More than 4.5 million degrees – from associate to doctorate – will be handed out in the 2018-19 academic year, resulting in a number of recent graduates entering the full-time workforce for the first time.

As 70% of Black Sheep employees are under the age of 25, and 50% of our employees graduated college in the last two years, we know a thing or two about hiring college students; which is why we’re sharing our best tips and advice for recent grads entering the workforce and companies looking to hire recent graduates.

  • Consider a Small Business

There’s prestige in landing a job at a national firm or Fortune 500 company, however if recent grads want to get hands-on experience, they should consider researching and applying to small businesses. Small businesses often need recent graduates’ skills, have a less regimented work life, and will be more willing to experiment with ideas that are fundamentally much different than what they’re used to.There are pros and cons working for large and small companies, but if students want to get their “hands dirty” right away, consider going small.

  • Try To Chase Experience, Not Money

If possible, recent grads should take a job that gives them more experience over more money. Of course, 70% of graduates will unfortunately have student loans, but most likely won’t have a mortgage, children, car payments, etc. If recent grads can, they should pursue a job that put themselves in a position for better future growth; one that enables them to get involved in producing actual work, rather than a job that may pay a little more, but has less opportunity for them to mature as a professional.

  • Trust That You Have Experience and Communicate it Clearly

Recent graduates have accomplished a lot, so they shouldn’t feel like they have to dress up their interviews with faux business speak for the sake of sounding important. Whether a graduate was a leader of a club at their university, spent a summer interning at a notable company, or simply worked at a pizza parlor, they should speak clearly and plainly about challenges they faced and resolved. These real-life problem solving examples are what interviewers really want to talk about during interviews.

  • Push To Keep Learning

If recent grads are not constantly learning, they are falling behind. It’s important that recent grads carve out time in their professional and personal life to continue to learn.  Attend seminars, network, and read books or blogs; they should do what they have to do to stay on the cutting edge of their industry. Just because recent grads have a degree doesn’t mean they should stop learning.

Are you a recent grad that has a question about applying for full-time positions for the first time? We’d love to hear from you! Connect with us on LinkedIn at, www.linkedin.com/company/theblacksheeponline.

Signing off,

Atish Doshi, The Black Sheep Founder and Brendan Bonham, The Black Sheep Integrator