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NEW YORK, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Don Philabaum, author of the book, The Unemployed Grad, And What Parents Can Do About It, and Change It, Create a Career Centered College Culture, has collected 25 surveys and polls that clearly show college graduates are struggling in their first professional job search.

Among those reports cited in his LinkedIn blog post, Philabaum identifies research by:

• AfterCollege that found 83 percent of college grads did not have a job lined up by graduation day.
• National Association of Colleges and Employers that shows the average graduate will take 7.4 months to find a job.
• John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development that found that 58 percent of grads did not think their career center prepared them adequately for their first professional job search.

In response to these issues Philabaum and his firm, TalentMarks, a provider of career and professional development programing to career centers and alumni associations, has organized a massive 3-day online Grad CareerFestival July 27^th – 29^th from 11 am to 10 pm EDT. The Grad CareerFestival will introduce college graduates from the Class of 2017 to 27 career authors, 10 career coaches, and a dozen organizations that provide innovative career management and job search tools. Both employed and unemployed graduates can apply to attend at www.gradcareerfestival.com.

Graduates can participate in 33 hours of online career advice. Graduates can participate in 4 different tracks. The post-graduation track will provide advice on how to refinance student loans and the importance of managing student loan debt, as well as how to manage finances and credit reports.

Each author will give a short 18-22 minute presentation and share three tips and strategies based on their research and books. Their goal is to give graduates immediate actionable steps they can implement in order to land a job quicker! Graduates will have the opportunity to ask questions following the presentations. In the final 15 minutes of each author's presentations, graduates will be introduced to innovative career management and jobs search tools from organizations like Navient, AfterCollege, AlumniFire, Kuder, CollegeRecruiter, Brand Yourself, and over 15 others!

According to Philabaum, "Research by NACE has shown over 61 percent of graduating seniors will either NEVER visit the career center or only visit once or twice. It's no wonder that graduates are ill prepared for their first professional job search. Our goal is to continue to help career centers deliver post-graduation career support to their graduates so they can land jobs quicker!"

The cost to participate in all 33 hours of career presentations has been discounted by 50% to only $33.

Dozens of college career centers and alumni associations are using the Grad CareerFestival to provide post-graduation support to their graduates. Graduates can apply to attend the Grad CareerFestival at http://www.gradcareerfestival.com

For details and interviews, contact Phyllis Weinbrenner at 168559@email4pr.com or 800-849-1762 x 205.  

Additional information available at http://gradcareerfestival.com/press/

SOURCE Grad CareerFestival