Four weeks till graduation. Tons of work to do – cases, projects, papers, exams – you know those last four weeks of anything, much less the finishing paces at the hardest B-school on the planet. On top of that, many of you plan to host visitors at graduation and then prepare to move.
It’s easy to put the job search on hold. If you must, you must. But there may be several reasons why you would not want to stop, but instead, increase your efforts:
1. Your story works better when you are in school. It’s kind of akin to searching for a job when you have a job. The story is more positive. Or getting a loan from a bank: it’s easier if you have money and don’t need it.
2. Companies realize graduation is approaching and this natural deadline is “forcing” them to make decisions about positions. They are posting and coming to events to find candidates.
3. You probably have a number of hot leads and prospects in process. Don’t let those go cold due to your inactivity. Follow up, follow up, follow up.
4. Summer is a natural slow down in hiring – people are out of the office; decisions get postponed. May is the last big push for hiring until September.
So sprint, and prepare to re-set!
If you sprint yet come up short in the next six to ten weeks (hey, this market is brutal), then you might want to use July and August to reset. Your job search post-graduation is different – you become a post-school professional. Perhaps your resume should be two pages, your story more focused, your interview style more about the company than about you. The Career Development Center and Alumni Career Services will offer you different advice. An analogy: It’s kind of like selling a house. After it has been on the market a while, it’s sometimes beneficial to pull it off the market, paint the walls, let the market shift a bit, let a few more buyers move to town, then re-set.
The job market is not all that different – the market slows down in July and August and comes on strong in September. You should be putting on a full court press again in September.
(By the way, this is not necessarily applicable advice if you are in international student in need of visa sponsorship. Time is not on your side. You shouldn’t relax now, or in the summer. And Darden CDC is definitely willing to stay by your side throughout.)
So sprint, and then prepare to re-set.