Future predictions

As many soon-to-be college graduates begin to look for jobs it seems only reasonable for them to be a little frightened by the terrible and ever down-spiraling economic news. (The sad part is I know it is not only affecting recent college graduates but also employees of companies that have worked 40 years and save every year for retirement only to look at their latest bank statement to see that they have lost ten to twenty percent of their retirement in the past year alone.)

Investments are a long-term thing. No one gets rich over night, well let me rephrase that... Not many get rich over night. But if you are interested in getting rich overnight, take the money you would save in that 401k or IRA when you get that awesome job and put it towards educating the next generation of Bright Futures in Florida by supporting the scholarship fund that is primarily paid for through lottery money. Not a wise decision, but it may work out better than the stock market or the housing markets are doing.

All the bad news about joblessness and a terrible economy doesn't have to equal a scarce job market for graduating seniors or anyone within any industry. Finding a job may be harder as corporations will often shrink their marketing budgets during times of recessions which usually affect our industry the most (creative/advertising/media). But once you find that job (which there are still plenty out there) you have to keep that job. The number one way to keep a job is to become so involved with that company and so helpful to that company that it would be worse for them to loose you than to pay you more to keep you on board (as well as do the normal come to work on time, prepared, etc...). Now by doing this you have to be careful because you can not just blindly get involved in every project, but if you are being included in every project and you are providing your employer with a service that they need and are happy with, I would tend to think that you are going to keep that job (unless some other little kid comes by and offers to work for less money).

Now for all of you who doubt my statement that there are still plenty of jobs out there, I have some more thoughts on that as well. Jobs are not always advertised in the classifieds nor are they always listed in some online directory. A great way to tackle the task of looking for jobs is to solicit yourself instead of looking for the solicited jobs. Now getting a website and making an online portfolio are great ideas and sometimes can lead to people contacting you for work, but the easiest way to solicit yourself is by getting out there and getting scene at social events and always extending your networking arms. A statement that I think is very true is "It's not what you know, but more about who you know."

You can only make a first impression once, and that first impression may be enough to start a relationship with a future employer or even make an employer realize they do have a position for you available even if they didn't realize it or even if they didn't budget for it yet. If an employer thinks it would be better for his or her company to hire you now, rather than fight against you later when you are working for a competitive company, that can be a great advantage when you are searching for a job. You have the capability to influence people by the way you "present to win" at every function that you see a possible employer.

Now if we lived in a movie, we would just go hit up the local high-class bar on a Friday and socialize with the bigwigs that are there for happy hour and instantly get hired. It usually isn't that easy, but if you stay positive and keep the mentality that everyone you meet could be a future employer, than finding a job may have gotten that much easier.