The piece is about how to make a great first impression at your new job. One of my suggestions:

Overdeliver on your first assignment—if your boss asks for three examples, give five. Try to become the go-to person for something, such as building PowerPoint presentations or using social media.

Reactions from readers to this suggestion?

“I advise against overdelivering – in my experience, it ultimately leads to more responsibility for the same amount of pay. After two quick promotions (without raises) due to my education and work ethic, I found myself doing more work for less money than the people working under me. My boss cleared me to take a demotion back to my old position, but I can’t do it because it would look terrible on a resume.” — Steve

“Agree with Steve. Those who are reliable and overdeliver tend to be taken advantage of, which crushes their spirit and work ethic, reducing them to just another average employee. It’s a simple matter of incentives; people naturally respond to the system in which they’re placed.” — Anonymous

Employers, take notice. The Steves and Anonymouses of the working world are the “experience” you’re getting. Next time, consider hiring a Gen Y’er with less “experience” but more accomplishments under his/her belt than Steve or Anonymous would ever try to do for you.

What are your thoughts on the experience vs. accomplishments debate?

How did I come to this calculation? According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), “the overall starting salary offer to Class of 2010 bachelor’s degree graduates now stands at $48,661.”

$48,661 / 365 = $133.32

I’m not giving you this number to depress you further. I’m giving it to you to motivate you.

Think about the money you spend on a daily basis to help employ you one day faster. In fact, make a list. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Is it close to $0?

Now make a list of how much money you spend on other parts of your life each day (coffee, entertainment, etc.). Get out that list again…

Is it closer to $133.32 than the money you spend on your job search?

Food for thought: You have to spend money to make money. Think about that the next time you just have to have those pair of shoes or your morning Starbucks. For way less than $133.32 per day, you could be employed that much faster.

(For the remainder of August, you can get free career coaching with me! After that, it will cost you…but nowhere near $133.32 per day.)

If you still want in on this deal, here’s what you need to do:

• Sign up for a free Come Recommended account
• Fill out your profile (I suppose this is optional…but it would really be helpful to me!)
• Follow the instructions on this page (make sure you’re logged in!)
• Complete my online courses (it’s advice from me, but anytime you want to access it)
• Connect with me directly if you need extra help

Totally simple. What are you waiting for?!?

The answer is in this blog post. When given the opportunity to post a job for free in exchange for providing a higher quality ad, most people choose to pay the $49 for a “typical job posting.”

The form to fill out is quite standard with the fields you’d expect – Job Title, Job Description, etc. You can even upload a Word document or other file for us to post the job.

The form for submitting a free job posting is much more extensive. It’s asking employers to fill out a lot more and be much more creative. For example, it asks:“What’s a ‘day in the life’ of the new employee going to be like?” And: “How will the new employee’s performance be measured? What are the specific goals for the job?” And: “What are the top reasons someone should work at your company?”

Don’t get me wrong, employers aren’t the only ones at fault. Candidates have their share in the failure of today’s job boards, too.

I recently posted on two job boards run by friends about two field marketing internships that opened up at Come Recommended. Additionally, I sifted through their resume databases and contacted candidates directly. With no offense meant against my friends, of all the people who applied to my positions or I reached out to directly, I received only two responses for my phone interview requests. Two. And of those two, one blew off our scheduled interview.

Two wrongs don’t make a right. While I understand so many candidates are frustrated with employers not getting back to them, I responded to everyone within 24 hours. I don’t think it’s fair to take out your frustrations with the job market on an employer doing the right thing.

These are just two examples of what’s wrong with job boards — on both sides of the table. There are plenty more.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a solution in this post. It’s one I tout frequently — ComeRecommended.com. I’m not just saying that because I thought of it. And I’m certainly not suggesting it’s the perfect solution — there never will be. But, it’s a giant leap in the right direction. (And it’s freemium, so almost everything is completely free to both candidates and employers. I’m not exactly getting rich over here…) If you haven’t already done so, sign up for an account and check it out. We’re even upgrading everyone to premium status for 30 days.

So how is ComeRecommended.com different than other social networks?

