THESE DAYS the Internet provides an outstanding forum on which to host a gigantic pity party for all those who have a college degree but are unable to find a decent job. Not a week goes by that I don't see something about how horrible the current job market is for grads or how college degrees have lost their value. Blah, blah, blah.

Has a degree lost its value? Yes. But that doesn't tell the story at all. The real story is that despite more education, the general population isn't getting any smarter. More importantly, the average person is getting lazier thanks primarily to the Internet.

Job seekers think they can go online, spend an hour on Monster and Indeed and feel good about doing their 'best' to find a job. Are you kidding me? These same people complain that they were hoodwinked into thinking their degree was a ticket to a $50K/yr job and how the deck is stacked against them.

Reality check

Here's the reality check: the percentage of smart people hasn't gone up, yet more college degrees are being given (yes given) out than ever before and they are getting easier and easier to 'earn'. Therefore we have a situation where having a college degree is becoming more and more meaningless, while not having one is becoming more and more of a handicap in white collar work. When dummies are buying degrees, you'd better have one if you want to get into a high-skilled position.

So with all these not-so-smart people masquerading around as college graduates, your competition for interviews has skyrocketed. This means you have to work your butt off to find a job.

What that means is you have to move past big job boards and do it fast. My site exists so people interested in biotech, pharmaceutical or medical device companies can easily go directly to company career pages and see what jobs they have posted. Going directly to company sites is important, but only part of the answer to your job search woes.

Stuff you don't want to hear

Have you tried networking? When I was in school the career center drilled that into our heads. Network, network, network! I didn't like networking and most people don't. So I did zero networking. Well guess what? I got a crappy job and I honestly don't even know how. You don't want to network? Then shut up about how bad the job market is and how the world is conspiring against you.

Have you ever asked for informational interviews? Many, many companies don't have a position open but then they see a good candidate, and suddenly they can't hire them fast enough. If you're coming out of undergrad, ask for informational interviews under the guise of trying to decide on whether grad school in a particular field is right for you. If they end up loving you, then great. If not, you learned something about the industry and made a contact. (Networking!) If you've never done this, you aren't trying hard enough. Tough to swallow but it's true.

How many hours a week do you search for a job? Most people spend maaaaybe a couple hours a day during the week then take the weekends off. Laughable. 40. Yeah, I said it. You should be spending 40 hours a week looking for jobs. It's your full-time job when you're unemployed. Do you expect to find a full-time job where you work less than 40 hours a week? I know I wouldn't. So if you're not working full-time finding a job, then please exit the pity party.

I know it might seem like it's hard to come up with 40 hours worth of productive job search activities, but they don't all have to be online. Do something that looks good on your resume. *Gasp* Learn something that looks good on your resume! Or, how about this - quit relying on people online to tell you how to find jobs and try to think of some unique job-searching ideas yourself. I'm not a job-search God, just a guy who knows how to do it one particular way. Reading this article should help a little, but you might come up with some great idea and boom, you get a job out of it. Creativity is always good.

Maybe not your fault, but that is definitely irrelevant

I'm not going to act like it's all job-seekers' fault that they can't find good jobs. Corporate profits are at an all-time high, yet these companies refuse to hire. They see uncertainty in the future so they keep the cash or they essentially give it away to stockholders via share buybacks. Colleges and Universities are participating in a system that has strayed immensely from academia's true purpose of educating - it's all about bodies in the classrooms and revenue. So they're just churning out degrees and it stinks.

The take home here is that while a college degree was a job guarantee once upon a time it's not anymore. Not even close. You have to work harder at the job search than your competition. If you can't commit the effort, then stop the complaining.

Now quit reading articles and get back to looking for jobs.

BioPharmGuy