Blog Post: Recent College Grad? Can't find a job? Here is an idea!

I'm flying back to South Florida this past weekend after a combined work and family visit in Washington, DC and I happen to have one of those "nice" passengers sitting next to me on the plane.

You know, the type that carefully checks out if it's OK to start a conversation with you by asking a quick and quiet: "So do you live in DC or in Fort Lauderdale?" A nice neutral question to test the waters to see if I would readily engage in a conversation or go straight into reading the book I had strategically placed on my lap.

This gentleman was an Army officer who was on his way to a global convention being held in Ft. Lauderdale, in the height of the summer and with a couple of hurricanes lurking in the Atlantic Heat and hurricanes, perfect conversation starters on a flight to South Florida. The conversation then lead to the in editable: "So - what do you do Ft. Lauderdale?". I answered: I run a career transition business. Perfect segway into a discussion about his daughter, a recent post college grad, who is having trouble finding a job.

So - what does a recent grad do if they can't find a job in this current market in their field?

He told me that his daughter, who had just graduated from Law School in New York City can't find a job now. Not only is there s glut of recent Law School grads in NYC, to top it off, law firms are slashing hours of the attorneys they already have onboard!

He went on to say: "if there are any jobs at all, there are all these experienced attorneys who have retired or have been laid off and they are the ones who are getting the entry level positions. They will take the lower salary to get the medical benefits and get some income flowing again"

All that education and now, no job opportunities. I asked him: "So...what did you advise your daughter to do?" And here were his words of wisdom, straight from the trenches, as a parent of a young adult who just completed years and thousands of dollars of advanced education:

"Look into additional education, training, courses, certifications and get a job with the government now."

As a career transition expert, I found this very interesting. A parent, who had helped put his daughter through years of higher education, was guiding her to continue to get even more education in order to find a job.

How could he say this?

This is how: Now, you can find federal money, grants, scholarships etc. to help you with the additional education, training and certifications. Check it out. Play around with the keywords for your field of interest and use the keywords FREE MONEY in your search. One idea is to check out the FREE resources on this blog: http://freecollegeblog.com

Your local colleges are receiving federal dollars to provide 3 month, 6 month and even year long certification programs and training anywhere in numerous "hot fields" where the jobs are needing to be filled such as healthcare, "Green" jobs, forensics etc.

Ride this current challenging job market for recent college grads out by getting an entry level, part time, sales, etc., customer service etc. in an industry that is hiring, while you take a course, additional training, a certification program that will provide you an additional marketable set of skills for a job that is in demand. And you may want to consider checking out federal jobs, for longer term security, as my airplane friend suggested to his daughter.

Remember, the "hot" jobs that are in demand now, and for the coming years, are in:

• Healthcare
• Technology
• Renewable/Green Energy
• Higher Education
• Federal Governement

Get yourself prepared to get a job in one of these fields, keep a healthy, positive outlook and you will have a job you like and will be happy in sooner than you think.