Needle, Meet Haystack

I was talking with a friend of mine from college over the weekend, and he was telling me about his struggles with finding a job.  ”Man, everyone wants someone with experience,” he said.  ”Nobody want’s to hire the FNG.”

“FNG?”  I asked.  ”What’s that?”

“F***ing New Guy.”  he replied.  And I realized he was right.

While it may be a good thing overall for companies to be hiring less during a recession, it’s not a good thing for job seekers, or even the gainfully employed.  And for recent (and upcoming) graduates, the job market is especially vicious.

Many friends have lamented to me the current catch-22 situation: businesses are looking for employees with experience, but the recent grads can’t get the experience without a job.  With unemployment rates being what they are, employers can be choosier: a position that was formerly an entry-level job now attracts individuals with several years of experience – something that the company can see as a boon, since it reduces time and costs associated with training.

So if no one wants to hire the FNG, what can you do?

There are at least 11 different options that any unemployed person has, but when it becomes more difficult to find a job that one is qualified for, those choices seem even more limited.  But recent graduates have a few advantages: they have plenty of time to gain experience, less to worry about, and they’re blank slates.  Here’s what I mean:

• Recent grads are typically in their early 20s.  As employers will factor in age (consciously or subconsciously) when considering who they will employ, someone who has just graduated is not expected to have as much experience.  This in turn means that the company may be sympathetic to young professionals and will want to nurture their nascent talents.  So if a recent grad applies for an internship, the company may be more apt to hire them on for that position (they can work for longer than interns who are in college and therefore have seasonal or academic obligations), which may then turn into an offer for full-time work.
• Someone who just graduated also doesn’t have as much to worry about.  While student loans might loom overhead like a building storm cloud, most people who graduate college don’t have to worry about their spouse, children, mortgage, standard of living, or other expenses.  If they acquiesce to becoming Boomerangs, they can focus on the job hunt to less financial detriment.  This also means that a recent grad can take a low-paying job or start a company to less ill gains than if they had a family or more personal assets to support.
• Since there’s a lack of experience, that also means that post-grads are essentially professional blank slates.  When hiring an experienced employee, a company may take weeks or even months to indoctrinate them into their practices.  After all, no two businesses operate in the same way, and an experienced candidate may not want to use the methods of their new employer.  As such, a blank slate employee can adapt more quickly to a new environment, producing results that the business wants in the way that they want the results delivered.

So even if you’re stuck being the FNG, remember that it offers you a few advantages over an “experienced” candidate.  And unlike them, you can afford to be a job whore.  Or an entrepreneur.