Anchoring Your Choice of Career Direction

As expert career coaches who specialize in working with recent college graduates, we see many new graduates struggle personally with figuring out where to aim their job search. It is a complex and important puzzle to solve. A significant part of our work at Priority Candidates focuses on helping young people find career direction. If you feel stalled, you might need to pause your job search and assess your career direction. We encourage you to explore this robust program, to see if it fits your needs.

1. Why do you want to pursue this career direction?

Have you validated that your interests, skills and education “fit” with your career objective? While our formal Career Assessment program can be the gateway to confirming this, if you feel very confident in your career planning to date, our experienced coaches can discuss your resumé and goals to give you an honest opinion about the degree of alignment. Then, we will help you learn to interview to prove to an employer that you are the best person for the job.

2. Have you considered the labor market for the role you seek?

How competitive is the field - looking at both the role and the industry? Are there entry level opportunities in the field for your level of education and experience, in the locations you want to work in?

3. Is your starting point, your target job, the right one?

Is there a better “on ramp?” Are there any adjacent opportunities or volunteer roles that could aim you in a direction aligned with your career aspirations? Our coaches will help you evaluate this and offer suggestions for building experience and skills that will position you to be more marketable to employers

4. Do you have a realistic sense of what lies in store as an entry level employee?

You are smart. You want to be challenged and have your talents leveraged. In interviews, you need to demonstrate your motivation to perform entry level tasks. To prepare, you need a realistic assessment of what you will do on the job and learn to tie it to your past experiences. It is essential that you position your experience properly. Work experience completed during college is extremely valuable to employers, but be assured, they do not always consider that time, in those roles as equivalent to full time professional experience.

Do you have a track record of applying for lots of jobs, but never hearing back?

While there may be many reasons at play for the radio silence you experience, consider this example. Recently a mother shared with us that her daughter, a senior in college, was applying to wide variety of roles with titles like “Manager of Interaction Design” and these were amazing job opportunities — for someone else. These roles were not in range for a soon to be college graduate. She was wasting precious time aiming too high, too early. Our coaches will ensure that you plan for and source realistic roles for your needs that fit your experience.

As experts in building and executing after-graduation job search plans for soon to be or recent college graduates, we want to be certain our clients are setting their goals realistically and have clear plans in place to achieve their career goals. We can help you examine your starting point and ensure that all five of these essential factors are considered and factored into our work with you.

Let’s talk about how you can find career success