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Gallup: Now is a bad time to find a job

“Clearly, confidence has taken a nosedive in this country,” said Jennifer Kushell, president and co-founder of ys interactive and ysn.com. “Millennials are typically optimistic, positive people, though. The challenge is that when their parents and family are affected - and so many are - it rocks young people to their core. Many have become a little too comfortable relishing the safety and security blanket that their families have extended to them and that may simply not be as realistic moving forward. Ready or not, many young people who counted on taking their time to find the ‘perfect’ opportunity, might just find themselves having to get out there and find good work, wherever they can get it. Total financial independence - or the need to be - might also be thrust upon them suddenly.”

 

The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) released its latest Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) Report with similar findings. According to Jennifer Schramm, manager of workplace trends and forecasting at SHRM, “Hiring expectations have been down throughout 2008 in the service and manufacturing sectors, and we don’t expect that to improve in the very near future. This can make finding that first job or internship more challenging.”

 

“I'm always the optimist in these scenarios though, and try to look for the silver lining,” said Kushell. “While several industries are sinking fast, such as finance and banking, many industries are hungry for new talent that they can mold, mentor and help in building their careers. They're looking closely at young graduates and in many cases, are struggling to find the right ones. Industries like accounting, pharmacy, nursing and retail are all desperate for new talent and are great businesses to start looking into. Anything in sales is going to be a great opportunity too, since sales drives business growth, and even in a downturn, those who can sell, succeed.”

 

Speaking of finding the “right” entry-level professionals, JobFox recently released a poll that found “Gen Y workers are perceived by recruiters as being the weakest performers among the four generations that now make up the U.S. workforce,” according to a press release. 

 

Kushell warns young people to be proactive, not reactive. “Read the papers, watch the news - the business news. Get a good sense of what's going on, and talk to everyone you know about it. Figure out how profoundly this financial crisis is bound to affect you and your family in the short and longer term. Become aggressive in vetting out new opportunities for yourself, and maybe for them, as well. This is exactly the time to kick your job hunt into high gear! There are still jobs out there, you just have to ask yourself, ‘What am I going to do to be one of the people who gets them?’”

 

A few final tips from Kushell:

 

1. Present yourself to prospective employers as a long-term player. Too many young people have been switching jobs every one to years. Companies know that and are growing weary of investing in young people out of college because of that. If you present, and adopt, a longer outlook and show them you're willing to make a longer commitment, your odds of getting hired will go up. 

 

2. Limit your initial demands. Another challenge employers are having with young graduates is their sense of entitlement, demand for rich salaries, benefits, perks and even requests for vacation, work/life balance and time off really early in their careers with new companies. Many young people are expecting to be rewarded for showing up. That's not going to fly now. If companies can only hire one or two people instead of five or 10, they're going to invest in people who will be able to dive in, hit the ground running, not complain, be a team player, work to keep the company growing and be loyal.