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, there are two people who quit their jobs in the last 48 hours with such a…zest, if you will…that they are circling the Internet:

• Steven Slater, formerly of JetBlue, cursed out a passenger via the plane’s intercom, grabbed two beers, rode down the inflatable slide, and hopped aboard the airport’s train to hitch a ride to his car in the employee parking lot
• Jenny, who took pictures of herself with 33 different whiteboards explaining exactly why she was quitting — which she, of course, e-mailed to the entire office

I’ll start by saying that if you haven’t been in a job at some point in your life where you wanted to do something equally “creative” as Steven and Jenny, you likely will be. I know I’ve been there, unfortunately more than once. So, that part of me not only laughed when I read these stories, but also cheered. I mean, Steven and Jenny are our heroes now, right?

No, not if you enjoy steady employment.

In a time when hiring managers regularly Google candidates before responding to their applications — some going as far as checking out their social media profiles — I think Steven and Jenny are going to be in some serious job hunting trouble.

Sure, we don’t know Jenny’s last name yet — although it’s just a matter of time before someone leaks it — but we do have her picture. If she makes it as far as the interview, she’ll be instantly recognized.

As for Steven, there’s talk he might actually serve jail time for his stunt. Not good for the ol’ background check.

Let’s go back to Jenny for a second. Based on her whiteboard messages, it sounds as though she had a legitimate complaint about her boss (the HPOA part, not his over-use of Farmville), had she taken the proper steps to report him. She might have been wise to consult a labor attorney first to figure out her options before taking such drastic measures.

My verdict: It’s best to never burn a bridge in your career, no matter how horrible the job or colleagues. Your actions, particularly if they end up online, can come back to haunt you.

What are your thoughts about these two situations? Have you ever quit a job in an outrageous way? What were the repercussions?

Some job seekers still think in terms of the old job market paradigm. The old paradigm said most companies post to job boards, had full-time recruiters who carefully selected candidates and expected employees to stay for at least five years.

The realities of the new job market have shifted the job seeker’s paradigm on its head. Now, most jobs never even see the light of a public posting. Many companies have laid off corporate recruiters leaving hiring up to the line manager, who doesn’t even get paid for that task. And candidates are not expected to stay in any one job for more than two years.

The only thing consistent from job to job in your career is You. Your brand is going to stay with you until you retire. Oh, it will change and adapt. But You will still be recognizable.

If anything is important for your job search, then personal branding is the most critical and most overlooked step. By reading and following the suggestions in Personal Branding for Job Search Success: How to Uncover, Align & Pitch Your Brand So You End Up in the ‘Yes” Box, you have already differentiated yourself from the other 299 people applying to your dream job. Click here for a preview.

The regular cost is $19.99, but if you buy a copy between now and 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, August 13 using the coupon code PB50, you will receive it for $9.99. (If you don’t see the Add to Cart button below, click on the cover image to the left.)

But wait, there’s more!

The first 20 people to buy a copy of Personal Branding for Job Search Success will receive an invitation to a private webinar with its author, Joshua Waldman, to go through the e-book in great detail and answer any questions they might have.

So, let’s recap:

• This week only (until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, August 13) you can receive a copy of Personal Branding for Job Search Success for only $9.99 if you use the coupon code PB50
• If you’re also one of the first 20 people to purchase the e-book, you will receive an invitation to a private webinar with Joshua Waldman where he’ll answer all the questions you might have about personal branding in a small group setting

(If you don’t see the Add to Cart button below, click on the cover image to the left.)

Still not convinced? Check out this video by Joshua:

Praise & Reviews

“Personal Branding for Job Search Success is a well thought out guide to help Generation Y students brand themselves as stand out, necessary additions to an organizations staff. With the majority of open positions at companies never being publicly posted, it is necessary for new entrants into the workforce to become known within their network as an expert in your field.” – Keith Petri, eBranding.me

I graduated from my undergraduate program in 2008, and like many others, I knew that finding a job wouldn’t be easy.

After searching briefly and becoming overly frustrated with the lack of responses from companies and lack of job opportunities in general, I made a decision to apply for graduate school. I chose this route because, while it did delay my entrance into the “real world” for a little longer, I also looked at it as an opportunity to take advantage of the poor economic climate and make myself more marketable to potential employers. Also, by attending graduate school it allowed me to get another internship and further vamp up my resume. That was my thinking anyway.

The reality of the matter was that — fast forward two years later — the economy was just as bad, if not worse, job searching was just as frustrating, and I began to think that having my master’s in public relations was not going to help me at all. In fact, it might hurt me because employers may have thought that that I wanted more money. Not the case…I just wanted a job!

