Advice for New Grads Entering the Workforce

With exams, essays, and all-nighter study sessions behind them, new grads are ready to take the world by storm! While now is definitely a time for celebration, it’s a time for preparation, too.

Perfecting their résumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles can help graduates to set themselves up for success and establish their professional brand, even if they don’t have any work history.

Read on for tips on creating a great résumé, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile to lay the foundations for a successful career!

 

How to Create a Solid Résumé

1. Streamline your résumé

Entry-level job seekers often make the mistake of cramming any and every work experience into their résumé. But with recruiters spending approximately 7.4 seconds looking at each résumé before deciding whether or not a candidate’s worthy of an interview, you should highlight your relevant experience and achievements. 

This will help make your résumé more skimmable and you’re more likely to hold the recruiter’s attention if you impress them right off the bat.

2. Use keywords to your advantage

Many companies use ATS (applicant tracking systems) to sort through applications, which means that applications that don’t include relevant keywords may not be seen by the hiring manager or recruiter at all. Before tailoring your résumé to a position, take time to thoroughly read the job description and take note of the keywords used in the description.

While you should not embellish your résumé for the sake of including as many keywords as possible, you definitely should use relevant keywords that are included in the job description to describe your experience. 

3. Leverage your extracurricular activities and awards

If you’ve spent your time in school crushing it in your extracurriculars, share those achievements in your résumé! Listing these helps the hiring manager or recruiter to see your strengths in action and can show them that you’re ready to put in the work. Additionally, your extracurriculars can help you highlight your transferable skills, which makes you a more viable candidate for the position.

How to Craft a Great Cover Letter

1. Show them why you’re a great candidate, don’t tell them

When applying for an entry-level job, it’s important to find a way to stand out from the other candidates. Use your cover letter to highlight your transferable skills. 

Find a way to connect the experience you have to what the hiring manager’s looking for. For example, if you’re applying for a marketing job, you can include information in your cover letter about projects you completed in your marketing class, your experience managing your organization’s social media pages or any marketing internships you completed.

This will help you to show the hiring manager that you’re worth calling in for an interview and help you distinguish yourself from other applicants.

2. Explain why you want to work for this company

Eighty-three percent of recruiters stated that cover letters help candidates demonstrate that they’re a great fit for the company. To really wow the person reading your cover letter, explain why you want to work for this particular company. Are you passionate about the work they do? Does their work culture seem like an environment you’d thrive in? 

If you’ve met someone who works for the company—like a recruiter at a job fair, a classmate’s parent, or a friend who interned there—use your cover letter to express how what you learned from them about the company intrigued you and assured you that they’re a company you want to work for.

If you don’t know anyone who works for the company, don’t worry. Do your research and incorporate what you learned about the company into your cover letter. Make sure that your cover letter shows your interest and excitement about the company so that the hiring manager can see that you’d be a great fit for the team.

3. Show off your soft skills

Soft skills (like communication, collaboration, and time management) are much more valuable than many people realize. Ninety-seven percent of employers said that soft skills are equally as important or more important than hard skills. 

Soft skills help make people more successful in the workplace. After all, someone can have impressive technical skills, but if they struggle to meet deadlines or work with a team, they may not perform well on the job.

If you notice that the job description mentions particular soft skills, highlight them in your cover letter. Give examples that show how you used those skills in group projects, clubs, and in any past jobs. This will show the hiring manager or recruiter that you have the skills you need to succeed in the workplace; additionally, this may convince them that you’re worth training on the job.

How to Use LinkedIn Like a Pro

1. Write a killer summary

These days, if you’re looking to network and be in the know about your targeted industry, LinkedIn is the place to be! Ninety-three percent of recruiters use LinkedIn to find job candidates before they even post the position online. For new grads without much work experience, a great summary goes a long way toward grabbing recruiters’ attention and attracting new connections.

LinkedIn summaries are a bit like a mini cover letter, but they allow for a little more personality to shine through. Use your summary to share your achievements and experience while giving people who visit your profile a glimpse into your vision for your career. 

2. Make great connections

LinkedIn isn’t like Facebook or Instagram, so don’t be afraid to connect with strangers! While you should absolutely connect with your classmates and friends, LinkedIn is the perfect place to branch out and build your network. LinkedIn has over 740 million users around the world, so you’re bound to find valuable connections on this site no matter your industry. 

To start building your network, send connection requests to coworkers from any previous jobs, members of your extracurricular organizations, and alumni from your school. From there, reach out to people who work in your target industry and at companies you want to work for. This will help you to build a great network of people who can alert you of open positions or become mentors and references.

3. Build your professional brand 

LinkedIn is a great tool for building your professional brand. 

What’s a professional brand? 

Think of it as how other professionals see you—it’s a mix of who you are, your values, your accomplishments, and your reputation. And yes, how other professionals see you does matter; eighty-five percent of hiring managers said candidates’ branding influences their hiring decisions. 

Establishing a solid online presence is essential to building a professional brand, and LinkedIn is a solid choice for boosting online presence after graduation, especially since recruiters and hiring managers are so active on the platform.

To start building up your brand, stay active in industry groups on LinkedIn, comment on other people’s posts, and share career updates or helpful tips on your own profile. This will show other LinkedIn members that you’re knowledgeable, approachable, and passionate about advancing your career.

Additionally, make sure to fully complete your LinkedIn profile. Not only are those with completed profiles 40 times more likely to receive job opportunities through LinkedIn, but your education, achievements, and skills can play a major part in shaping your professional brand by showing what you bring to the table.

Wrapping Up

For new grads at the beginning of their career, now’s the perfect time to start figuring out what you want to do next and crafting a résumé, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile that’ll help you get there.

Want to make sure your professional documents and LinkedIn profile are absolutely perfect?

We’re here to help! Our staff will help you transform from a new grad into a new hire!