By Laura Whitelaw

You’ve probably seen the Secret movie by now or at the very least you have heard about it. In short, the Secret movie is about the Law of Attraction and you can use this law to draw your perfect job into your life.

To get started, make a list on paper of all the things you don’t want in a job or don’t like in your current job. Then, take each one of those items on your list and ask yourself what you would like instead. So, one of your list items might be that you don’t want to work with a bunch of negative, backstabbing co-workers. Write that you want to work with a team of positive upbeat people that are supportive of each other and fun to be around. Do this for each of your “don’t want” statements and pretty soon, you will notice your energy level increasing and your mood shifting to one that is much more positive and joyful. Spend as much time as you can on this step and get as detailed as possible. Include all of the qualities that you want from how close you would like your job to be from your home to the type of work you want to be doing to the sort of boss you want to work for and how much money you want to make.

Next, try and get a picture of your dream job in your mind and imagine all the good feelings surrounding the scene. Repeat this visualization as often as possible and try and engage all of your senses. The more of your senses that you use in your visualization along with positive feelings, the more likely your visualization will manifest. It is also recommended that you put yourself in the scene of your visualization rather that looking at the scene as though it is on a movie screen. You need to be an active participant in your visualization.

If any doubts or negative feelings arise, just change your focus again by asking, “so what do I want?” and go back to your written list of “wants” if you need to. The more time you spend focusing on what you want and visualizing it with feeling, the faster it will come to you. You may even find that things start to change at your current place of work. This does not necessarily mean that you should abandon your job search but you may want re-evaluate your current job situation again to see if perhaps your dream job is right under your nose.

Your next step is to take inspired action. So, if you get a feeling that you should connect with an old friend that you haven’t spoken to in a while - follow that instinct. You never know where a phone call might lead. You might decide one day to take a different route to work and pass a company that you were not aware of and find out that they have an opening there. The point is to be open to the possibilities of where this dream job might come from while still keeping up with your traditional job search methods.

By: Carl Mueller

A recent graduate can have a tough time finding their first job and getting their career on track.

When I finished university, I found it difficult to find my first job. Through university I’d worked in a factory so I didn’t have any office experience that I could point to that would indicate to a potential employer that I could do everything I said I could do.

I kept thinking that even though I was a recent graduate with no relevant experience, if only I could somehow convince potential employers what I was capable of, I would prove my capabilities to them.

How can you convince an employer what you are capable of when you seem to have no experience?

In other words, how can you get experience when no one will give you any experience?
When you are a recent college graduate looking for your first job, it can be a difficult time to get your foot in the door. Here are some suggestions to get your job search rolling:

1. Start job searching early. Don’t wait until one month before school ends to start your job search. When I was in university, some employers began interviewing and hiring right after the school year started. So some of my classmates who weren’t graduating until April, had a job offer in hand before Christmas. No need to rush around looking for a job the next summer if you can get hired the previous year, right?

2. Ensure that your resume highlights any relevant skills that you honed during college and that you demonstrated during your time in school. Include evidence of presentation skills, problem-solving skills, teamwork skills and other relevant skills that most employers would find useful that people often leave out from their resume.

3. Look for networking opportunities that your college offers. Take advantage of all career fairs and campus visits by employers whether they are of interest to you or not. The college recruiters that are sent to your campus are often graduates of your school and might have some advice that helps you get your foot in the door with their company. At a minimum, employer campus visits are great networking opportunities.

4. Ensure you utilize at least several job search options and ensure you do each of them well. Other than attending career fairs as mentioned above, use other networking methods, search Internet job boards, search the career section on websites of companies you’d like to work for, search college job boards and contact employers directly that you’d like to work for regardless of whether they are advertising a suitable opening or not. At the beginning of your career, you really do need to get your name out there to a certain extent, especially if you have no relevant experience yet.

5. Consider working for free for a limited time. I’ve seen some recent graduates work for a company for a period of time (ie. 2-4 weeks) for free to prove to the company what they are capable of. The recent graduate offers their services to a company for free for a period of time if they can’t convince the company of their skills up front. If you have the financial means to work and not get paid for perhaps one month, you might try this option.

When you are recent graduate, you might not get a lot of help from professional recruiters. As a recruiter, I find that companies tend to fill entry-level jobs themselves and don’t always pay recruiters to find recent graduates like yourself.