How do you get a job post-graduation? Colorado experts weigh in on “hard” labor market

Emily Griffith Technical College instructor Marisol Espinoza, left, watches as one of her students, 19-year-old Joey Guerrero, cuts a flat-top for customer Kevin Prentice during barbering skills training in Denver on May 30, 2024. Technical schools like Emily Griffith can help young people find pathways into careers. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

Christopher Fazzari has fired off more than 200 job applications since graduating from the University of Denver last year.

The 23-year-old would at least like to receive the occasional rejection notice.

Most of the time, he never hears anything from employers after uploading his credentials into an online abyss where algorithms — not humans — often get the first crack at whittling down hundreds of job candidates.

Fazzari, a Denver resident, wants to break into media or communications to write, podcast and inform people about education policy and news relevant to teachers. But the narrative of landing a job after graduation that he’d been sold his whole life hasn’t panned out.

“I did all the things I was supposed to do,” Fazzari said. “I went to college. I got an internship. I worked hard and did independent studies. I graduated. But the job system of the past no longer exists.”

Starting a career after college is a much different ballgame than it once was, experts told The Denver Post during the height of Colorado’s graduation season. The job hunt, like most things, has moved online. Whereas a firm handshake used to be the pinnacle of impressing a prospective employer, the new trick of the trade is learning how to stand out among heaps of digital applications that zip through automated screenings before ever encountering human eyes.

And the current labor market isn’t making the hunt any easier.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers recently projected early career hiring for the class of 2024 will be down 5.8% from last year. That coupled with Colorado’s low unemployment rate is expected to hit new and recent graduates hard as they attempt to enter the labor market, said Edward Quinones, communications specialist for the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

How do you break through the noise and snag a job that makes your postsecondary education worth it? Career services experts in Colorado shared their expertise with The Post on what it takes, while recent graduates such as Fazzari divulged “mind-numbing” lived experiences in their quest to start a career.

“It’s not an easy job market right now,” said Tara Skredynski, a Denver-based career coach. “A lot of people are staying in their roles and not really leaving. There are fewer opportunities and more candidates. So much about the job searching process has changed.”

What’s the labor market like?

Makayla Salter worked as a marketing student assistant for the University of Kansas’s athletic department and completed two business and marketing internships during her time at the KU School of Business.

Salter, 22, graduated a few weeks ago. Her family’s Thornton home has transformed into her career headquarters, where she updates an Excel spreadsheet tracking the status of the more than 200 jobs she’s applied for since the beginning of the year.

Inspired by her internships, Salter is searching for a role in a collegiate athletic department or sports organization where she can flex her business acumen.

“I know everything is going to work out, but in the moment, it’s stressful,” she said.

Out of the 238 applications she’s submitted so far, Salter has heard back from 31 prospective employers. Some asked her to produce intensive work samples, which the recent graduate spent hours crafting, even having them reviewed by her mentors, only to be ghosted by the employers.

When she was able to land an interview, Salter felt confident and prepared in the moment — less so after only hearing back from anyone post-interview about half the time, even after reaching out later to thank interviewers for their time.

“It’s so hard to understand it because you hear so much about companies needing employees, but it’s hard to find the gap,” Salter said.  “I get that not everyone is going to get the job, but I really don’t see anyone getting any jobs.”

Only about half of bachelor’s degree holders in the United States lock down a college-level job within a year of graduation, according to a February report by the nonprofit Burning Glass Institute, which researches the future of work. The other half end up underemployed, meaning they work in jobs that don’t require a degree or make use of their collegiate-level skills.

Seventy-three percent of graduates who enter the workforce underemployed remain so a decade after completing college, the report found. A recent graduate with a college-level job usually earns about 88% more in wages than someone who only has a high school diploma, the report said. But an underemployed graduate typically earns just 25% more than someone with no education beyond high school.

Colorado had the fifth-highest labor participation rate in the United States and outranked 31 other states in its labor force growth rate, according to a 2023 economic outlook report from the University of Colorado. 

Colorado’s unemployment rate for the first few months of the year is at 3.7%, below the national average of 3.9%, according to a quarterly business report released by the state.

Headed into the pandemic, Colorado had the fifth-lowest unemployment rate in the country at 2.5%. By the end of 2020, Colorado saw 269,200 people without jobs and actively looking for one, a higher total for the state than any month during the Great Recession, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state had the nation’s fourth-highest unemployment rate after Hawaii, California and Nevada at the time.

Now, Colorado’s employment increased an estimated 2.2% in 2023, adding 64,500 jobs, and stood at a record 2.9 million in October 2023. CU projects an increase of 41,900 jobs in 2024, or a 1.4% increase in the number of employed workers in the state.

There were 1.7 job openings per unemployed person in Colorado in the first three months of this year, the fourth-highest rate in the country. The national average was 1.4.