As my graduation date grew closer and I started my last quarter of school, I started to panic. Was I going to have to move home with mom and dad? Was I ever going to find a job? I had several mini-meltdowns (ok…maybe not so “mini”) until finally I got a call—somebody wanted to interview me.

When I walked into that first interview in Chicago, I thought this is it! I am going to get this job, and I am going to be employed! And that is going to be it. Wrong. I didn’t get the job. In fact, I went on about five more interviews and never even got a call back. Now the real panic began to set it…was I cut out for this industry? I’m almost 24, and I was still living off of loans and my parents…I felt hopeless!

Here’s where my story starts to brighten. One of my friends within my graduate program got a promotion, and her old position needed filling. She forwarded my resume onto her boss. Within a week of that happening and one very short interview later, I had a job offer. Great news, right? Well, yes…but the catch is it was not what I wanted to do. It was for an Assistant Media Buyer position, which again, was not at all what I wanted to do. But, it was a job with a salary and great benefits, and it was going to allow me to stay in Chicago. So, I was pretty happy!

The twist of the story is that the day I was extended an official offer, I got an e-mail from a public relations agency in Las Vegas that they had seen my resume on Monster and wanted me to do a Skype interview the following afternoon. To be frank, I didn’t even remember applying for this job, and after going through my e-mail, I realized I had applied for it six weeks prior. I agreed to do the Skype interview because this really was my “dream job.” It was doing PR for some of Vegas’ most high profile hotels, clubs, shows, restaurants, etc. I never thought that sites like Monster even really worked because companies just get flooded with resumes.

I actually posted on Heather’s LinkedIn site asking for advice about the Skype interview and got some great feedback. But after the interview, I thought I bombed it! I thought it was awkward and that nobody was particularly receptive to me. I guess I was wrong! I did a writing test the next day, had an interview with the firm’s partner’s the day after and was offered the position the day after that. I got the initial e-mail on Tuesday and by Friday I had a job offer!

I went from having no job offers to two in a matter of a few weeks! I was overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do. I loved Chicago but should I stay in a city that I love for something that really would just be just a “job?” Or, do I pick up and move across the country, to a city where I know nobody, for the “dream career?” What do you think I did?

I moved to Vegas. I just finished up my first week on the job and while I still have A LOT to learn and a lot of adjusting to do—I really feel like I made the right choice. All of my patience, hard work and determination has finally paid off and I have never felt more relived and happy. So, if I had to give three key points of advice it would be:

1. Don’t give up: This may sound cheesy but its true. I KNOW how frustrating it can be, trust me, I do! But, you have to look at finding a job as a job in of itself. Its something you should be doing daily. And don’t just look at traditional sources. You can find jobs everywhere. Twitter. LinkedIn. Facebook. Craigslist. Monster. CareerBuilder. PRSA. EVERYWHERE.
2. NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK: Even though I didn’t end up taking the job through my friend…had I not known her and continually asked if her company (and all of my contacts’ companies) were hiring—I would never have gotten that offer. Also, never be afraid to mention to people you meet at professional events or even when you’re out socially that you’re looking for a job. People can and do sympathize with you and more often than not if they can help—they will.
3. Set up informational interviews whenever possible: Since I left Chicago (of course) I have gotten three e-mails asking me for an interview from companies where I had informational interviews months ago. But, they remembered me! And when the time came to hire…they called me.

Finally, just remember that everything does happen for a reason — and I really do believe that. If I had gotten one of the MANY, MANY jobs I applied for in the past I might not have moved to Vegas to take this job and it truly is my dream job. Granted, I just started but I have a great feeling about it and I am now thankful that it took me so long to find a job because if it didn’t I might not be where I am today. I know this market is incredibly frustrating and I know sometimes it feels like it would be easier to just give up—but don’t. You will find something.

Rebecca Smith works for an entertainment public relations agency in Las Vegas, Nevada. She received her bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and recently graduated DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois with her Master of Arts in public relations and advertising. She has interned with the Mayor’s Office of Special Events in Chicago, Illinois assisting in the publicity efforts of some of Chicago’s famous summer festivals and has also worked with a variety of theater productions in Chicago. A self-proclaimed pop-culture junkie she has found her dream job living in Sin City working on some of Las Vegas’ most popular shows.

