If you haven’t had a professionally tailored resume and your work history is kind of shabby, then I would suggest networking with some of your business contacts from your school and seeing if you can get some help. Networking is key! Unfortunately, who you know and not what you know is actually a sad fact of the corporate world. Post your resume on Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com and let recruiters find you! Create yourself a web-based resume, and make sure you brush up on your cover letter skills as well. If you need help, email me! I write professional resumes and cover letters and I’ve worked as an executive coach before.

If you find a fair print out a lot of resume copies. Come up talk to them (as long as you sound professional and intelligent) they will remember a face and they will already have your resume printed out (which is different from online because they usually have to print those out anyway).

Another thing is although not too important is somehow making yourself memorable. In a resume there are plenty of boring details that everyone puts. I think if you put something that catches the recruiters attention you have a better chance for an interview, and that’s the first step.

If you get an interview – try to find out who will be your interviewers (usually listed on the site) – maybe you can find out where they worked, if you are lucky maybe even some feedback about them. When they ask you questions try reply with a thought out response. – even the ‘this weather’s so nice’ to which most respond ‘yeah it’s nice’, but you can try to come up with something witty to add, maybe ‘the sun is shining the birds are singing and i’m trying to make small talk to hide my nervousness’ – delivered appropriately of course (and also depends on if the recruiters have a sense of humor)

Also, consider job websites, like Monster.com. It’s free to post your resume, and 1000s of companies will see it as they search for employees. Contact friends, relatives, etc. and inquire about jobs at their work – many places offer hefty referral bonuses, so you could earn someone big bucks.

Otherwise, keep trying and don’t give up. During my last semester at school, barely a day went by when I wasn’t attending at least one pre-interview presentation by a company – even if I didn’t manage to get an interview with them. I had over 50 on-campus interviews – at least a quarter of them I got because I went to visit the company recruiters at the pre-interview, and personally handed them my resume.

From all those interviews, about 5 companies called me back for round two – visiting them in person. Eventually I ended up with 2 offers – both of which were from companies who did not get my resume from the recruitment office, but because I had gone and talked to the recruiters.

That is what I did and ended up retiring from one of the largest companies in the world, and I am not that bright.