Baby boomers have always been defined by their sheer numbers. Even now, as they reach retirement age, 41 million baby boomers are still working according to a 2018 report from the Pew Research Center. This equals out to them still accounting for a quarter of the workforce.

As more and more retire, there will be opportunities for younger job seekers to step up and assume the baby boomers’ responsibilities. But first, you’re going to have to prove you’re ready to take the next step in your career.

By understanding what employers want, both at your current company or another one, you can present yourself in the best light. Here are some tips to landing a job previously held by a baby boomer and ensuring you can take ownership of a role without missing a step:

Last month, the news broke that a group of wealthy parents had been paying extravagant sums of money to cheat the college application system and get their children into top schools. The scandal and the surrounding sense of entitlement have some employers questioning whether a college degree is still a good signifier that a young person would be a good employee.

Yes, this story has revealed some unscrupulous people involved in college admission, but that doesn’t mean you should lose your trust in colleges and their abilities to prepare students for the workforce. In fact, deciding not to recruit college students can hurt your organization.

Here are four reasons you should still value college degrees:

Imagine if getting a job was as simple as walking into an office and asking to be hired. How much easier would your life be? Well, right now that might be one of the best ways to land a job at your dream organization.

A new survey from CareerBuilder found 50 percent of companies have open positions they can’t find qualified candidates for. That means there’s a good chance great organizations are waiting for you to come work for them. Why not take the first step and reach out to companies you’re interested in?

Let me preface this by saying you shouldn’t go walking down the street with your resume and go into an office and demand to talk to a hiring manager. You’ll need to do some research beforehand, about the company and who might manage the department you’re interested in, etc.

Even then, you should politely reach out and ask to meet with the manager. But that comes later. Today, let’s talk about why this strategy works and is worth your while:

We’re getting to that time of year when cabin fever strikes — and it strikes hard. Winter has yet to let up and being stuck inside is frustrating your job seekers. When this happens, one of two things often occurs. Young job seekers either bury themselves in their search, sending out application after application. Or they get distracted spending most of their free time on their couch binge watching reruns. Neither is a great long-term job search strategy.

As a career services professional, you need to step in and guide them. Balance is hard for students, especially when they can’t go outside to get a break from their studies and job search.

While we wait for spring to come, here are some things career services professionals can do to keep their job seekers on track without overwhelming them:

Employers have always competed to hire the best and brightest new graduates. Bringing young talent on board gives companies a surge of fresh ideas and perspectives. While new grads might lack years of acquired wisdom and experience, they are excited to make an impact at a company they believe in.

But each year, as college graduations approach, there’s one consistent problem: how do employers evaluate untested employees?

Many employers develop a method for assessing new graduates over years of trial and error. But leaders at startups, often, don’t have the time or knowledge to figure these issues out. These employers need young talent now.

Luckily, new research revealed there is a science behind hiring new graduates. In fact, a Gallup study released last month found there are six key college experiences tied to workplace preparedness. The more of these specific experiences graduates had, the more confident they were about their ability to succeed in their first job. The experiences include:

• Believing their professors care about them as a person
• Having at least one professor who excites them about learning
• Having a mentor who encourages them to pursue their goals and dreams
• Partaking in an internship that allows them to use what they learn in the classroom
• Working on a project that took longer than a semester to complete
• Being extremely active in extracurricular activities

For inexperienced employers, it might be unclear why these experiences are essential for workplace success or even how to assess them during the hiring process. Let’s take a look at a few of these experiences and what they reveal about new graduates:

It’s another reimagined word that’s worked its way into our vernacular: ghosting. In most cases, ghosting means someone slowly disappears in order to end a relationship. But it seems ghosting is also becoming a habit of job seekers. They’re backing out of the hiring process without giving much reason.

In fact, a recent CareerBuilder survey found 55 percent of job seekers will drop out of the hiring process if they haven’t heard anything from the employer in two weeks. Another 51 percent of job seekers say they keep looking for a job even after receiving an offer. In many cases, they never respond to the offer.

Of course, your job seekers have the right to leave the hiring process whenever they want. This ensures employers are treating them with respect and meeting their expectations. But when ghosting becomes a job search habit, there’s a good chance your job seeker will miss out on a great opportunity.

As a career services professional, you need to find out what’s going on with your job seekers so you can help them land — rather than ghosting — their dream job. Start with these three tips:

Chances are you’ve spent the last decade trying to get to know and understand millennials. This generation is unlike any other and it has taken much longer to figure out their priorities and professional needs. This has likely forced you to rethink your employer brand and present it in a way that appeals to younger talent in recent years.

And now that you’re all warmed up, it’s time to make further adjustments to your employer brand because Generation Z is about to take over.

In fact, according to research from Bloomberg, in 2019, Generation Z will become the largest living generation. People born after 1995 will make up 32 percent of the population and the majority of them are joining the workforce.

The trouble is many employers mistakenly assume there are enough similarities between millennials and Gen Zers they don’t need to update their employer brand. Don’t risk repeating the same errors made with the millennial generation. By understanding the specific characteristics of Gen Z, you can recraft your employer brand so it speaks to this generation while still being true to the company’s identity and attract top talent faster.

Whether you are a recent college graduate or simply looking to find a new job, no one really enjoys the job search. Even when the opportunity pops up to apply to your dream job, there’s still some reluctance. The truth is, no one wants to face the question, “What am I actually qualified for?”

If you’re like most job seekers, you skim the bulleted list of qualifications, including the skills you need to perform the role, the personality the hiring team is looking for, and how experienced they expect a top contender to be. These lists are daunting and likely deter you from applying for jobs you think you are underqualified for.

I’m here to tell you times have changed and so should how you look at job qualifications. While unemployment is no longer at the pre-COVID low, job seekers can still take a shot at a job that may seem out of reach.

Here are three reasons to apply for that dream job, even when you’re not fully qualified:

You see it every year. Students are right on track with their job search, but then they go home for the holidays. They’re torn between family events, shopping, and catching up with their old friends. Then your job seekers return to school stressed out because they’ve fallen behind in their plan to land a job after graduation.

While it’s important for students to enjoy the holidays, if they don’t make time for the job search, they will miss out on great career opportunities. Luckily, with a little bit of forethought, they can find ways to incorporate their job search into the holidays. All it takes is a little guidance from a career services professional, like you.

Help your job seekers make the most of their break by showing them how they can participate in the holiday revelry while focusing on their careers. Here are three tips to keep your job seekers on track during this busy time of year:

Healthcare. Technology. Startups, in general. There are some industries where the competition to be the top company is insanely high. These organizations move at an exciting pace and are at the forefront of trends that are changing the world. Because of this, working for these companies is invigorating.

It’s also more difficult for job seekers to break into these industries. Employers are more selective when assessing job seekers because employees in these fields need to work twice as effectively and efficiently. If you want to transition into a highly-competitive industry, you cannot simply approach the job search the traditional way.  

Here are three tips to help you stand out as a job seeker in a competitive industry: