Tips for college students’ post-grad job search

College students about to graduate this spring already have a lot going for them. Armed with degrees, they will enter the workforce at a time of historically low unemployment when companies are desperately vying for talent.

Still, career experts say there are steps that recent graduates should take to ensure they begin their careers on the right foot. The key to good placement starts with the job seeker, career counselors say. They offered the following advice:

Narrow your search.

One of the first goals that soon-to-be college graduates should tackle is to try to better understand themselves and what they want to do.

“You’ve got to know who you are and believe in yourself in order to sell yourself,” said Megan Walls, founder of Walls Career Coaching, located in the Chicago area.

Walls recommends that graduates use Gallup’s Clifton Strengths assessment to discover their natural talents. If someone doesn’t know what they want, they should schedule informational interviews with people in different careers to get advice, information and recommendations or referrals, Walls said.

“I would say the number one thing is for college graduates to begin to get as clear as possible — clarity is so critical — about what their dream career looks like,” said Sharon Smith-Akinsanya, chief executive of the Rae Mackenzie Group diversity and inclusion marketing firm in Minneapolis and founder of the People of Color Career Fair.

She advises graduates to visualize what work they want to do and then write down three to five companies, even if some of them are more aspirational and not fleshed out.

According to a job search trend study published in January by the staffing firm Robert Half, senior managers say that some of the top things job candidates can do to move forward in the hiring process is connect to current company employees via social media and link to an online portfolio or personal website.

Learn to network.

Counselors say networking is critical. Over the years, career experts have said that 70% to 80% of jobs are not publicized and can only be found through word-of-mouth. While there has been some disagreement about the size of the “hidden job market,” most career counselors attest to networking’s importance.

Use your college career services department.

Jim Kwapick, Twin Cities district president of Robert Half, suggests that students ask career counselors at their colleges to look over resumes and cover letters. Most managers prefer to receive cover letters and find them valuable, a recent Robert Half survey found.

“The cover letter is a real opportunity to customize why you are a good fit for an employer,” Kwapick said.

Brush up on general skills and also industry tools.

Avenica CEO Scott Dettman said that it would be good for students while they are still in school to improve skills such as Excel. Students can look at companies’ job listings and see what sort of programs and tools they require and brush up on how to use them.

“Certain industries have their own language,” he said.