• Start-Up vs. Corporate Intern
• A Memo to Aspiring Young Leaders
• 10 Top Goofs Interns Make
• The 5 Most Common Job Fair People That You Probably Won’t Hire
• The Anti-Internship!
• Are Companies Beating Talent Away With A Stick?
• 3 Ways to Prove You are the Perfect Candidate
• The 10 People You Need in Your Professional Network
• Filling Out Job Applications: Why & How
• Tailor Your Resume to the Job
• The 3 Fatal Flaws of Interviewing
• Unpaid internships can cost — or pay off for — college students
• 8 Reasons to Create a Startup While Job Hunting
• Help your job reference help you
• How to Close the Deal in a Job Interview

Which is your favorite piece and why? What else would you add to this list?

Me? I’d honestly continue to run Come Recommended. In fact, after paying off my house and car, I would probably put a lot of the money into Come Recommended to continue making it better and more useful. What can I say, I love helping people!

What’s your answer?

Certainly the recession has hurt young workers badly. While the overall unemployment rate was 9.5 percent in June, it was 15.3 percent for those aged 20 to 24, compared with 7.8 percent for ages 35-44, 7.5 percent for ages 45-54 and 6.9 percent for those 55 and older.

This is certainly a true statement and one I wish the general public would pay more attention to. Everyone always says the baby boomers have been hit the hardest, but as you can see above, the impact on them has actually been the lowest among the age groups. Gen Y has more than double the unemployment rate.

Armed with an undergraduate degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine, and experience from an internship, the 23-year-old [Michael] Barreto believed he had a better chance than many of his peers to find a job. But more than a year after graduation, Barreto is still struggling to find employment.

I’m actually really surprised the reporter who wrote this story even included Michael’s story. She of all people should know that one internship in journalism just won’t cut it. I hate to say that, but it’s the (sad, sad) truth.

The article goes on to say that Michael’s been working at a Panera Bread Co. since college. While this is exactly what he should be doing to make ends meet, it’s not all he should be doing. He should also be writing — even if it is for free. After all, he has $21,000 in federal loans. The sooner he gets a full-time job, the better.

The high unemployment rate among young Millennials can affect them financially and psychologically throughout their careers, according to a report by the Joint Economic Committee.

“The ‘scarring effects’ of prolonged unemployment can be devastating over a worker’s career,” according to the report. “Productivity, earnings and well-being can all suffer. In addition, unemployment can lead to a deterioration of skills and make securing future employment more difficult.”

This, unfortunately, is true. I know it’s not exactly the same scenario, but when I was laid off in June 2008, I took a low-paying job the following month — and have not been able to increase my salary since (despite stellar performance, if I do say so myself). Once you take a job that’s lower than your worth, it’s extremely hard to recover.

However, no one should let unemployment deteriorate their skills! I understand that it’s hard and depressing to be unemployed. (If you’re a regular reader here, you know about my mom’s situation.) But don’t let it beat you! Remaining positive and keeping up your skill set (and even gaining new skills) while unemployed are several surefire ways to be employed faster.

Jordan Hueseman, 25, accrued roughly $100,000 in student loans at the University of Denver earning a bachelor’s degree in international business and a master’s in business administration. On the job hunt, he found his graduate degree sometimes hindered more than it helped.

Again, true — for some industries. Thank goodness Michael doesn’t have a graduate degree. He’d be receiving the ol’ “you’re overqualified for this position” responses from employers. Although the article doesn’t detail Jordan’s ideal job, apparently his MBA has given him the same problems. I always tell students and recent graduates to carefully consider whether or not going to grad school immediately after completing their undergraduate studies is the best choice for them. If you’re going into law or medicine, it’s essential, of course. But don’t just use it as an escape from the “real world”!

Hueseman said that after one job application, he was told he should leave his degrees off his resume. Hueseman said he was tempted to follow the advice but couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Good for him! He shouldn’t drop it off his resume — for a couple of reasons. First, for himself, which he mentioned. Second, a background check will reveal his master’s degree. What if he receives an offer (pending a background check), which is then revoked because he “lied” (more like didn’t tell the whole story) or once again is viewed as “overqualified,” the label he was trying to escape in the first place?

Competing against older workers with years of experience has put many Millennials on the losing end of job interviews. And while that’s typical of past recessions, the long-term unemployment characteristic of this cycle is forcing many older workers to seek jobs that would have gone to younger workers in the past.

If the job is truly entry-level, employers doing this are being extremely short-sighted. Those older workers are going to jet the second they can, whereas they at least have the potential of retaining young professionals.

What did you think about this article? Do you have any additional comments to add? I personally wish Megan had told both sides of the story — there are Millennials getting jobs out there.