When to start applying for jobs if graduating in May?

Hey all,

For those of you who remember my last topic (whether to take a PR job or stay in journalism), I'm still undecided.
However, with graduation rapidly approaching, I'm wondering about an appropriate time for applying for jobs.

If I can't start until mid-May, should I start applying now? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

Yesterday.

 

It might early for actual applications in some places, but it's never too soon to send your stuff and get your name in front of people so they know who you are when they do have openings.

 

Yea, playthrough.. I'm sure you have a lot of better things to do than help out a young writer for five seconds. I'll apologize on his behalf for taking you away from finishing your All-Area-who-gives-a-fuck First-team selections.
I'm sorry... the needless shitty attitudes amaze me often here.

 

LOL Thanks for coming out, you're awesome. I feel you. That's why I starting trolling people here. At first, I came to this site with genuine intentions, but found myself being punked and name-called for no good reason. Now, I just have fun punking the punks.

 

Forget about jobs, concentrate on getting into grad school before your first student loan payments are due. While in grad school, loans can be deferred.

Otherwise, you'll probably get an entry level job at the Town Rag making anywhere from $19K-27K per year and end up forking out $300-$400 a month in student loan payments, and another $500 per month for your apartment. If you're a heavy drinker like me, then you'll shell out another $400 on your bar tabs.

Don't know if you have a car payment, but the short version of the story is -- there's no money to be made out there.

I'd consider law school or an MBA program, or just fuck around and go for any old M.A.

If you join the workforce this summer rather than grad school, I guarantee you'll regret that decision.

Stay in school. With a graduate degree in something other than journalism, you stand to earn more in the future, and it's a juicy thing for a human resources person to see on a resume. It's the reason why a hiring manager may hold onto your resume rather than the recent college graduate's who's just got a bachelors.

 

Hey guys, try not to get so defensive on these threads. When the guy said "yesterday," that's quite on the mark. My experience is, it's never a bad time to send out clips and the earlier the better. That's what he/she was saying.

Now, as having had a few internships myself way back when, one paper hired me in December for a summer internship. Granted, this was a top 5 section and the program was taken very seriously by the editors. Some papers may not be so anxious to get the hiring out of the way.

My old boss recently told me he just hired his next summer intern, and he's at a top 10 section. So based on those examples, I'd say Aug.-Sept. is best for getting clips in. But if you miss a specific deadline for a program (most good ones have deadlines for applications), if you're good enough, they'll remember you.

 

If you don't have a job by now, learn how to say " Your Mocha double decaf latte will be ready in a moment".

 

Start checking around, and send your resume out to places that do not have advertised job openings so that they will keep your resume on file. If you see any openings that you want, go ahead and apply. The big sports job opening rush typically comes in May, so be prepared for a few month lag while you do the interview circuit after graduating.

 

I graduated in May 05. Started sending out resumes in late Feb., March. Didn't get much bite at that time, though. Part of it may be that I was overestimating where I could work, but I think part of it was that it was just early -- if a paper has an opening it wants filled, it doesn't want to hire a soon-to-be-graduated college kid and have to wait five months for him to come fill it.

But that's just my experience. As others have said, it's never too early to start.

 

(How this lasted this long, I'll never know...)

You're hired!