Hello September 22nd, 2010 – The first day of Fall.  Not here yet, but it’s on our mind.  September 1st always has a familiar feeling.  Marching bands, football cheers & cold beers.  The sight of leaves changing, it’s September again.  Keeping up on the familiar -

CollegeGradLife.com is introducing a new component for fall 2010:

College Grad News – News for After College

CollegeGradNews will be a 4-5 minute video covering 3 daily stories.  Jobs, tech & sports for recent grads.

Story #1: Women Make More Money Than Men! – http://www.usatoday.com/money/workpla…

Story #2: MTV Teams Up With FourSquare – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08…

Story #3: 4.5% Unemployment for College Grads – http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsi…

College Grad News – News for After College

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Story #1: MTV Teams Up With FourSquare – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08…

Story #2: People Born after 1981 Care for Privacy Less – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08…

Story #3: Student Debt Rises over $848 Billion – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08…

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Job Search Marketing Toolkit for College Grads – Vol 2
By: CareerAlley
Author Website: http://Careeralley.com

“You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world.” – Tom Brokaw

Graduation is just around the corner. Or maybe you’ve already graduated and are looking for a job. Whatever the reason, your toolkit must be filled with the latest tools (and not missing any). Yesterday’s post covered off on Resumes and Cover letters. Today is all about links to resources and we pick up where we left off.

References:

• Best College References – This list of links is provided by CollegeGrad.com and provides links to sample reference letters, how to use recommendations, how to present your reference letters and more.

• Tools for a Tough Market: 100 Resources for College Grads – While not specifically just reference letters, this post, by Onlinecollege.com, provides a wide range of links for college grads, from top careers to (yes) references.

• Your Career: Getting Good References for Your Job Hunt – CliffsNotes -

Thank You Letters: You may not think that thank you letters are important, but believe me, they are. The links below provide some advice as well as examples.

• Ten tips to make your thank you note stellar – This article, by USA Today, provides some great tips for you. These are all important points and, believe me, hiring managers are reading these letters to see if you “got the point”, were listening and if you really want the job.

• In Job Searching: thank you letters – About.com comes through again with a number of sample thank you letters. But take a look, there are more than what is showing on the first page, there are additional pages (just click “next” at the bottom of the page).

• How To Write an Interview Thank You Letter – Can’t have a “how to” without howtodothings.com. The post starts off with a very good overview, followed by four steps (with great commentary) and then a sample letter. At the bottom of the page are additional related links which you will find useful.

Good luck in your search.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

• Guides to the After College Job Search
  

1. Amazing Cover Letter Creator! By Cover Letter Guru Jimmy P. Sweeney – Amazing Cover Letter Creator Jimmy has helped 19,946 job-seekers (and counting), in over 25 different countries, land more quality job interviews and job offers in dozens of highly competitive professions and markets using his breakthrough, step-by-step cover letter system.
2. Amazing Resume Creator! By Resume Guru Jimmy P. Sweeney – Amazing Resume Creator Jimmy is the president of Career-Jimmy, and author of the new, Amazing Resume Creator
3. Get a Job in 30 Days! Guerrilla Resume by Guerrilla Job Search International and Guaranteed Resumes

After college when you’re building a foundation for life you need to start feeding yourself.  Here we have tips & tricks to help you. It’s always about taking care of your body.  If you do this you’ll feel better, have energy & be happy saving some money.

We can start with tips on how to save money on grocery shopping after college.

• Saving Money on Food After College

1. Save on Groceries & Get Out of Debt – Learn Tips To Save 40-70% On Groceries!
   
2. Save a $1,000 On Groceries This Year! – Learn To Save While Shopping for Groceries
3. Save Thousands By Growing Your Own Groceries - 101 Growing Tips!

Audio Version: [podcast]http://www.collegegradlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Learn-to-BE-Frugal-After-College.mp3[/podcast]

Learning to save money after college is a very valuable skill.  Each one of us needs to learn how to stretch a dollar after college.  Taking our dollar and feeding ourselves for more than one meal can save hundreds or thousands of dollars.  The money we save can be used to invest into property, stocks or an IRA to save money on taxes after college.

A few different ways to learn how to be frugal are simple enough to learn but hard to maintain.  I suggest taking your time to build a budget around what types of activities are necessary.

