Recessions are such: They put EVEN more people into the job-market
and make sure they stay that way and take a lower pay.

The issue for fresh graduates in a recession is that all the good
jobs seemed to be snatched up by recently laid-off 35-year olds who
are desperate and willing to take a huge paycut. And many fresh
graduates are forced to take jobs that doesn’t even need high
school education.

I have heard this many times, “Well, this is how it is. You just
have to take what you can get in this market.”

Does your degree count for nothing??!

If you only know how to look for a job using OLD conventional,
outdated ways in this knowledge economy (or would only take jobs
based on your conventional outdated mindset), the answer is, “Yes,
your degree really counts for nothing.”

To start with, most people are looking for jobs at the wrong
places… places like Monster, JobsDB, Career Times, Job Market…

Now, here’s what you can do to recession-proof yourself:

1. Decide on what you REALLY want and the kind of work you are
interested in (Yes, work that you’ll care about) and TELL people
about it.

Yes, this means NETWORKING!

2. Do free work for the industry, company, project that you are
interested in.

No, free work is not an internship.

Free work is done remotely (i.e. off-site). This means that you can
work for people in any part of the world. To the employer, it is
called “outsourcing.”

Employers usually worry about wasting time and money when they
hire. These are the two big risks. With free work, you remove the
risks altogether. They don’t have to set up a desk for you, they
don’t have to spend too much time to train you, they don’t even
have to care that much about you.

They’d also have really low expectations of you. And that’s where
you can over-deliver!

Yes, no salary now but the objective is to secure trust with the
employer and prove your worth so that you will earn much more later
when you secure the job. BTW, having a degree does not mean you are
entitled to a job an pay-cheque.

What you need to do is this:

“I’d like to work on project ABC for you. I’ll work on it for the
next 2 weeks and give you an update on my progress every 2 days.

“What I need is some direction about the project and what
outcome/result you’d like to get with some feedback on my regular
email updates.  This will make sure that I am on the right track.

“If you don’t like my work at the end of the 2 weeks, you can trash
it and we’ll move on. No lost for you and no hard feelings from me.

“But if you do like my work, I’d like to discuss doing more work
for you.”

When you do get the free work, do it professionally and speedily.
And always appreciate the opportunity that you have been given.

And by the way, you don’t have to do free work alone – Gather up a
few friends and work together!

Now that she has just graduated with her Master’s degree and
seriously looking for a job, she made it clear in her email that
she wanted a reference letter from me. And as if to add a sense of
urgency to the request, she said that she will visit my office that
very afternoon to see me… without making an appointment.

Normally, I would be more than happy to provide our interns with
reference letters. However, in this case, I had several issues:

1. She never remained in contact after completing her internship
with us and I had no idea what she did for the past year;

2. Her internship was done last summer;

3. Her internship performance was poor and I remember almost firing
her;

4. The only reason for her “reappearance” is to get a reference
letter from me.  There was no thought of reciprocity.

She did visit our office that afternoon and to her credit, she
brought cookies along. I wasn’t around to see her but promptly
received another email from her thereafter, reminding me of her
request.

I’m sharing this little incident in the hope that you can see how
asking for favours can be done more professionally and with finesse.

First of all, always remain in touch. Send a simple “Hello” email
to update the person you wish to keep in touch with REGULARLY. Do
not disappear for a long time and suddenly reappear only to ask for
favours.

While keeping in touch, be a connector. Connect the person with
resources, whether it is information, news, things, ideas or
people, that will be helpful to him/her.

Be a value-giver instead of a value-taker. Always think about how
you can be helpful to the person FIRST instead of always thinking
about how you can get something from him/her. Avoid the “me, me,
me” mentality.

Whether it is an internship, temporary job, part-time job or
full-time job, always put in your best. Do not hold back. Always be
a solution instead of a problem. Be always a problem-solver.
Perform well and then ask for a reference letter. Excellent
performance will always attractive a better job offer. You will at
least get a glowing reference letter from your supervisor.