New Girl On The Job. Hannah Seligson

long was the previous person in the position before he/she got a promotion?

      Another thing to pay attention to is whether both men and women have grown within the company. If the interviewer only gives you examples of men who have been promoted, you might want to think twice about taking a job there.

      Red Flags

      During the interview, be alert for potential problem areas about the job. For example, if your future boss comes across as a tyrant during your one-hour interview, just think what it would be like working for him/her forty-plus hours a week. Some other red flags to be on the lookout for:

       Employees are working with their heads down, there is minimal office banter, and the people you pass in the hallways look stressed or angry.

       A dearth of women in positions of power. Are most of the female employees in low-level, administrative roles?

       Your interviewer asks you personal questions, such as “Do you have a boyfriend?” “When do you plan on getting married?” “Do you plan to have children?”

       Your interviewer is taking calls, checking his/her BlackBerry, and paging his/her assistant, all while trying to conduct an interview. If this person can’t make time for you now, it doesn’t bode well for the attention you’ll get once you are hired.

      Career Coaches Aren’t Just for People Who’ve Already Had Careers

      While many assume that young people will just find their own way when it comes to a career, the reality is that it’s much harder than that. With so many more options, high turnover rates, and fierce competition, your first few jobs can be, in a word, daunting, if not totally demoralizing. It’s why we could all use a little extra help. And although we are supposed to get this “coaching” in college or graduate school, people who have visited their career-counseling centers often feel the way the January 2005 Time magazine article summed it up: “Most colleges are seriously out of step with the real world in getting students ready to become workers in the post college world.”⁶

      In this highly competitive job market, it’s harder to get a career-building first job than it is getting into an Ivy League college. The 2004 National Association of Colleges and Employers annual survey says that the number of college graduates increased 12 percent a year in the last two years, but the entry-level job market remains 23 percent below the level for the year 2000. That’s why this might be a good time to invest in some outside help. Profiled in a May 2006 New York Times article, D. A. Hayden and Michael Wilder, cofounders of Hayden-Wilder, a Boston firm whose clients consist primarily of newly minted college graduates, conducted in-depth interviews with fifty hiring executives at companies across the country in the summer of 2005, and were told by all of them that 80 to 85 percent of the job candidates they interviewed were poorly prepared.⁷

      To prepare yourself, and give yourself the edge you’ll need, Hayden recommends going beyond the cursory look at the company’s Web site and really take your job search process to the next level. “If you are interviewing in the retail sector, for example, go look at the retail outlet, talk to customers, read analyst reports, read the chairman’s letter.” Essentially, you want to have value-added comments, observations, and perspectives. Even though these are entry-level jobs, you want to show that you’ve given the position some genuine thought. It’s this approach, Hayden says, that lands 98 percent of her clients in career-track jobs.

      Her advice to young women for achieving this goal is:

       Find Your Focus—This often takes a very serious examination of your natural skills, personality, and interests. Seeking outside help from a career coach can be useful in assessing these things. Hayden calls the people graduating commencement castaways, because they are left unguided.

       Develop a Network. This is a group of people you can call on to help you throughout this process. Start making a contact sheet of people you know, or would like to know, in your industry. Then start reaching out.

       Do Your Homework. You want to know everything you can about the organization. This means going beyond the Web site and mining every piece of material you can find. Taking it a step further, it means finding trustworthy secondary sources. Think of it as if you are doing the research to write a paper on the company or organization with which you are interviewing.

      TAKEAWAYS

       Approach the job search process as if you’re the person doing the hiring.

       Think about how your natural skills will augment your work.

       Find a job that makes you tick.

       Consider seeking career counseling, either through your school, or with a professional career counselor, to help you find your focus.

       Interview the company as much as they interview you in order to determine whether the job is a good fit.

       Do your due diligence, and make sure you have comments, observations, and insights beyond general knowledge about the company.

       Don’t just think about finding “a job,” think about finding a career-track job. Ask yourself, “How will this help me get where I want to be in twenty years?”