From B.A. To Payday: Launching Your Career After College

As college graduates soon find out, the real world is tough. Sure, it was hard getting into the right school. But landing a good job is a lot harder. The number of new college grads now outnumbers available entrylevel jobs by at least 25 percent. But that figuresobering as it isis deceptive, given that only a fraction of those jobs are careerworthy. So how do you succeed in a marketplace thats stacked against you? According to professional career counselors D. A. Hayden and Michael Wilder, youve got to approach the hunt for employment as if it were a marketing campaign. In other words, youve got to make yourself a brandby creating a clear story for yourself, understanding your target audience, and developing an effective communications plan to deliver your message. Youve also got to avoid the pitfalls. Hayden and Wilder identify four personality traits that can doom firsttime job seekers to failure. Then, through a trademark method they call Candidate Illumination, the authors prescribe cures for those pathologies and present savvy strategies for every step of the jobsearch processfrom finding your focus, to composing a winning resume, to acing the interview. (Note to parents: This book may be the best gift you could give your graduating son or daughter.)