It is the time of year when graduations are taking place. I always wanted to deliver some sort of commencement address, or at least say a few words behind a microphone at graduation. Since I was neither at the top of my own graduating classes (high school and beyond), nor have I been invited to be the keynote speaker at such an event, I feel obliged to pour forth my opinion in this article – the closest thing I have to a microphone. 

Tomorrow morning I am interviewing a group of soon-to-be graduating marketing students from a local university. (If you are one of those students and mention you read this article, major bonus points to you!) The news is not good for graduates. Half of them from last year’s graduating class cannot find a job. I am not referring to a job in their area of study; I am referring to any job. That half has run headlong into a very harsh reality: right now the business world does not need them. It is not impressed with their social media prowess, how many tweets they send in a day, or what they are snapchatting. The news is not any better for the class of 2013. The problem may not be so much from a lack of academic preparedness, but from an entitled mentality that has muted these job seekers growth in a key area for gaining a job: business savvy. You may call it street smarts. It is the idea that I have to work the system to get a job. In today’s employment sphere, that means that I have to compete with a lot of other people for each job opening. It means that I have to try to get to know someone on the inside, on my own time and on my own dime, to have a chance to land a job. From what I have read, the hopes of those who are about ready to graduate is that their university will arrange for someone to walk onto their campus – perhaps at a job fair – and they will land a job without leaving the ivy covered walls of their soon to be alma mater.  That is yesterday’s trick. That was when corporations were extremely hungry for young, entry-level employees. That was when you really didn’t need much more than a heartbeat and a passing GPA to get a job. Today’s reality is this: if you want the job, you have to seek it out and stand out from the crowd in the process.

If I may be so bold, I want to offer some advice to those of you who are getting ready to matriculate and have hopes that you will enter the work world soon.

In the business world, networking does not mean "social” networking

Networking means you are meeting with and talking to people with sounds made with your voice into their ear. In business, networking is not about sending any kind of electronic message. It is about getting to know them and what they do so you can do business together. Electronic media is just a support to this process, not the process itself. It is important that you understand this. Social networking has its place in business. There are business social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, that are good for making connections with people. But the business world does not stop with LinkedIn, they begin with LinkedIn. It is used as a Rolodex (this was a business card file of days gone by) for contacts. It is what I use to remember what someone looks like before I see them in a face-to-face meeting. It is a way for me to parse through all of my contacts to find out who does what before I make a telephone call and actually talk to them. If you want to land a job, start networking with business people. Go to their networking events. Get to know them. Ask what they do. Tell them what you want to do. But don’t expect them to hire you because they "friended” you on Facebook and you read that they had a job opening on their company profile page.

Businesses hire people they know

Here is a secret you need to understand: business people like to hire people they already know or are recommended by someone they trust. They do not like hiring total strangers. There is a reason for this. Once upon a time, if you received a resume´ from a job applicant, you could call all of their old supervisors and ask what kind of worker they were. Sometimes those old supervisors thought highly of the applicant and said glowing things about them. But if the supervisor said bad things and the applicant did not get the new job, there was trouble. So, old supervisors don’t talk about their former employees anymore. That means that hiring managers had to come up with another way to tell if an applicant was worthy of hiring. They rely on previous knowledge of the person – either their own experience with the applicant or that of someone within their network.

You should start looking for a job during your junior year

If you have waited until you graduate to start looking for a job, you are behind the curve significantly.  Understand that it is taking people well over a year to land a job even when they are overly qualified. That is going to require you to leave the cocoon of college every now and then to experience the world beyond the university before graduation. You need to start looking for a job in your junior year. Take advantage of your internships. Inquire about job openings, not only in the company for which you are interning, but with their vendors, their clients - and dare I say it – their competition. Get as much information as you can about the industry and the business where you are interning. Ask questions. When you go home for semester breaks, make contact again. See if you can go in and have lunch with people with whom you have made a connection. If you can get an interview, do so. Even if you are not going to be available for the job until after you graduate, go through the interview process. You never know when someone is going to have another opening and you are the first person on their mind.

Even if you don’t have an internship, make the most of your summer job. Business people know other business people. You may be a lifeguard at a pool. What business people come in to do business with the managers of the pool? Chemical companies, food vendors, health inspectors, etc. Talk to these people. Get to know them and their business. You never know where those connections will take you.

Offer them something they need

Here is another reason to get to know a company well. Whenever you are on the inside of a business, you will begin to see their deficiencies. Find out how you can position yourself to meet those needs. I remember the first marketing job I had. I was working at a large photo lab. This was back in the days before digital cameras and people would shoot film, take it to a store to get it processed and made into prints. Our marketing department ran special pricing and distributed hand flyers for these retail stores. I suggested we put the specials in print ad form so the retailers could place them in local newspapers. I knew how to do this easily and suggested we customize the ads for the stores with their name, address and telephone number. It caught on. I remember my supervisor coming to me one day and saying, "You have found a niche for yourself here Mr. Yaney.” I was a sophomore in college at the time. I had a job there as long as I wanted it.