For several months before Paul Iuorio, 22, graduated from the University of Illinois, counselors and professors at the college repeatedly warned him: “It is a really tough job market out there. Don’t expect to get a job right away.”
That was in June. Now, more than half a year later, the Palatine speech communications major has yet to launch the career in customer relations he had envisioned and worked toward during his four years of schooling.
Instead, he juggles two part-time jobs, one as a clerk in a small suburban law firm, a second managing the grill at a Winnetka golf course, along with what seems to him a full-time after-hours career at the kitchen table cranking out resumes and trying to dream up new and innovative ways to impress prospective employers.
“The competition is really tough because there just seems to be a ton of people out there out of work,” he says.
Iuorio’s analysis is on the mark: Entry-level job seekers are finding themselves competing, not just against other recent college graduates, but against middle-aged experienced folks who have been laid off.
And vice versa. Those middle-aged experienced folks are competing against younger-and cheaper-recent grads.
In the Chicago area, competition has been intensified by major employers that have moved, or have laid off employees, leaving a trail of tens of thousands of experienced workers in job-hunting lines.
Last September, for example, Spiegel Inc. announced plans to move its distribution facility-and 2,200 warehouse, mail-order, office and technical jobs-out of Chicago by 1994. Additionally, the Downers Grove-based company laid off more than 150 customer-service employees at its Oak Brook phone center early in 1992.
What’s more, Amoco Corp., Chicago’s biggest industrial company, plans to cut a substantial share of its 8,500-member work force in the Chicago area during the next several years to trim costs. If that weren’t bad enough, also slashing employee ranks is the Chicago-based telecommunications company Ameritech Corp., which eliminated the jobs of 2,500 managers last April and by 1995 will have trimmed 700 positions from the 2,200 now employed in its data-processing operations.
And last year, Sears, Roebuck and Co. cut 2,000 employees and moved 5,000 jobs from its downtown office to Hoffman Estates.
Such layoffs complicate the picture for first-time job seekers, career experts agree.
“Finding a job in this city is like playing musical chairs,” says Judith Lansky, president of Lansky Career Consultants in Chicago. “There are simply fewer jobs than people. There’s a tremendous amount of people out of work, and it’s taking a lot longer to find jobs.”
The employment picture is especially cloudy for entry-level job seekers, because age is an asset in hard times. Employers reason that experience will show up on the bottom line far more quickly than potential, according to Marilyn Moats Kennedy, managing partner of Career Strategies in Wilmette. And, they are increasingly demanding that applicants have experience.
But while there’s no magic trick to finding a job, there are ways to beat the competition to the you’re-hired finish line, local career advisers agree.
The key to reducing your competition is to narrow your focus, says Kennedy. Don’t wait for job-opening advertisements. Instead, target companies and jobs you want and go after them.
She cautions, however, that it takes time, discipline and a willingness to stick with it in the face of rejections, and lots of them.
“Everyone’s treating job hunting like buying a lottery ticket, applying for any job openings they can find,” says Kennedy. “But thousands of folks are going after those jobs. You’ve got to go after jobs before they are open.”
A direct, “heavy-research” approach to job hunting also is essential in reducing the competition, says Chicago career counselor and therapist Merikay Kimball.
You should include specific job objectives, “examples of what you want to do and can do,” on your resume, Kimball adds. To do so, you must thoroughly research and identify the skills you must have and steps you must take to land the job.
Says Kennedy: “If you’re going after a startup company, include examples of when you’ve been an entrepreneur,” says Kennedy. “Never say you do everything. Generalists aren’t needed in this economy. It’s better to say you do one job well than four or five.”
Another key is for inexperienced job seekers to avoid the large Fortune 500 companies where “the salaries are higher and the more experienced workers are focusing their job-search efforts,” says Lansky. “Target the smaller, more entrepreneurial companies, the places where everyone else isn’t looking.”
The no-experience challenge can be a Catch-22 for new college graduates. But it doesn’t have to be.
John Challenger, president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago-based outplacement firm, thinks a lack of experience can be compensated for by networking, “getting to know as many business people as you can. These contacts can lead to job interviews where you can demonstrate your abilities.
That’s exactly how Iuorio is approaching his part-time employment by default.
“A lot of people in my same boat tell me I shouldn’t settle for jobs like these because I have a college degree,” says Iuorio. “But I am trying to look at them as opportunities just to get out there and get some working experience. Plus, I need to make money. I just keep trying wherever I can.”
Lansky strongly agrees. “You’ve got to realize that you’re going to get a lot of rejections,” she says. “But you’ve got to get through them to eventually get that acceptance. A lot of newcomers to the job market make their mistake in not wanting to face the rejections, and then not trying at all.”
It’s also crucial “not to spend too much time trying to figure out who the competition is,” says Kennedy-and other career advisers agree. Instead, focus on ways to be a standout among employment seekers.
“Be more animated at the job interview; not manic, but very enthusiastic,” says Kennedy. Also, conduct more research on the company and try to look and present yourself “in as sharp a manner as you can,” she adds.
Finally, job seekers must be persistent, says Kimball.
“A lot of standing out against the competition has to do with your attitude,” says Kimball. “You’ve got to recognize that this is a lean and mean job environment. And you’ve just got to be a go-getter. Use every resource you can think of and more.”