Education and health services added 4,600 jobs in Colorado between March and April, more than any other sector. The biggest decline during that period, 3,100 jobs, stemmed from professional and business services, followed by construction, which lost 1,700 jobs.

On paper, Colorado looks to be a good place to find a job.

“Right now, it’s very much a job-seeker market,” said Katherine Keegan, director of the Colorado Department of Labor’s Office of the Future of Work.

In practice, job seekers told The Post that it felt more complicated than what the statistics revealed.

Labor market changes have long been brewing that are now coming to a head, Keegan said. Younger generations who are more diverse than ever before are entering academic and employment systems that have disproportionately not served them well, she said. Meanwhile, older generations are working longer.

Plus, rapidly changing technologies constantly disrupt industries, prompting the need to innovate and adapt.

The power of apprenticeships

Keegan envisions a different future of work — one where apprenticeships reign.

“In Colorado, we are trying to live out this idea of the big blur between education and work,” she said.

In previous generations, Keegan said, kids graduated high school and finished postsecondary training before entering the workforce.

“We know that’s not creating the talent pipeline that businesses need,” she said. “We’re trying to create more work-based learning opportunities in high school and postsecondary education. Apprenticeship is a big part of that and helps people learn skills while they earn money. It helps employers shape the talent they need.”

This is where a school like Emily Griffith Technical College excels. The Denver college offers workforce training and industry-aligned postsecondary certificate programs in creative arts and design, health sciences and administration and trades, industry and professional studies.

Areas of study include cosmetology, culinary arts, nurse assisting, automotive services and welding, among other pursuits. The programs are driven by industry demand, said Tiffany Jaramillo, who manages Emily Griffith’s career services.

“Many students are gaining employment before completing because there’s such a demand for them in the industry,” Jaramillo said.

Career coaches go into Emily Griffith’s classrooms within the first week of courses to introduce themselves and the services they offer. They go back mid-way through the program to create skill-based resumes with the students. A few weeks before graduation, they come back once more to see who has a job and who could use a resume refresher, interview preparations and application help.

“Our instructors are from industry, and that is incredibly valuable because they have the insight into the industry as well as the connections,” Jaramillo said. “They are often able to help our students bridge a connection with an employer, and that is super helpful.”

How to stand out

Fazzari intended to use his college years to explore career options and forge connections. The Denverite made the most of his time at DU, but he can’t help but wonder how many opportunities were squandered by the pandemic.

“If we’re thinking about careers as a race, it almost feels like the starting block got ripped out from under my feet before I could even start running,” said Fazzari, who is working as a substitute teacher in the Cherry Creek School District while his job hunt persists.

He’s had numerous professional contacts tell him they would love to hire him but have not recovered from the budget fallout of 2020 and don’t have jobs to offer, he said.

If an applicant is only relying on uploading their resume and sitting back awaiting a response, career coach Skredynski said it’s going to be a tough job market for them. Applicants should be researching the hiring manager, the recruiter, peers in the organization and trying to connect with them via the networking site LinkedIn, she said.

“Take that extra step,” she said. “If a company is getting hundreds of resumes, that’s how you can stand out.”

Instead of reaching out with a “Hi, I just applied for this job” message, Skredynski said it’s important to craft a concise, clear outreach message about why you’re interested in working for the company and what relevant skills you bring. Then request a quick phone call to connect.

The career coach said she often hears from fresh graduates with no idea what they want to do. In these instances, she said it’s important to evaluate strengths, skills and values, and to become comfortable articulating them.

“It’s not just networking on LinkedIn,” Skredynski said. “It’s using your alumni, family, friends, people in your community. It’s going to conferences, webinars, any professional networking groups you can. It’s getting out there and talking to people and letting them know this is who I am and what I’m looking for.”

Most companies, she said, are using applicant tracking systems to sort through thousands of resumes. When an applicant submits their resume, the document gets scanned for key words that usually align with the job posting. Tools like SkillSyncer can help job hunters align their resumes with words from job descriptions, Skredynski said. If the resume and job description aren’t in sync, it’s likely the document will never see the light of day.

“You have to go beyond the automation,” Skredynski said.

For free career coaching advice, a job applicant’s university is often a good place to start.

At the University of Colorado Denver, alumni can come back and visit the school’s career center for life, said Sarah Trzeciak, the school’s assistant vice chancellor of career development and immersive learning.

Trzeciak has been with CU Denver’s career services for 11 years, with a front-row seat to the evolution of the job hunt.

“Really, what it has become is, how do you in this world of electronic applications get your documents to stand out in front of a recruiter who has thousands of applications they’re looking through?” Trzeciak said.

The CU Denver employee has some tricks of the trade. It’s imperative to tailor cover letters to the job, she said, and not just send out cookie-cutter responses.

Trzeciak estimates that for every 10 jobs applied to, an applicant will hear back from one employer. By tailoring the cover letter, she bumps the odds up to three or four.