Jobs

THE JOB SEARCH

NEW COLLEGE GRADUATE AND CAREER CHANGERS

Career Services

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Website: www.umuc.edu/careerservices

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Phone: 240.684.2720

Many students become frustrated with their job search because when they search in their field

of interest or major, many of jobs appear that they do not qualify for because they are looking

for years of experience. There are many ways of combating this problem.

EVALUATE YOUR EXPERIENCE LEVEL

First, you need to evaluate your experience level. Be truthful with yourself. If you are a new

college graduate with work experience unrelated to your field of study then in industry you

would be considered entry level. If you are a new college graduate that is undergoing a career

change and you are totally changing fields, by industry standards you are considered entry

level. You will probably get preference in the selection process because of your past work

experience but you are still considered entry level. This becomes very important in your

search because this is how you are going to filter out the jobs.

USING LARGE JOB SEARCH WEBSITES

In most large job search Web sites (ie. Monster, CareerBuilder, Washington Post), you can

choose a job category which would be whatever is closest to your major. Depending on your

major, you may be able to choose more than one job category. After you have chosen your

job category, you proceed to the keyword search field and enter the key words “entry level” in

quotation marks. This will filter out all those jobs in your field of study that require years of

experience. Don’t forget to filter out the location of the job! Also, keep in mind that just

because it says entry level does not mean that the pay is low.

REVIEW ALL JOB TITLES

Be sure to review all the job descriptions that are produced by your search. Job titles can be

very deceiving. For example, you may see openings for a financial analyst at two different

companies, but the skills required may be totally...