Your fist tactic should always be networking.  Before you leave college make sure that you’ve got your name out there to the right people.  You want to stay in contact and make yourself known to a few of the select students around you, and your professors.  They will be a great resource for work down the line, so remember that, and keep those relationships avenues open.

Keep networking outside of school.  Try professional sites like linkedIn, etc, that offer connections with other professionals in the field.  Create lasting professional relationships, as these are where the best jobs will come from.  Companies frequently don’t openly advertise their best positions, and the only way you’ll hear about them is through somebody that you know.

Try your local newspaper, you won’t find fantastic jobs here most of the time, but you will find some decent options to pad your resume and provide income in transition.  Usually jobs advertised in a local newspaper don’t have a high applicant rate, so your chances of landing the job will also be better.

Finally, remember to stay professional.  Whether networking, or applying to the jobs, keep your demeanor professional, as your attitude says a lot about what manner of employee you will be at that company.  One of the biggest complaints about college graduates in the job market lately is that they have a false sense of entitlement.

Many recent grads almost feel as though a high paying job should be instantly available to them.  But that isn’t the case.  You have to work at a company and career to make it succeed, sometimes from the lower ranks of the ladder.  Stay courteous and polite always, be proud and confident, but also humble and realistic.  You don’t want to come off as a cocky self important applicant, because companies tend to stay away from them.  They aren’t hard workers, and they have no long term loyalty.  Both bad strikes to have against you.

So, the first step is looking at the schools you are interested in, and checking their accreditation.  There are two types of college accreditation, regional accreditation and national.  Regional accreditation is the most important, as regional accredited schools are recognized by all employers, and their credits are transferable from school to school.  So if you find that you don’t like this school as much as you thought you would, from a regional accredited school you can transfer your course credits to a new school.

Now after you have a list of schools that interest you, with regional accreditation, you can move on to the next step.  Here you want to compare all the important factors.  Cost being a major one, think about how much the schools cost, because this student debt will take you some time to pay off.  Now you want to look at student population and student teacher ratio.  Schools with fewer students are usually more desirable, as are schools with a higher number of teachers compared to students.

Also make sure to look at the school’s graduation rate and how many credits are necessary to earn either an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree.  You want a school with a higher graduation rate, and with an acceptable amount of credits required.  The more credit’s a school requires, the longer it will take you to earn them, or the more money they will cost.  So take that into account when picking an online college.

Now you should have a fine tuned idea of which schools interest you the most.  From here you should get into contact with a school representative and discuss your interest.  Contact all the schools you’re interested in, and make sure you don’t make a decision until after you’ve voiced your questions and concerns to every school individually.