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Health & Fitness

Graduates struggle with a 16% Unemployment rate... Why?

A local firm has been consulting large businesses inthe Hartford area and you'll be shocked to hear what they do. They help companies attract and retain millennials (early career professionals.) Believe it or not, the quality of applicants is pretty challenging and many companies in the Hartford area struggle to find great talent. With an unemployment rate of over 16% for young professionals, this seems like one of the greatest oxymorons of all time. So what's the problem?

We dug in and found that the QUALITY is not what is hindering these applicants, it's the INTERVIEW. The top reasons applicants are not getting hired (from our personal study/experience,) are the following:

1. Truly deficient soft skills in the interview
2. Poor social presence (not understanding research done prior to being invited to an interview)
3. Lack of marketable resumes
4. Inability to sell/present themselves in an interview
5. Inability to stick to the interview script (this created derailment during the interview, poor answers and unnecessary nervousness that ended up distracting the interviewer from the candidate and creating concerns.)

In a recent trip with a Fortune 500 company to a well respectedcollege, my team of 8 leaders interviewed over 100 applicants. Of 100 applicants, no one passed the pre-screening process. They were ill-prepared for the interview.

It is incredibly important to set our grads up for success. Over the next 6 months, our May graduates will be interviewing with prospective employers. Whether you have them prepare with us or someone else, they should take the time to prepare. 

We recently posted a job for a marketing intern and received over 200 applications in a week. 80% of them were graduates. It's important for grads to make their resume, social presence and interview stand out from the competition.

One last note. Time Magazine posted an article stating very similar statistics in early November. According to their article, 1 in 5 companies struggle to find talent in today's economy. They were flooded with people who said they have been unemployed, were qualified, etc... We have since offered our services free to some of these people and, so far, in 100% of the cases found their resumes and interview techniques the reason for their unemployment.

Here are some quick tips:
1. Practice, practice, practice. Interviewing is an art form.
2. Be sure your resume your resume and social presence are 100% completely reflective of the career you're pursuing.
3. Be prepared for every question.
4. When it's your turn to ask a question, don't let it be something you could easily research online.
5. Dress appropriately and be on time!

Go get em!

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