Even with multiple degrees, it can be a struggle to find work.
It turned out that finding work was going to be a lot harder than I had imagined.
My graduate program ended in September 2019 with the ceremony scheduled for December 2019.
It was a bittersweet ending. On the one hand, I didn’t want to leave London, but on the other hand, it was challenging being so far from my family.
My initial goal entering the graduate program was to go work for the World Health Organization in Geneva before entering a Ph.D. program. That goal quickly changed after insight from my mentors, alumni that worked for the Bill Gates Foundation, and the World Health Organization (W.H.O. is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system). My skills, priorities, and responsibilities at the time did not work well for a job in Europe.
In the end, I didn’t apply to the W.H.O. but chose to job hunt in the U.S. I chalked it up as I could always return to applying to a U.N. agency later in life if that’s where my career took me.
It took me three months to find a job that fit my skill set. During the months I was unemployed, I completed the following to find the right job.
1) Define Career Objectives
I asked myself what training I had, what skills I was good at, what experiences I had, will my skills, interests, lifestyle, and values match the jobs.
One of the most helpful things I learned about was the Golden Circle created by Simon Sinek. Steve Jobs used this strategy to build Apple. In the Golden Circle, you start by defining why you do what you do. Then, you figure out how you do what you do. And lastly, you what you do? I highly recommend watching the Ted Talk below to establish your career objective.
After I watched this video, I set some goals for answering the questions. In this step, I had to do a self-assessment, career exploration, and career preparation.
Self-assessment
- Personality
- Aptitude
- Interests
- Values
Career exploration
- Research career types
- Research industries
- Research geographic locations
- Understand the career requirements
Career preparation
- Academic - major, classes, projects
- Vocational training
- Special certification
- Extracurricular - activities, clubs, leadership, sports
- Experience - work, internships, volunteering
2) Prepare job search tools
Resumes need to be searchable and cover letters need to be concise and to the point. I found the keywords in each job posting of interest and aligned my resume and CV and cover letter accordingly. Someone during this process recommended that I also should look at postings above my level of experience and education as well, so I could build my skills in the direction of the role requirements.
3) Network
Everyone says it, but networking is essential. In my experience, it was the final piece of the puzzle. I spent every day sending cold messages on LinkedIn by connecting to people I thought had exciting work experience. I set up countless informational interviews and asked way too many questions for most people’s liking, but I wanted to get it right this time. My advice about cold messaging and finding work is somewhat cliche: Set up informational interviews, ask a lot of questions. Don’t give up; someone will help you if you persist. I always initiated conversations by talking about a mutual interest. I asked questions such as 1) How did you begin your career? 2) What kind of advice do you have for an early career individual navigating what their role should be in X industry? 3) Is there anything you wish you did as a young professional?
Job searching is one of the most stressful, anxiety-inducing things a person has to do.
As an incoming grad student with some previous work experience, I imagined finding jobs that matched my background wouldn't be too difficult. I realized the more specialized I was, the harder the job search and match. Additionally, I was only as strong as my network.
After jumping from one job to another when I was young, I wanted a job that I loved.
My persistence worked. Two people who worked at my current company gave me a lot of guidance in the application process. They helped me better understand what the team did and what the role really looked like on a daily basis. I lucked out! Networking was the icing on the cake when I began the interview process. I was able to link my skills directly to the daily tasks that someone in the role would do.
Thanks to my clear sense of direction, my job search finally produced a match.
Let’s Talk Social Science:
A central question in labor and macroeconomics or the study of whole economies is what determines the number of employment and unemployment in the economy? Economically speaking, an informative but somewhat oversimplified model is utilized to describe job searches - “The Search-And-Matching Framework.” Peter Diamond of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dale Mortensen of Northwestern University, and Christopher Pissarides of the London School of Economics won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2010 for their seminal work on this model.
The search-and-matching model can be described like this: “workers” are either searching for a job or employed while “firms” are either vacant, meaning they have a vacancy posted, or filled. If filled, the firm employs a worker and together they harmoniously produce fruits of labor.
In the earliest formulation of the model, the only economic decision was whether a firm would post a vacancy to match with a worker. Otherwise, both searching workers and vacant firms wait until they match, then start a productive relationship that lasts until their match randomly dissolves. Afterward, the worker goes back to searching, and the firm decides whether to post a vacancy or not once again.
Though widely used, the search-and-matching model has drawn some controversy in and of itself and the consequences of the match, i.e., can this model completely explain the high rates of unemployment and a high number of job postings and then what happens to the fruit of the labor? How much of the income produced by the relationship should go to the employer and how much should go to the employee?
In the current job market, as previously shown in the last post, there are a high number of job postings and a high number of job separations. Assumptions Aside will take a look at if this model still explains what is occurring in the current job market.
As I see more and more people quit, I hope my experience with job hunting can be of value to your job search. And as always I wish you godspeed!
References
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2010/mortensen/biographical/