this is the time of year when you are flooding companies with your resumes because you find yourself among the new crop of impending graduates. you also start sending panic-stricken emails because you are an MBA candidate who has yet to land a coveted summer internship. if you aren’t frustrated or discouraged by now, then I give you 3 months post graduation to start using your student loan statements to wipe away the tears. us too, not long ago, were in these shoes and have accumulated a few lessons along the way.

spend a few minutes glancing at linkedin profiles and you will notice that many of your fellow job seekers are also “very passionate about social media”. while I know that many of you are truly invested in the industry, it is also the biggest buzz word we have known since we coined the term “dot.com”. among the new breed of business students, working for a well-funded startup has as much cache as investment banking once did. and who can blame you? we have seen the largest financial powerhouses of our generation come tumbling down, all while social startups like facebook, zynga, twitter and foursquare race to unprecedented valuations. we are talking billions here.

so now many of you want to flex your business muscles in the startup world or become social media strategists and use all these hot emerging technologies. perhaps you are sitting there wondering why no one is giving you a chance. class of 2010, if you haven’t noticed yet, you have many challenges ahead. i won’t recite the ugly stats, but you know that being another jobless graduate in this rough financial landscape, is not what you bargained for. however, i want to give you some practical tips that may save your resume from being eliminated in the first cut.

1. please don’t refer to yourself as a social media guru, ninja or rockstar. even the most accomplished thought leaders are continuing to learn and consider themselves “students” of social media rather than masters. many of you have been in school longer than some of these platforms have even existed. this industry is young, ever changing and very experimental. remember, always “know what you don’t know”.
2. make sure your social media expertise is tied to measurable results. are you using the latest analytic tools to chart success and failures? many tools are free and easy to learn. knowing what didn’t work is often as important as knowing the home run strategies. feel free to email us for a list of our favorite metric and web analytics tools.
3. of course the age old question is relevant here. how can I gain experience if no one will hire me, not even as an intern? luckily, social media experience can be accumulated without any employment whatsoever. you just have to be willing to work and learn for free. help your favorite local band set up and syndicate their videos. build a facebook fan page for your uncle’s autobody shop. volunteer to run a twitter account for your favorite produce seller at the farmer’s market. the opportunities to understand social media from the deep trenches are all around you. i want to point out that you can strategize till the cows come home but illustrating that you can actually implement a campaign from start to finish is key. build out your tactical expertise as well as your consulting chops.
4. don’t be a marketer that needs help marketing themselves. that’s a red flag for any employer. if you haven’t built a brand for yourself then what are you waiting for? your digital footprint is in your hands and potential employers are googling you, facebooking you and reading your tweets. trust us. take a look at your search results in yahoo! and bing as well. what do these results say about you and your social media prowess? do you have an updated google.com/profile? is your twitter account private or public? what groups and forums are you a member of on linkedin and when was the last time someone wrote you an endorsement on it? how many blog posts have you managed in 2010? don’t tell me you have crossed off all of these checklist items. this work is ongoing and requires constant tweaking.
5. lastly, if no one will hire you then consider going into business for yourself. there is no better way to earn “startup cred” than to build one yourself. dust off last semester’s business plan and consider whether or not it has potential. talk to your fellow classmates about joining forces. owning your own business is incredibly rewarding, full of highs and lows, and course many will fail. however, it does illustrate that you are willing to take risks and that you can actualize business principles outside of the classroom. in the long run if it doesn’t work out, most employers will admire the ownership you took. also, I promise there is no easier way to go from the resume writing agonies to the resume screening role.

social media is an exciting and growing field, and still so new that it is a great time to immerse yourself and create opportunities. class of 2010, we are rooting for you and feel hopeful that you will see the beginning of financial recovery. we know that your investment in higher education will soon pay off. feel free to share your insight, tips and other war stories with us.

Tags: career, graduation, jobs, mba, social media, tips

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 8:41 am and is filed under blog.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.