Can You Help Your Grad Get a Job? You Bet You Can!

Guest Post by Jason Seiden

According to a recent National Association of Colleges and Employers poll of students, about 20% of this year's college graduates who applied for work are leaving school with a job. This is down slightly from 2008, when 26% of graduates had jobs lined up, and down a whopping 60% from 2007, when 51% of grads left college employed!

We can’t change the economy, but we can do something to help college graduates find work. The following tips are concrete action steps designed to help you help shorten your child's job search and alleviate the stress of the search at the same time.

Let’s dive in:

Tip #1: Selling yourself The #1 mistake new grads make? They don’t know how to sell themselves to an employer. Here’s what you can do as a parent: help them understand that their value as an entry level employee is that they are willing to work hard for relatively little money. Their lack of experience does not hurt them, and their future CEO potential does not necessarily help them; right now, there is a job to do, and their value is in their ability and willingness to do it.

Tip #3: Networking  Possibly the #1 mistake parents make? Throwing a phone at their kids and expecting them to know how to use it. There’s more to networking than having a phone number! Help your graduate build quality relationships by walking him/her through a networking conversation. Role play, explain what's happening on the other end of the phone, and help them develop key interpersonal skills before they start making those calls.

Tip #4: Chillax  Your offspring’s first job probably won’t be a perfect one… so what? Repeat after me: “No big deal!” There is a broad spectrum of opportunity between “holding out for the perfect job” and “grabbing the first thing that comes my way out of sheer desperation.” Help your graduate get close, and then help him or her understand how to actively make that job as great as possible by exchanging the typical worker complaints for personal responsibility.

Tip #10: Interviewing The best way to practice for that big interview? Always be interviewing—always, with everyone! The added bonus of this approach is that, when they find themselves talking with someone who can help them, they won’t suddenly grow remorseful about their decision a moment earlier to pick their noses. Your prouder already, I know, I can feel it.

Now let's get our graduates to work! For the full list of 10 tips, plus related, 90 second videos shorts, visit http://jasonseiden.com.