This is a guest post by Janna LaRocco, a second year grad student at The University of Texas at Austin in Mechanical Engineering with a background in health and nutrition. You can contact her at j.larocco AT mail.utexas.edu

My final year of graduate school I set a goal to have an offer signed and accepted by Winter break—an entire semester early before the official graduation in May. But there I was home for the holidays, 10 on-campus interviews later and still jobless. I couldn’t figure out where I went wrong but luckily my brother wasn’t afraid to dish out the harsh, ugly truths behind the art of job hunting. Of course my first instinct was to be defensive and blame it on the economy, but considering my brother has years of experience and even started his own company before the age of 30, I decided to hear him out.

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If you’re one of the many college students out there seeking employment, then you’ve probably already read blogs with “dos and don’ts” or helpful tips to landing your dream job. The truth is, we can blame the economy as much as we want, but that doesn’t make the job search any easier. It’s tough out there and jobs don’t just fall into college grad’s laps anymore. I was able to learn a few things from my brother’s advice and along with my own experience, I’ve come up with some things college students often overlook when searching for jobs.

Put Your Pride Aside

The life of an unemployed job-seeking student is anything but glamorous. However, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with putting the word out there. It doesn’t matter where you are or who you’re with—make your job search public knowledge! You never know where a chance to network could show up so broadcast your hunt to anybody who will listen. Of course this does NOT mean complain to everybody about how much difficulty you’re having or how desperate you are to find work. But if you casually mention the fact that you’re looking for a job and which fields you’re interested in, people will listen. Sometimes connections will show up where you least expect them, so start spreading the word.

Worry About Location Later

A huge mistake I’ve seen a lot of my friends make is limiting themselves to one city. Of course we all have a preference of where we’d like to end up after college, which is perfectly fine. The problem is, when you limit yourself to just one city, it severely decreases potential employment opportunities. Who says your first job out of college needs to be permanent? If you’re interested in a big company that has more than one location, apply to positions in more than one city. Just because you don’t get an offer in your first choice location, doesn’t mean you can’t transfer there later with the same company. It’s also a great way to start making connections in your field of interest, so when the time comes to move cities it’ll make the job search a lot easier.

Beggars Can’t Be Choosers

The truth is, companies don’t want to hire unemployed college grads. Why? Because they want what they can’t have, and when you graduate college without a job, your job search goes from casual and relaxed to desperate and urgent. It’s much easier to find a job while you have a job, so even if your first job out of school isn’t ideal, take it! Of course we’re the generation who thinks we’re entitled to our dream jobs instantly just because we’ve been handed a diploma but that is not reality. The reality is that your first job won’t be your dream job so get over it. This doesn’t mean settle for cleaning toilets and flipping burgers, but it does mean that most experience in your field of interest can be seen as positive and valuable. Just because you accept an offer doesn’t mean you need to end your job hunt. Keep it going until you find a good match, but don’t turn up your nose at an industry that “sounds dull” or isn’t cutting edge.

Don’t Wait for the Job to Find You

Sure there might have been a time when offers appeared out of nowhere and sending your resume off into cyberspace meant you had a good shot at an interview. But with jobs getting harder and harder to find, it means more work for the unemployed. So you’ve applied to every posted job on your school’s career website and monster.com and that’s it right? Just need to sit back and wait for them to find you? Wrong. Those jobs are in the highest demand because it’s already been made public knowledge that it’s open for hiring. While it’s perfectly fine to submit your resume to those jobs, it doesn’t mean that’s all there is out there. Do your research! Think about your own interests and what, if any, companies might specialize in them. Often the smaller companies don’t go through university career centers and their human resource contact information is easily found on their website. You can even check out your city’s library for a list of local businesses. Don’t be afraid to go out and find them yourself.

So hopefully this advice helps out your job search because it’s definitely not easy. I ended up finally signing an offer with my first choice company and although I understand the difficulties, I know it’s not impossible. Best of luck!