In the last few months, thanks mainly to my association with the UW Foster School of Business, I’ve been able to meet with a number of top flight students and recent graduates hunting for jobs in Advertising or Marketing.

I keep seeing a few common themes.  There aren’t that many new marketing jobs out there, many firms who have marketing jobs are cutting people, and many people who currently have these jobs are reinventing themselves so they can keep getting their paychecks.  This does not lead to a simple path to employment for a rookie.

So, as a person at a company who is hiring, not firing, at the current moment, here are a few things from my personal perspective that I think can help you. (Please note: this point of view is not necessarily endorsed by my company and will not necessarily help your resume get through our screeners.  It’s simply my opinion.)

• If you are going after a job in marketing, first and foremost, you better be able to market yourself.  Think about the 4 P’s and apply them to you.  Your personal “brand” should be packaged professionally, priced appropriately, promoted in the right areas and you should come to the table with the proper set of skills to provide solutions to the problems that job is designed to deal with.
• Remember that the job opening is there for the benefit of the company, not you.  Some executive, director or hiring manager has a specific and relevant problem that needs to be solved.  It’s not an opening for a “job.”  It’s a call for someone to provide a solution to an outstanding issue.
• There is no such thing as “menial work” while you search for a career job.  The market stinks.  We get that.  But showing up every day for work at your barista job shows you understand customers.  Working as a deckhand on a fishing boat illustrates that you will work hard.  Spending 20 hours a week donating time to a non-profit proves you have a general interest in learning skills and networking.  Any of those things prove you are scrappy and worth hiring.
• This environment favors the scrappy.  The Social Media world makes it easy to prove competence in the field you are interested in.  Take side projects, help friends, work on any marketing gig you can find.
• Start a blog.  It’s free. It takes 20 minutes a day.  Write about anything professional you read and have an opinion on.  If nothing else, it proves you are reading the things I want my employees to know something about.
• Know all the tools.  Basecamp, Google Docs, Office Live, Twitter, Flickr, Digg, Delicious, Digsby, etc… just know all the online applications that make collaboration easier.
• Above all, remember there are two type of people who are distinctly different.  There are unemployed people who want a marketing job, and marketing people who aren’t currently employed.  Be the latter.  
• Finally, for the non-recent grads.  If you are applying for a senior level role in a small firm, come with a book of business, or at leastthe willingness to build one.  Senior people are expensive.  Small firms rarely have a stack of cash sitting around in which to donate to a new person.  Show that you can generate clients, no matter how small, so that you can help the firm justify your senior level paycheck.