plus 1, Job Front: Career expert sees tough time for grads - Sacramento Bee

Job Front: Career expert sees tough time for grads - Sacramento Bee

Posted: 03 May 2010 12:05 AM PDT

As career expert Rob McGovern sees it, for today's graduates, it's a classic bad news-good news scenario.

"We're in the worst recession since 1980, probably since the Great Depression, but unemployment for college graduates" remains relatively low, he said. "That puts them in a better situation than the general unemployed."

But McGovern knows making the transition to a new job remains a steep challenge for many, especially newly minted college graduates heading into a highly competitive job market.

McGovern founded CareerBuilder.com in the 1990s, and now heads JobFox.com, a job-matching and résumé-writing website. He said he was "semi-optimistic" that the economy is improving, but believes it still will take longer for grads to get a job.

"New graduates are competing with people who are ready to take an entry-level job," he said. "This is not the kind of year where they will get three or four offers. They will likely get one offer."

The challenge is made more difficult, he said, by new grads' lack of basic résumé-writing skills in a digital world.

"People use conventional wisdom from the 1970s and 1980s when they are preparing their résumé, but that's not the real world," he said.

McGovern laid out a few of his résumé rules for Job Front.

• Tout accomplishments, not job assignments.

A résumé, he said, "should be a compendium of what you've accomplished. Start your résumé with a career summary of what you've accomplished and what you want to accomplish."

• Don't duck.

If your résumé is short on work experience or skills an employer seeks, don't hide it. Instead, use the résumé to "talk about where you'd like to develop and learn," McGovern said.

• Avoid industry-speak.

More and more, résumés are evaluated by machines that flag jargon.

"There's a block of key words that industries use, but the technology inside résumé evaluators (is) much smarter than that," McGovern said. His suggestion: Describe your job skills, but tie them to results.

• Quality, not quantity.

McGovern says too many job seekers flood the market with résumés when a more focused approach is more effective. "They're making the mistake of playing the search as a volume game," he said. "Instead, find 10 jobs where you're a really good fit."

Folsom Lake College hosts job fair

Folsom Lake College hosts its Career Exploration & Volunteer Fair on Tuesday.

The free event is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the campus, 10 College Parkway in Folsom, and spotlights approximately 50 local employers, companies in green industries and nonprofit agencies seeking volunteers.

Job seekers will receive career guidance from counselors and other professionals as well as résumé critiques and tips on how to prepare résumés and cover letters.

Though the event is free, a daily parking pass is $1.

Find more information, including a campus map, at www.flc.losrios.edu.

Free event at Red Lion

A free event for job seekers is set for May 11 at the Red Lion Hotel, 1401 Arden Way, in Sacramento.

The career fair, by SacHires.com, is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will feature 20 employers in retail, staffing and other fields, as well as résumé critiquing by an employment expert.

For additional information, visit http://sachires.com.

Call The Bee's Darrell Smith, (916) 321-1040.

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