(New to the Ad Grad Project? Start with week one and two.)


The Ad Grad Project wants to know, are you digging deep enough into your personal resources?

I've been collecting data for two weeks for Week Three, using my infamous, "incredibly unscientific" polling methods. I posted several polls on various sites asking the questions: Have you recently used (or ever used) your colleges' career placement services? Were they helpful? And I discovered something:

I hate polls. Way too much work.

Okay, I discovered a few other things:

I only managed to scrounge up 127 responses and about ten percent weren't from people in advertising. That's why there's no exact science to this approach, but it did reveal that people aren't happy with their university programs. Up to 69 percent of the responders felt their schools' programs were inadequate or didn't offer any assistance at all. I then followed up with another question: You have resumes of two equally qualified candidates. Who would you be more inclined to recommend? Fellow alumni you've never met? Or an acquaintance? Sixty-seven responded and 55 percent chose alumni.

Interesting, at least I thought it was.

If you don't like your school's efforts to help you land a job, your fellow alumni may be willing to lend a hand. So when you apply for a position, do some homework. Seek out alumni on staff and introduce yourself as a former Fighting Irish, a Warrior, a Woodchuck ...or whatever. Work that school spirit. It may help you rise above the slush pile.

I've said it often: advertising jobs are often filled by referrals. Thirty-seven out of 67 people here may be helping me to prove my point.

It's time for you to make some new friends.

So how do you find them? Pull up company rosters on LinkedIn... Maybe it's time to finally join your alumni associations and see where your fellow grads can be found... Are you a member of a fraternity or sorority? Start working that brotherhood and sisterhood connection.

As an example, I've tapped into my personal resources, using my Wayne State University alumni and my brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. to compile this list of job openings. I didn't list my sources by name. These are my contacts. You find your own. Not all of them work at these places. Some just have the connections to get my resume to key people. If I was applying for these positions, maybe I would have an advantage over you, if there's any truth to my polls. (I'm a creative, not a stats and numbers man.)

I'm short this week. Using this method, I only found nine opportunities in new states:

Marketing Leadership Summer Intern for Ford Motor Company (Dearborn, Michigan) Contact: Fraternity and Alumni
Copywriter for Williams and Williams (Tulsa, Oklahoma) Contact: Alumni
Marketing Intern for American Red Cross (New York, New York)
Copywriter for West Community Credit Union (St. Louis, Missouri) Contact: Alumni
Copywriter for Navicor (Columbus, OH) Contact: Fraternity and Alumni
Graphic Designer for BRR Architecture (Merriam, Kansas) Contact: Alumni
Design Intern for SirsiDynix (Provo, Utah) Contact: Alumni
Coke Zero Intern at the University of Kentucky (Lexington, Kentucky) Contact: Alumni
Intern for Inroads (Charleston, South Carolina) Contact: Alumni

There's no guarantee that alumni will recommend you, or that they will always be receptive to your contact. Still, your chances of applying with their recommendations is a little over 50 percent. A chance of gaining any advantage is better than none. And in this economy, you have to like those odds.