Even in a down job market, there are still job openings out there and people being hired to fill them. Here are four recent CJN graduates who found jobs in marketing, communication, or journalism, in spite of the dire employment statistics.  

Sarah Harrington was hired in March 2009 to be an Executive Assistant at Pierce-Cote Advertising, an agency located in Osterville. "I am the communications liaison between the president of the company and the account executives, who I assist with client projects when needed." 

Carmen Lugo-DeRaleau works for the Visiting Nurses Association as a Community Relations Specialist. Her job entails marketing, “soft sales” and community outreach. “I go to see doctors, groups like the Council on Aging, Chambers of Commerce to tell them about what we do here at the VNA.”

Stephanie Piquette has just started her new job as Marketing Coordinator for Brittenford Systems, a software company in Reston, Virginia. “Some of my duties include cold calling, creating and managing web content, creating e-newsletters, managing pay-per-click campaigns, social media marketing, organizing webinars, writing press releases, and lots of research.”

Joshua Thomas started with Salary.com in July after returning to the greater Boston area from Michigan. “My title is Business Development Representative. I identify and acquire new business for Salary.com. For all intents and purposes, it’s a sales job.”

We asked the four to tell us about their job searches, including the tactics that worked for them and those that didn’t.   

Job Sites
All the alums made the rounds of online job sites like craigslist, HighEdJobs, Yahoo! hotjobs, and Monster. Carmen says she looked at every site every single day, and also visited the sites of companies she wanted to work for every single day. She read a local newspaper daily and sometimes found leads there. Stephanie found the job she eventually landed on Monster. “I also posted my resume on these sites, but I’m not sure how useful that was. No company approached me; I was always the one to approach them.”

Career Services
When his initial efforts were not successful, Josh turned to his Suffolk connections for guidance. “I met with Jane to discover some options that might help me actually utilize the degree I earned through Suffolk University. She was helpful. She told me about Career Services in Boston and I was able to meet with an advisor there to gain some insight as to why I wasn’t getting a job.”

Network! Network! Network!
All four can’t say enough about the importance of networking; it lead three of them to their eventual jobs. “I told literally everyone I knew that I was looking for a job,” says Carmen. “One of the people from my previous job told me about the job at the VNA.”  Josh Thomas learned that his former classmate Mike Souza was working at Salary.com, and reached out to him. “He offered to send my resume to the recruiter at Salary.com.” While on Facebook, Sarah connected with a person she grew up with who worked at Pierce-Cote. “She said she’d let me know if a position ever opened up, and sure enough, two weeks later she sent me a message that the executive assistant position was opening up. I sent her my resume to forward along to the president, and I was in for an interview shortly after."

Research
Stephanie made a special effort to prepare for her job interviews. “In every situation, I researched the company, found their profile on Hoovers, LinkedIn, and even Facebook. When I could, I joined their networks. After reviewing the job description, I tailored my resume and cover letter to fit their needs as closely as possible, without lying, of course. I also called the firms and asked who the Human Resource Manager was and personally addressed my cover letter to them. In my opening sentence, I made mention of something I found interesting about the company.”

Direct Contact
Carmen called companies she wanted to work for and talked to the marketing people. “I’d ask them to give me tips, to tell me what I should do.” While these conversations did not lead directly to a job, they did help to focus her search. Stephanie took direct contact a step further with a boldness that impressed her future employers. After learning that she was supposed to send her resume to the company CEO, she left a message on his voice mail urging him to review it because she was the right person for the job. A day later, when she hadn’t heard back from him, she approached him via his profile on LinkedIn, asking for a phone interview. The following day he wrote back, saying that he liked her approach. "That afternoon he called me and we spoke for over an hour. He mentioned that [of the 250 others who had applied for the job] not one person had called him besides me.”

The Interview
Carmen went to every interview she could get, even if it was for a job she probably didn’t want, because each one improved her interviewing skills. “I wanted the right job, so I turned down some offers. But getting those offers increased my confidence.”

Stephanie was eventually flown down to Virginia, where she had six individual interviews, ending with the CEO. At the end of each of the first five meetings, she asked for feedback and if the interviewer would endorse her for the job. She was told later that everyone was impressed by her directness. “Ryan, the IT tech guy, said those were the two best questions anyone had ever asked him!” In her final interview, which was with the CEO, she told him, “I may not have the most experience, but no one will work harder. This job is meant for me and I want it.”

Final Thoughts
All the former students credit the Suffolk CJN program with helping prepare them for the job market. Carmen says, “If I hadn’t gone through the program, I wouldn’t have gotten the job that I love!"