Social Media IconsThousands of young Iowans are about to graduate from college and they’ll be flooding the internet with their resumes over the next few weeks as they begin job hunts.

Susan McBroom, a vocational rehabilitation specialist in Urbandale, says before you type the first letter on your resume, check Instagram and all other online accounts to make sure there’s nothing in text or photos that could affect your future employment.

“Large and small companies do frequently check social media of job applicants before they conduct the interview,” McBroom says. “This would mean any pictures of parties or any pictures that might have a bad reflection on that individual. They really need to micromanage their MySpace, Facebook and Twitter accounts.”

Other tips include: limit your resume to two pages, be sure objectives are clearly stated and note volunteer and internship experience. Apply for at least five jobs a week, McBroom says, and use multiple websites.

“USA Jobs, or the federal websites, be sure if you do apply for a federal job to review the application process with the resume because there’s a specific format to follow,” McBroom says. “You’ve also got Monster, CareerBuilder and Indeed is the biggest website for a variety of jobs that people can look through.” McBroom, a counselor at Compass Clinical Associates, says applying for jobs can quickly become a fulltime job in itself.

“Between 2014 and 2015, there’s going to be 1.8 million people graduating with bachelor’s degrees and 821,000 with master’s degrees and so on, so the competition is out there,” McBroom says. “If you’ve got a good resume and a good work history, you need to be aggressive and apply, call the employer a week later.” Even if the ad says “No calls,” she says to call anyway, just to be sure your resume was received and reviewed and answer any questions they may have.

Some careers and professions have a particularly bright future, McBroom says. Those include: all health and medical jobs, behavioral health jobs, mental health for the military and substance abuse.

“The biggest growth careers are in health care, obviously” McBroom says. “Projected growth is going to be about 10.8% so, anything in the health field such as nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, medical assistants, is going to be a green and growing job.”

In the years since the recession, she says the job outlook has improved and salaries are increasing. A recent study found high school graduates had a median income of $651 per week, while those with a bachelor’s degree earned a median income of $1,108 per week, and those with a doctorate earned a median income of $1,623 per week.