Q: I’m a recent college grad who’s having a hard time finding a job. Most openings require three to five years’ experience, whereas I have only one year as an unpaid intern in publishing. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places. – Austin

A: Dale: Well, I suspect that you’re looking in the same right places as everyone else. The reason you see so many ads and postings for three to five years’ experience is that most companies don’t need to advertise for recent grads – they have plenty who are already applying. So your task is to either apply to places others don’t, or else offer something the others don’t.

Kate: The good news is that you have a year of experience – right away that makes you stand out.

Dale: A friend of this column, Hugh Hanson, an executive recruiter in Huntsville, Ala., recently told us: “The only new grads that I have a prayer of placing with a nice company in manufacturing are the ones with job-related internships. Companies are much more apt to snatch up kids with some hands-on experience walking out of school.” Hugh works mostly with engineering graduates, but the point applies to everyone.

Kate: So, Austin, you’ll want your resume to have a summary at the top that emphasizes your experience. Plus, you might focus on a special skill. For instance, one recent grad’s resume had at the top, after his name and address, “Excellent writer” followed by, “Work experience in both office and retail settings.”

Dale: That headline is your “positioning” – it’s what differentiates you. As a consultant told me, the only “pitch” that people have time for amounts to, “I’m totally different because (fill in the blank).”

Kate: Then you have to figure out where to send that “pitch.” If you plan to continue in publishing, you’d put your city and “publishers” into Google and go to all the relevant Web sites, looking for the person in charge of hiring. It will probably take 200 or more inquires, but you might get lucky – the “excellent writer” found a job within her first 40 inquiries.

Q: The handwriting is on the wall, and it says that ours is the next part of the company to be outsourced. Do I have any leverage and/or options when I’m given a severance agreement? – Mac

A: Kate: We turned to Elizabeth Hill, New York City employment attorney, for reactions and she said: “Severance is rarely a take-it-or-leave-it process. Negotiating is usually an option. Severance agreements favored by employers frequently include confidentiality agreements, noncompete agreements and a general release that waives your right to sue your employer. Review these agreements or clauses with great care. For example, the right to compete might be important to you, and noncompete clauses might be too restrictive. The severance agreement will generally list what the employer is providing to you in return for the noncompete and other agreements. Is the employer promising you benefits that you would enjoy regardless of signing an agreement?”

Dale: There’s a disquieting thought – that you’d sign an agreement that could limit your search for a new job, and you get in return exactly what you would have gotten anyway. The problem is, of course, knowing just what you’ll get if you don’t sign the agreement.

Kate: And that’s where you might seek the advice of an employment attorney. Even without an agreement, you might have the right to severance pay or a portion of your year-end bonus, plus you have rights under COBRA legislation to continue, at your expense, the health insurance the company was providing.

Dale: You can start your preparations, Mac, by consulting the book, “Your Workplace Rights,” by Robert Gregory, along with studying any of the negotiation books by Roger Dawson. Also, start contacting the people who’ve gone before you in lay-offs, learning what they received in benefits and how their job searches progressed. They’ll not only know about leaving the old company, but many will have found the path to a better job and can show you the way.

– Kate Wendleton is the founder of The Five O’Clock Club. Dale Dauten is the founder of The Innovators’ Lab.