FOCUS SIDEBAR: Improving your chances (Get a Job!)

Graduates unable to find jobs in their fields straight out of school should not lose heart, experts said. With legwork, luck and a few new skills, they said, the graduates will find the positions for which they were educated. "There are always positions to be had," said Victor Lindquist, dean of placement at Northwestern University. "Many students graduate and do not have a job, and that's not disturbing to me at all. If you can get yourself a part-time job, you'll eventually find a full-time one. If you decide what you want to do and where you want to go, then go there." The experts recommended several things that graduates and students still in school can do to make themselves more attractive to potential employers: · Become computer literate. Employers want graduates who have used computers and have skills in word processing, spread sheets, statistical analysis programs and design by computer programs. Employers are hiring fewer secretaries and are "even having executives do more of their own keyboarding and communicating through computers," said Patrick Scheetz, author of a nationwide study of hiring trends. · Improve communication skills. "We did a survey a few years ago and over 200 personnel managers said the biggest reason for interview rejection was poor communication skills," Lindquist said. · Build up work experience before graduation. "It's a world of difference working in the real world from studying in a classroom," Lindquist said. · Improve foreign language skills. · Learn the basics of economics and finance. · Do not limit the job search to one geographic region.

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