Getting a Job with an Undergraduate Degree

by Brian Kleinfelt, Advanced Interactive Systems
and Joe Sasson, Western Michigan University

Although a great number of people would like to pursue a master’s or doctorate degree in behavior analysis, the reality is that admission spots are limited, and many applicants will be forced to find jobs upon receiving undergraduate degrees. Having recently completed the job search process myself, I’d like to share some of the things I've learned in hopes of making your job search as painless as possible. Since the job search process is complicated and contains many variables, carefully planning on the front-end is essential for success.

Getting a Head Start

The most important tip in job searching is to start early. I cannot emphasize how important it is to get an early start on your job search. Only a few years ago, graduates were being taken in droves on graduation day in the hopes of finding a few great employees. Now, the reality is that most companies are hiring very few, if any, entry-level employees. If you are wondering exactly how early to start your job search, a good guideline would be four to six months before graduation. This will give you ample time to decide what you’re looking for and where to find it. If you feel that time frame is too early, at a minimum, I highly recommend posting your resume online to get a good idea of what type of jobs are available. This allows employers to see your qualifications even if you are only passively searching. If you are really serious about getting a job, submitting your resume early is extremely important.

Finding the right job

The first step in finding a job is locating a job to apply for. A word of caution: Not many employers want to hire a new graduate that is “looking for anything”, so make sure you have a specific focus of what you want to do. There are several sources available to assist in your search for jobs. One easy to use (yet often overlooked) source is the newspaper. The job listings on Sundays are usually quite extensive. One downfall of using this source is that there are also a great number of telesales and janitorial jobs to sift through. However, each source can lead you to a listing that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. When I was looking for jobs I found a few great ones in the newspaper that were not listed anywhere else. Another good source is the online version of a newspaper. Online newspapers can be extremely helpful if you are planning to relocate upon graduation. Almost all newspapers have a website with a link on their front page that will direct you to a job bank of some type. These sites also offer tools to help you narrow down your search by job type, location, salary range, etc. The Internet is full of career web sites that contain anywhere from three jobs to thousands of jobs. It is difficult to say which sites are the best, and in fact, it could all depend on what field you want to work in. Your best option may be to start with the larger job search engines like Monster.com or HotJobs.com. Once you have found the type of job you want, you can then search for job sites that are more specific to your chosen field. Lastly, networking is one of the most overlooked means of job searching. Those unposted positions are usually filled by internal candidates or through employee contacts. As a job seeker, this means you should be sure that your friends, family, and other acquaintances are aware that you are seeking a position. Make sure that you tell your personal contacts exactly what you are looking for so that they can stay alert to any opportunities.

What’s Available?

Your employment options will depend on what you want to do as a career. If you’re searching for a consulting or research position, your best bet is one of the big consulting firms that are able to provide entry-level positions. One company that appears to offer positions appropriate for new graduates is Towers Perrin, which is a consulting firm that does research and consulting in the area of employee behavior. Other areas in which OBM training could be utilized are human resources, training, and management. But don’t fool yourself, just because there are a lot of these positions listed does not mean that they are easy to get. Another issue regarding what jobs you may qualify for is your prior work history. For example, my experience training employees at a previous job for several years helped me to get hired into my current position. Not every student has to work while earning a degree and companies know this. However, I would strongly suggest that if you are going to work, try to get a job that will give you the skills you need for your future aspirations.

Researching Companies

Most job sites have links that provide basic information on the company posting the job. However, a successful job hunter will not stop there, and will visit the company’s homepage to get a better understanding of the company, its products and services, and perhaps its culture. When you have your initial contact with the company you should know what the company does, and you should be able to tell the recruiter why you want to work for that company. It shows the recruiter that you know about the company and that you are sincerely interested in the job. What should you do if you find a company you want to work for, but the company doesn’t have any jobs posted? One option is to locate the individual in the company that would be most interested in hiring you and make contact with that person. Many jobs are never posted, so be assertive and get your resume out to the people who might be able to help you.

Resumes

There are a plethora of sources that provide instruction on how to create the “perfect” resume (www.collegegrad.com is a good one). However, if you decide to email your resume to an employer, you should consider a potential problem in advance. If you use a resume template in MS Word or a similar program, the resume will often lose its formatting and become unreadable to the recruiter.

There are a couple of strategies to help alleviate this problem. First, avoid using templates. It is good to avoid using templates because many recruiters can identify your resume as a template. Be creative and type your resume from scratch. Another approach is making sure that you save a copy of your resume in text only format. This format has no style formatting and is compatible with all email systems so your resume will get to your intended recipient in the same format that it was sent. One habit that I assumed was pasting my text resume into the body of an email and attaching my formatted resume as well. This gives the recruiter two options for viewing your resume.

Relevant Sites

Job Search Engines
• www.monster.com
• www.hotjobs.com
• www.ispi.org (International Society for Performance Improvement)
• www.mlive.com (Comprehensive listing from Michigan newspapers)
• www.abainternational.org (Association for Behavior Analysis)

OBM/PM Consulting Firms
• www.towersperrin.com (Towers Perrin)
• www.aubreydaniels.com (Aubrey Daniels International)
• www.clg-online.com (Continuous Learning Group)
• www.abernathyassociates.com (Abernathy and Associates)