo reel at 1 min 30 seconds maximum length personally. Also don't forget contact info at the beginning and end and also a list of software used at the end.

It is ideal if you know ahead of time what company and position you are applying for so you can tailor your demo reel specifically for them.

When I graduated my demo reel was full of 3d modeling, texturing, and level building because I wanted to work on games as a modeler. When I applied for the job at the news station I made a short demo reel showing several examples of After Effects animations I made that could be used by their station.

Now I am working as a Technical Artist and if I was going to make a demo reel for my current job it would probably comprise mostly of scripting examples.

[Stiker]

Network, network, network, NETWORK!

I finally got my foot in the door at the company I work for now because my uncle happened to know someone in my field from college. I didn't take a job under him, but he heard of an opening for the parent company that owns him and he passed my name along. Next thing I know, I have an interview lined up, they liked me and I liked the job and took it.

The thing that sucks about sending resumes out these days is that you end up sending them into a damned black hole. You might get lucky and get a bite if your resume passes through a filter, but it's a damn frustrating process to just even get an interview that way (and a total crap shoot as far as the jobs offered as well).

Get in touch with your career center. If you know where you want to relocate, contact your alumni association. If you are in a sorority, see if they have sisters in said areas too. Join professional organizations, etc.

Basically, things are far, FAR easier if you can have someone help you get your piece of paper to the top of the stack and actually force someone to associate a name with it. Otherwise, your resume is just one of hundreds or thousands (I remember my career center saying that the average time spent reviewing a resume is 1 minute at most).

You are way ahead of the game with internships. Those contacts, along with any alumni help that you can get should help you tons.

[volcanicweather]

Stiker, we should have a Dallas BG throwdown sometime.

Lbelle, it sounds like you were very smart in college with your internships and for that I applaud you. Odds are though you will probably have to leave Gainsville, which is probably a good thing because college towns are known for having horrendous entry-level markets. Too bad a good chunk of both Florida and California are dealing with huge economic issues right now.

Unless you can land a position through your connections, I'll be honest and tell you that you're going to have a tough time landing a job in your current environment. Most positions won't even look at resumes outside of their MSA for entry-level positions because they get bombarded with them. I have a HR contact at a old company I did business with who told me two days ago they received 11,000 resumes for 42 job postings last year. They just automatically throw people out who aren't even close to their location.

Two ways to combat this:

1) Leave Gainsville and move to where you WANT to live - it's a risk and you'll need some cash/connections, but as someone who just did this I have absolutely no regrets. You definitely should visit first to make sure it's a good fit.

2) Apply to jobs where you want to work in the US, but use a friend's address who lives near where the job is located. You can say you "just moved here" and you're looking for work. The problem here is you'll have to fly in for interviews.

So it's your call on what tactic you want to take. Hopefully your connections can land you a position while still living in Gainsville though.

[Kyumo]

Whatever you present to the prospect company or job you are aiming for they love to find applicants who can save them revenue and/or earn them revenue. Be it through improving what they do at less or no cost or more efficient, cost effective means.

[Moss]

If you do choose to relocate before you find a job, Atlanta is getting more and more film/tv traffic and is obviously much closer to Gainesville than Cali. Also Atlanta is the shit.

[Ksandra]

Do you only know AE?

My boytoy works for a company in Cali that converts movies in 3d. They recently finished Alice in Wonderland and now have 4 movies on their plate (ontop of commercials). Because of this they are doing mass hiring atm.

All the programs they use are proprietary, in his department though he said it was good having a Maya and Phtoshop background since the programs are similar. I know they have an AE department as well (so may not need maya knowledge, I'll ask when he gets home).

Basically what they do is show you how their program works, then give you about 2 days to show how fast you learn it. Upside is it's in Cali (which you said you'd love to go to), downside is that means having to fly out a couple of days to do the trial run.

If you're interested and have any questions let me know. Their website is here:

http://www.legendfilms.com/


[edit] Also, since I know people think 3D is just a fad, they also colorize black and white films and MST3K's Rifttrax. This is not a company that puts all it's eggs in one basket.