These past couple weeks I’ve noticed a lot of my friends have started to scramble for jobs as summer is fast approaching. I know because my Facebook update stream is overwhelmed with job search updates. Too bad it’s usually stuff like

“my exciting job search is starting to really suck!”

and

“does anyone have a job for me, like is it seriously this hard to find a job?”.

I’m sorry to burst everyone’s bubble, but it was NEVER easy to find a job. Even in the best of times, there was still tons of competition, you still have to submit resumes and cover letters, and you still have to go through a full interview process. The problem is that people that are newly entering the job force think it’s only a NOW thing and not a normal job thing. It’s not. Jobs are always competitive. Finding a job is never easy. And no one is going to do it for you. So instead of wining about it and saying how sad it is to not have a job, then go out and find a job. Do more then search Craigslist for 15 minutes and submit your resume to 3 different places. OMG 3 different places didn’t respond, the job market is horrible! O please, who knew that you had to work hard to get something? I know, what a crazy concept, right? Here I’ll even give you some job search tips:

1)    Create a list of 30 companies that you’re interested in.

2)    Search www.LinkedIn.com and find employees, managers, and HR personnel of those companies.

3)    Write a well-crafted cover letter and resume that introduces yourself, your background, and your interests

4)    Either send LinkedIn messages, find their e-mail online (Google it), or find their Facebook page and send them a message that way.

5)    In ever e-mail and message you send out, tell them the job that you’re interested in (whether it’s listed as open on their careers page or not) and ask 2 things 1) if their company has that job and 2) if not, do they know any companies that have that job.

That’s just another means of finding potential jobs. Using Craigslist, Monster, Indeed, and all the other job posting sites are useful, but they should only be one part of the job search, not the only part.

Hopefully Gen Y will snap out of it and realize that finding a job takes effort and will stop hoping that everything will come to them easy, because it doesn’t. Nothing in life is easy and nothing will come to you if you just sit and wait for it. You have to know what you want and go out and get it. Otherwise, be quiet and stop complaining.

Disclaimer: I know there are a lot of people that are trying really hard to find a job and haven’t found anything, but those aren’t the people I’m referring to. I’m referring to the people that say it’s a bad job market but 1) have no reference to other times and 2) haven’t tried hard enough to know even if they do have reference to other times.