The search for recent graduate jobs can be as daunting as searching for the Lost City of Gold or a four leaf clover. Millions of smart, good students graduate every year with degrees in History, English, even Business… and no job prospects, fighting for a single job interview and often getting jobs they could’ve procured without a degree.

I know, because for the past 4 years I’ve been showing people how to get the best recent graduate jobs right out of college in the field of Digital Marketing. And in some cases, or even high school school. I’ve helped students with no previous experience or education get jobs paying at much as $50,000 a year, which they can leverage into a secure career. In fact, some of these jobs are so good that if you’re 30 with no career, they might still be a good fit!

In this article I’ll explain where the best graduate jobs actually are, and a practical way to get into them.

Best Recent Graduate Jobs: Skills vs. Degrees

The first major thing to understand when you leave isolated bubble of college and seeking jobs as a recent graduate is that Employers do not care at all about your degree (unless you are going to seek a job in Engineering or a similar STEM field).

The problem is that most college graduates simply do not have any skills that Employers in any field find valuable or essential. There is no Liberal Arts factory. This is why so many graduates either end up applying for entry level customer service, assistant, or retail positions. And oddly enough, the most underemployed majors (according to Monster.com). are also the most popular majors.

The solution to this problem is simple: get skills that employers need. 

The internet is the great equalizer when it comes to getting new skills. 20 years ago it was expensive and difficult to get training in relevant skills, and the training was almost always behind the curve of the market. Today, the unbelievable reality is that the internet is providing more powerful, relevant, and actionable skills training than what is available in colleges.

What skills should you get? Again, it’s the internet to the rescue.

Linkedin, the world’s largest career networking site, has a list of the Top 25 Skills that Employers need in 2018. Not surprisingly, nearly all of these skills involve technology. This is a quick overview taken from their 2018 report (the best graphic  — the top 10 skills have remained virtually the same for the past 4 years with some changes in ranking.

Now, this is where so many liberal arts graduates throw up their hands and say “I am not a coder, I am not an Engineer, I am not an Analyst.” Well you don’t have to be. I’ve been working in the digital world for 7 years, and my degree was in Film Production.

Many of these fields really do require a scientific mind and deeper, complex training (still available online, and not in most colleges). Such as:

2. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining

Related Jobs: Business Analyst ($72,000), Data Analyst ($62,000), Statistician ($90,200)

However, there are other hot fields that do not, and are suited to analytically minded, creative, and intelligent college graduates. The top one:

8. SEO/SEM Marketing

Related Jobs: Marketing Specialist ($49,000), Online Marketing Manager ($80,000), Advertising Manager ($61,200)

The skills required for these jobs can be learned online in a relatively short amount of time. And while there is an analytical and technical component, it basically involves creating, running, and optimizing advertising. That is where the creative and linguistic aspect of the job comes from. So you don’t have to learn string theory or C++ to be able to do something that helps companies and makes them money.

Additionally, there are other fields that require technical know how but nothing prohibitively complex.

4. Web Architecture and Development Framework

Related Jobs: Web developer ($65,000), Full Stack Web Developer ($77,000)

Being a Web Developer is not as complicated as it sounds. Back in the old days, to develop a website you would have to learn deep coding. These days with CMS platforms like WordPress handling the basic architecture and code of a site, the developer position has been simplified. Don’t get me wrong, it still requires a lot of learning and attention to technical detail. But it is something that can also be learned relatively easy online.

5. User Interface Design

Related Jobs: UX Designer ($85,000), Web Developer ($65,000), UI Designer ($72,000)

UI Design is not as easy to get into as Web Development or SEO/PPC. But there are a number of quality trade schools providing guidance on this skill without a 4 year degree. It is also highly in demand and students can also get jobs right when they get the skills.

No matter which of these interests you, the important thing is that you are looking at your career path sensibly and powerfully. You are not vaguely hoping for a good job. You are researching where employers need help and then finding the fields where you can be trained to provide that help quickly and efficiently. And without wasting more time and money at school.

The Best Recent Graduate Jobs are in Digital Marketing

Out of the three fields I just mentioned, Digital Marketing (SEO/PPC) in the best. It provides recent graduates with the highest likelihood of successfully getting a high paying job with security and the opportunity to increase their earnings quickly. And it’s also the most accessible field because it is not overly technical. But what exactly are these jobs?

Digital Marketing is a $100 Billion industry that is growing every quarter. It involves managing and creating advertisements that are run on huge digital networks like Google and Facebook.

Question: How Does Google Make Most of Its Money? (Most People Don’t Know)

Answer: Advertising!!!

The depth of digital marketing is beyond what most ordinary people realize. Imagine that just 20 years ago, advertising was so expensive and vast, you would have to buy a TV commercial or a billboard to reach people with your message. Digital Marketing allows the average person or company to reach billions of people online quickly and affordably.

Everyone uses the internet, but most people have never heard of SEO, PPC, or Digital Marketing. Millions of companies market digitally, and they need people to manage this marketing.

To learn more about these jobs and how to get a $60K/yr career within a year, check out my free course by clicking here. 

This is the field that I have thrived in, going from unemployed Art School grad to making over $100,000 within 3 years. It’s the field where there are over 25,000 job postings on Linkedin every day, thousands of which are entry level. Even during Covid 19! These postings are made by companies desperately seeking individuals with these skills. Skills that are not taught in any college or university no matter how much tuition is being charged.

The colleges teach such impractical information, graduates have no clue about these jobs. Even Marketing majors are being taught concepts that made sense 10 years ago, and have no idea how to manage paid digital advertising or rank a website organically.

Good skills are important, but they aren’t valuable unless employers really need them. Back in the 1980s there was a huge need for lawyers. By the late 90s legal jobs were much more scarce. So it’s important to know the needs of the market.

As you can see, there is a major shortage of skilled workers. That is an opportunity for any recent graduate. Not only because there are so many job openings, but it has lowered the barrier for entry for these jobs. One of the biggest hurdles for recent graduates when looking for a job is what I call the “Experience Paradox”. Employers want you to have experience to recent graduate jobs, but how do you get experience without getting that first job?

I’ve shown hundreds of students how to communicate their value to employers and show them they understand the basic language of digital marketing. Even if a posting says a job requires 3 years of experience, I’ve helped my students get those jobs. Because employers aren’t finding anyone who has a clue what to do. These are examples of students who couldn’t find a job until getting these skills.

Are These Jobs in Digital Marketing Real?

Whenever you hear the words “online” it triggers skepticism. Many people hear the success stories of recent graduates getting jobs and immediately think it sounds too good to be true, or like a Scam. I don’t try to pump people up or convince them. I just tell them to go to Linkedin and Indeed and see for themselves. And I’ve also made a ton of “career walkthrough videos” where I show people all the specific jobs available in their city — many of which have been open for months with few applicants. Here is an example: