Forum - Ask the Hiring Manager

QUESTION:

I will be graduating in May with a BS in Physics and was hoping to go on to grad school with an assistantship but unfortunately I applied to two colleges and got rejected. It is kind of discouraging and I hope to apply again in the Spring. I have no choice now in looking for a decent job now to survive. Can you give me some sound advice on where to go from here???

Thanks!

From: Robert Jason Gross, Senior, University of Rhode Island


ANSWER FROM BRIAN KRUEGER:

Hi Robert -

You face one of the more daunting tasks in job search. Not only do you not want to be looking for work, you aren't truly available long-term. That is, you really are available only for one year (unless you get turned down again?).

In approaching the job market, the first thing you must have is focus. Know where you want to go before you start your journey. That doesn't mean you have to know exactly. Just have a specific focus to aim toward. You can narrow that focus horizontally by job type, vertically by industry, and by geography.

But that still leaves the question of what your plans are in one year. If you truly desire to go on to grad school, you may not be able to find anything more than an internship in the interim. You might also consider applying to other, less difficult grad schools (if the deadline has not yet passed), then transferring after one year. But please do not "fake out" an employer by saying you are in it for the long-term, with full intentions to leave after one year to return to school. They will have made a sizable investment in you that will only be beginning to pay off at the one year point.

Do you have a question that you would like to have answered here in this forum? Send your question direct to Brian Krueger.

All job search information at this forum is provided by Brian Krueger, author of the book College Grad Job Hunter, the definitive guide for college grad job search. Used by permission of the author.