If you’ve graduated from college recently you might be getting frustrated and discouraged in this economic climate. SXSWi is a great opportunity to mix and mingle with professionals in the industry and hear some great advice. If you need to jumpstart your job search, check out these panels to keep you motivated, hear tips and strategies to landing that perfect job, and learn some new tricks of the trade!
My top 5 panel picks for recent graduates are:
1. Post Recession Recruitment- What Now?
Thankfully, companies are starting to hire again now that we are coming out of the recession. But a lot of things have changed, and the traditional way of looking for a job just won’t cut it anymore. This panel will discuss these recent changes, give a better understanding of what is being done differently today, and how it can effect you. If you have been wondering what you are doing wrong in your job search, and want to know how to make it more effective this is the panel for you.
The panel will also discuss how recent graduates have very different expectations than more seasoned workers, and how companies are now focusing more on “fit” than “pure skill set.” Hear from recruiters themselves what companies are looking for, how to land a job, and how you can use new technologies to your advantage.
Many times recent graduates feel that we are too young or too inexperienced to get the jobs we might want, even though we know we could be successful in the position. It turns out, being young is one of our greatest assets! We are curious, hard-working, and willing to take risks. If you want to learn how to turn these qualities into your greatest strengths, attend this panel.
Nineteen-year-old presenter Brian Wong, founder of Kiip (subscribe to the site here), a startup focused on mobile in-game advertising, backed by True Ventures, knows first hand what it is like to be a young entrepreneur. He was recently called the “youngest person to ever receive funding by a venture capital firm” by Techcrunch and the Wall Street Journal. He also launched the Digg Android mobile app, and created the world’s first categorized Twitter discovery tool: Followformation.com. which was called one of the best Twitter user discovery tools in Mashable, The Huffington Post, Fast Company, and more. Brian will share all the lessons he has learned along the way, and teach you how to harness your natural youthful assets.
Catch this panel Friday, March 11th at 2pm.
3. Landing your Next Job Through Personal Branding
If you don’t already have a website, a twitter and Facebook account, and a blog… you should get one now! This panel will show you how to strategically create your own personal brand using new media and land the job you deserve. The presenters, Maira Garcia and Anna Tauzin, created a blog for their panel so they can gather ideas and provide resources for people who are planning to attend the session or those interested in the topic. You can also find more information about the presenters and the panel. Follow this panel on Twitter during the conference with the hashtag #hireme.
You can see a preview of this panel by presenter Maria Garcia on this blog.
4. Fail Big, Fail Often: How Fear Limits Creativity
While searching for a job, I have found that you will fail more often the you will succeed. That is, you will get a lot more no’s than yes’s. It is refreshing to here that failure can not only be a good thing, but according to this panel, it is a requirement. If you goal is land a job in a creative industry like advertising or graphic design, the competition is fierce. This panel can show you how to turn your failures into original creative work.
This panel will discuss the concept of failure as a necessary part of creation and introduces the idea that even the most artistic expressions benefit from reworking your original ideas. If you need some motivation from what can feel like an epidemic of epic creative failures check out his panel Sunday, March 13 @ 12:30p.
5. Five Secrets to a Killer Elevator Pitch
Every recent graduate should have a great elevator pitch! You never know who you are going to meet that could give you the opportunity you have been waiting for. This panel will teach you about the 5 secrets to a killer pitch from an expert speaker who has pitched at TechCrunch50, SXSW Accelerator, Ignite, DEMO, and many other competitions. The panel description may say it’s “not for beginners!” but the best advice I’ve heard so far is to go to panels that you know nothing about.
Even if you are not prepared to stand up in front of the crowd and give your pitch, it will be a great learning experience to hear perfectly polished pitches and the feedback from professionals to help you create your killer elevator pitch.