5 Challenges when looking for a job

Looking for a job as a recent grad is tough! Especially when you know what you want - to be a digital marketing professional. It's rare to find a spec which doesn't state a minimum of 2 years experience in this field and trainee programmes and graduate roles are an exception.

Can you identify yourself with some stuff this guy mentions in this video? I did.

Job seeking can be very challenging, there's no doubt about it. But I don't want to encourage moaning here, so below some challenges I faced so far and how to overcome these.

1 Motivation

Self-motivation is the key in this time between college and your first job. It is very likely that you will be on the hunt for a couple of months, which can be a long long time when you are dying to find a job. I personally am a little impatient and hate when I apply for a job and don't get a reply at all. But I learned fast that this is the case in 90% of the applications you send out. Don't get down about it. Stay with it, follow up with your applications (LinkedIn is a great tool to do that) and keep applying for other jobs while you wait for replies. Don't do it like this guy:

2 Recruiters

A bunch of recruiters will call you on the hunt for their next candidate. Unfortunately, from my experience, the positions offered are mostly not what you are looking for. It's good to consider, but more important to keep your long term career goals in sight. Will this position get you where you want to go? Can recruiters be annoying? Yes, but they can also be very helpful and they can be the missing link between you and your next job, so be nice ;-)

3 Daily routine

In my job search I found myself stuck in a daily routine of: Checking job sites, searching for the same terms, choosing the same search options.. From time to time I did a little brainstorm to think of different approaches which then helped me discover positions I had overlooked with my daily routine.

4 Too high expectations

Expectations and goals are important as mentioned earlier. But many ways lead to Rome, so consider alternatives to arriving at your career goals. Many companies have career development opportunities and cross training programmes which might enable you to move after a certain time in the company.

5 Money running out

Oh, yes.. This is an important factor, again in relation to career goals. After a while I found myself in the dilemma of  running out of money on the one hand and on the other hand job offers and specs for roles not really related to what I have in mind for my future, but paying attractive wages. Money should not be the motivating factor for your job search, remember to think about what will make you enjoy going to work every day and where the long term options are for you.

My final tip from job searcher to job searcher: Check out the Monster YouTube Channel for valuable advice on different job search challenges.