1. Obtain Job Leads.
The most important activity for recent graduates is finding and developing job leads, defined as actual or potential job openings. The best job leads come from your network of contacts -- partly because they are the most current and partly because you may be able to leverage inside information about the job to tailor your resume and interview responses to become a top prospect. Plus, employers favor applicants referred to them.

If you don't have a big network (and everyone's is bigger than you first think), or you don't have many contacts in a certain industry, occupation, profession, or location, one of the most underutilized tools -- especially for new grads -- is the informational interview. As the name implies, it's a meeting in which you seek information (and further contacts and potential job leads) from the person you interview. Informational interviews are a powerful resource and should be a key tool in your job-search plan.

While informational interviews are about expanding your network, enough cannot be said about the many positive outcomes from this technique. Many former students who have conducted informational interviews have eventually received job offers as a direct result of their informational interviews. In fact, one out of every 12 informational interviews results in a job offer. That's why informational interviewing is the ultimate networking technique, especially considering that the purpose of informational interviewing is not to get job offers.

2. Polish Personal Branding.
The next activity to tackle is developing -- or putting some sparkle -- on your personal brand. While you can't really change the experiences you have had at this point, you can position them more strategically -- while sharpening how you express that experience on your resume and in job interviews.

While business and marketing grads might have a bit of a leg up on the lingo, the underlying fundamentals of personal branding is simply to make you a more attractive job prospect to employers. This process involves not only re-examining all of your previous experiences (full- and part-time work, volunteering, class projects, work-study), but also researching each potential employer to understand the organization's needs and package yourself to be the perfect solution to solve their employment needs.

3. Never Stop Your Follow-Up.
Remember how you kept hounding that one professor to raise your grade -- how you would not take any other answer because you felt you deserved the better grade? And remember how it worked? The same holds true for job-hunting in the sense that the job-seeker who regularly follows up with prospective employers -- continuing to build your case and express interest and fit with the organization -- will be given the most serious consideration.

Yes, it's true that you have already invested quite a bit of time and energy -- obtaining job leads, writing and polishing your resume, preparing for interviews, and taking part in the interviews -- but sometimes the difference between getting called back for another interview and getting eventually rejected is follow-up.

Follow-up starts before you even get called in for an interview by contacting the hiring manager (after you have applied for the position) to ensure he or she has all the information needed to make a decision. Follow-up starts after the interview with a thank-you letter to each (yes, each) person who interviews you and continues later with calls or emails to the hiring manager to highlight your fit and continued interest in the organization. (As hiring decisions lengthen in duration, staying in touch with the hiring manager becomes even more important.)