1. You know you’ll need to eat.  So find ways to save on what types of foods you purchase.

2. You know you need to live somewhere.  Living at home, with friends or in a cheap apartment can help save money.

3. Don’t take out loans, use credit cards or buy things unless you can pay cash.

It can be incredibly hard to save money after college but you have to stick to a budget. Make sure to write down all of your income.  Then find out what you need to buy.   Most of us never actually budget but it can save us tons of money in the long run.

If you don’t budget and spend without thinking, stuff will cost you more than ever.  Not only will you pay interest on credit card payments, you will end up paying extra money in overdraft fees.  Each of these can suck a few hundred bucks a month from you.

Also, try and break down 3 month segments of your budget to focus on what to save & where to cut spending.  It’s not impossible to save but it can be hard.

For us, after college can be hard to find places to save but the most obvious will be in our weekend adventures.  Instead of going to the bar, it’s better to have a party at your house.  If you do plan going to the bar, only bring as much cash as you plan to spend.

Three tips for going to the bar on a budget

1. Always buy rail, well or drinks on special.

2. Focus on meeting people & not drinking.  Not surprisingly you’ll get more free drinks this way.

3. Go to cheaper bars during happy hour & not during peak times.

The last tip I used to save money after college was to take the bus to the bar instead of taking a taxi.  That way I spend $2 getting to the bar instead of $15.  So when I need a taxi home at the end of the night, I don’t spend $30 simply on taxi’s in one night.

These are a few different ways to save money after college.  When you’re building a foundation for life after college it’s important to think 5 years down the road.  If you save money today & invest it, you’ll have a chance to truly make some money for yourself.

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Writing a cover letter after college is a regular challenge for every graduate.  Graduates need to move from simply picking classes to applying for jobs.  If you’ve never written a cover letter it can be a little bit of a daunting task.  The cover letter is the beginning of building a foundation for life.  This article will give you a few different tips to write a cover letter.

First when you’re writing a cover letter you have to keep in mind the audience.  If you’re sending this cover letter to the head of a dept, project manager or potentially your supervisor it’s does you well to individualize it.  Try to get in contact with other departments in the company to learn more about the company.  If you contact other employees from other departments you’ll get a better understanding of the company overall.  Your comprehensive knowledge will give you a better foundation when writing the cover letter.

Second writing a cover letter is an art.  You want to express your desires for the position because of reasons other than simply money.  You need to talk about your interest in the subject of the job.  Any experience in your background related to the position is huge to put into your cover letter.

Third if you still don’t know how to write a cover letter, it’s a huge advantage to take a course or get a guide.  Cover letters are extremely important when you’re looking to have an advantage over the other candidates.  At www.collegegradlife.com we suggest using Jimmy P. Sweeney for their cover letter worries.  He’s President & CEO of Career Jimmy & Author of a New Book “Amazing Cover Letter Creator”

To check our Jimmy’s amazing cover letter creator find it HERE

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Job Bound College Grad Your Job is Waiting – Resources Revisited Vol 1
BY CareerAlley
Courtesy: http://Careeralley.com

“Graduation is a tough day for parents. They go to the ceremony as parents. They go home as contemporaries. After twenty-two years, they are unemployed.” – Erma Bombeck

The real world. You’ve spent 16 years of your 22 years in school (depending on pre-school, pre-pre-school and if you were on the 4 year or 4+ year college program). Learning is a great thing, but it does not prepare you for the real world. “What?” you say, “I’ve wasted all of that time?”. Not wasted. Knowledge is a great thing, now you have to learn how to use it. You may have had some training or courses on job search and career development when you were in college, and it may have even prepared you with everything you need to find your first “real” job. But the good news is that just in case it fell short of what you need this post is the first in a series of posts to revisit resources for College Grads on the job hunt.

Companies with College Grad Career Pages:

• Hess Corporation – You probably already know what Hess does (Energy). Their University Graduates page is very well done. Left hand side of the page has recruiting events (check the calendar) followed by company information stuff. Also on the left hand side are a number of search links based on job type. Center page is a bullet point list of all the reasons why you would want to work for them. If you can’t match up with their college recruiting calendar, you should still add your resume to their site and take a look at their job openings.

• Symantec Corporation – Innovative technology is the name of the game at Symantec. Their College Connections page has a ton of information for college grads. Left hand side of the page has links for Internship Programs, New College Grads, Campus Calendar and more. Center page has an overview of some of the programs that might interest you. Right hand side of the page has links to job listings as well as “meet the management team”

• Internal Revenue Service – The IRS has a great College Student / Recent Grad page as part of their Careers section. There are tabs at the top for About IRS, Working at IRS and Opportunities. Center page provides an overview with a Search & Apply box. There is a short video on the right hand side of the screen (Meet Our Employees). Below this are a broad range of resources, including “Fun Career Tools”. There were 72 job opportunities when I checked the site.

• General Electric – GE is involved in way too many businesses to list here. There are over 300,000 people in over 100 locations (according to the website) and they are world-renowned for their management training programs . Their “University Students” page has links on the left hand side for Job Search, Careers, Why GE and more. Center page are links to their Undergraduate Leadership Programs, Internship and Co-ops programs and much more. To the right of this there is a link for “Start Your Job Search”. – there were 4,291 jobs opportunities when I checked the site.

• Disney Professional Internships – So we all know what Disney does, and they have a broad range of programs for High School and College Grads. Their Internships are well known and respected. Their students page has a Disney company overview followed by a listing of internship fields. Click the “Apply Now” button on the left hand side of the page to submit your details.

• The Hartford – The Hartford is known for both financial products and insurance. They employ over 31,000 employees and are in the Fortune 100. The College page of the Careers section provides a comprehensive list of links. Center page, there is a brief overview, followed by links for Full-Time Programs, Internships, Campus Recruiting and more. The left hand side of the page has similar links, plus additional links for other career related topics. Clicking on “View Opportunities for College Students” yields 13 College Student job opportunities plus 251 other job opportunities.

• Intel – Intel is know for computer chips and their college careers page is well done. The left hand side of the page is filled with relevant links (like Job Search, Intern/Grad Opportunities, a Jobs Blog and so much more). The center of the page starts “Get Started with Your Future” and has a listing of student centers by country. The left hand side of the page has a number of additional job search link. There were 480 job opportunities when I checked the page.

Job Search Marketing Toolkit Stuff You Need:

Resumes:

• Powerful New Grad Resumes and Cover Letters: 10 Things They Have in Common – A great article with lots of resources advice and links provided by Quintcareers, the ten tips offer advice on targeting your market and leveraging your college career experience. The page has additional related links on the left hand side of the page as well as some additional links at the bottom of the page.

• Student & New Graduate Resume Answers – This article, from 1st-writer.com, offers examples, how to make your resume look good (even though you don’t have experience, what to include and so much more. On top of this, there are a bunch of related links for your use.

• Entry Level Resumes – The first and most important thing you will need is a resume. Take your time with this as your ability to “get your foot in the door” is heavily dependent on the content and “look and feel” of your resume. There are so many choices these days. This resource, from Collegegrad.com, provides a list of links to help you get started (or to improve on what you already have).

Cover Letters:

• Cover Letter Checklist for College Grads – From collegegrad.com, provides a short list for ensuring you’ve got it covered

• Covering Letters for students – A very good article to help you understand the objectives, what to consider, and explanations of the various types of cover letters.

Thank You Letters:

• Ten tips to make your thank you note stellar – This article, by USA Today, provides some great tips for you. These are all important points and, believe me, hiring managers are reading these letters to see if you “got the point”, were listening and if you really want the job.

• In Job Searching: thank you letters – About.com comes through again with a number of sample thank you letters. But take a look, there are more than what is showing on the first page, there are additional pages (just click “next” at the bottom of the page).

• How To Write an Interview Thank You Letter – Can’t have a “how to” without howtodothings.com. The post starts off with a very good overview, followed by four steps (with great commentary) and then a sample letter. At the bottom of the page are additional related links which you will find useful.

Lots of links, so get to work until next week.

Good luck in your search.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

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Credit cards are no longer the largest source of debt for Americans — according to the Wall Street Journal, student loans have taken the cake.

Students are taking on huge debts for their degrees these days

The Journal reports:

Americans owe some $826.5 billion in revolving credit, according to June 2010 figures from the Federal Reserve. (Most of revolving credit is credit-card debt.) Student loans outstanding today — both federal and private — total some $829.785 billion, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org and FastWeb.com.

The change is due in part to Americans paying down credit card debt and increased credit card regulations, according to the Journal.

This is a huge problem for the USA.  If we don’t get our citizen, state & federal debt under control, things could get very ugly very quickly.  When this happens we will have to make a choice between our standard of living & paying off our debt.  If America’s history is any reflection of where we are going, there might be a new war in the future to finance all the debt we have now.

Read the whole story on the Wall Street Journal Blog

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