Unemployed College Graduates: Blog Yourself a Job

Being unemployed is perhaps the most stressful situation anyone can experience, particularly if job prospects are slim in your field. As unemployment in the United States remains painfully high, particularly among recent college graduates where 54% are unemployed or underemployed, the competition is fierce for the few good jobs that become available.

Job markets in some areas are so competitive that thousands turn up to apply for a handful of cashier jobs. People with impressive resumes are becoming a dime-a-dozen and many don’t know how to distinguish themselves from the pack. It’s even more difficult if you’re fresh out of college with little experience.

Are you one of the thousands of unemployed college graduates in America drowning in debt and living at home with your parents? It can be a hopeless feeling, right?

Well, at some point you have to stop hoping someone takes pity on you and gives you a job and go out and create your own opportunities.

One of the little known ways to do just that is by setting up a blog to broadcast your availability.

A blog can serve as a multifaceted resume that displays your talents to a potential employers that they could never attain from a piece of paper with words on it. In fact, if your blog is impressive enough, few may even care that you lack work experience.

A blog can show off your knowledge in a certain field, your writing and research skills, your personality and presentation skills, your eye for design, technical skills and so much more. It also proves that you have the ability and initiative to build something of value from scratch which requires tenacity and problem-solving skills.

And, as an added bonus, if you’re diligent about working on and promoting your blog, it has the potential to make you a nice income by itself.

Setting Up a Blog to Attract Employment

How to blog yourself a job really depends on what your employment goals are. But, first, it starts with creating a blog related to your field or whatever you’re passionate about. The process of setting up a blog is pretty straightforward and free on popular blogging platforms like Blogger, WordPress, or Typepad.

If your goal is to promote yourself or your services, you must create a detailed “About Me” page on your blog that essentially serves as a short-form resume. You may also consider making a video introducing yourself. Additionally, create a page called “Hire Me” or “My Services” that goes into more detail about what you can offer clients or companies.

Be witty and creative in your “About Me” section in how you present yourself. In other words, don’t just give your vital statistics. And instead of the dry information of names and dates that typically fill out your paper resume, offer a colorful portfolio of past work and experiences. Use images and video wherever possible. In place of references, be sure to include as many testimonials about you and your services as you can drum up.

It probably goes without saying, but try not to appear desperate. Be enthusiastic about your profession and confident in your ability.

How to Blog Yourself a Job

If you desire a full-time position, it’s best if your blog is more personal and geared toward the exact type of employment you hope to attract. For example, suppose you have a teaching degree, include blog content specifically about your teaching philosophy, your experiences, how you would handle certain challenges, commentary about current events in the school districts that you’re targeting, and so on.

On the other hand, if you seek freelance work, it will be more beneficial to write informative posts about your industry as a whole. For instance, if you’re a graphic artist, writing about the importance of branding, how colors affect psychology in marketing, different techniques and technologies used by designers, etc. In short, the material should be less about you and more about your craft.

Whether you seek freelance work or full-time employment, the type of content that will garner the most attention will be commentary about recent news, new technologies, or groundbreaking studies in your field. Internet traffic is driven by what’s trending, so after the foundation of your blog is established it’s best to focus on current events.

Make sure that you only post your very best work. Even if you don’t consider yourself to be a great writer, there is no excuse for grammatical errors. Word processing programs are terrific at catching mistakes and it’s smart to always have someone else proofread your articles before posting them. Finally, be professional in every aspect of your blog.

How to Get Noticed

So you’ve set up a blog and added some content, now what? How do you get potential employers to notice you?

Most people get a job because they were referred by a friend or colleague. So, the more friends, colleagues or customers you have that know what you’re capable of professionally, the higher chance you have for finding a job. As your blog audience grows so do your chances of reaching people who know people. Therefore, your goal for self-promotion is about getting more traffic to your blog.

Self-promotion may not be your strong suit, but with a blog you’re not exactly tooting your own horn face-to-face. Instead you’re simply promoting your blog content in the cyber world. It’s not as if you’re saying “look at me, look how great I am” either, rather the quality of your content should do the bragging for you. So don’t be bashful in sharing your blog.

Promoting your blog is about getting your work in front of as many people as possible. There are several techniques for increasing your traffic like syndicating your posts to relevant websites or places like Yahoo Voices or Squidoo, and sharing them on all social media outlets. But perhaps the most effective way to reach a bigger audience is by writing targeted guest posts for large websites in your field.

It’s vital to include in your short bio at the end of each article with your professional title and your employment goal, especially for your guest posts. In other words, you want to let the readers know what you do, that you’re available, and where to find you. For example: John Smith is a Sales and Marketing Specialist for hire. View his credentials and portfolio at his blog.

For personal encounters with people you meet on the street, have business cards made up and hand them out at every opportunity. They can be as simple as saying the following:

John Smith

Sales and Marketing Specialist for Hire

www.JohnKnowsMarketing.com

The purpose is to get them to visit your blog to see what you’re capable of. Business cards that promote your blog are also terrific to staple to the front of your physical resume when applying for jobs. Employers may skip the boring job-history information and look you up online. At the very least, it will most certainly set you apart from the other applicants.

Finally, as you continually add content and followers to your blog you may be surprised to discover that you can actually make money blogging, which may eventually negate the need for a job altogether. So if you’re a recent college grad who remains jobless, do yourself a favor and create your own job opportunity today by creating your own blog.