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Your Future: The Time is Now

4 April 2016 No Comment

By: S. A. Eberwein

School is winding down, and it’s time to start thinking about your future. It’s time to start thinking about what it’s going to take to turn your degree into a great full-time first job after college. Of course, you don’t want to graduate and wind up with a position beneath your skill set or, worse yet, remain unemployed for a meaningful stretch after college. Having invested so much time, energy and dollars in your education, you want to make sure you wind up with a first-rate career. Achieving such an objective merely requires a solid plan.

I remember being where you are now. I remember when I realized I had much more to do to get my head around the idea of my post-graduation future. During an informational interview with a friendly junior employee in my targeted corporate sector, I remember being led on an enlightening tour of his cubicle-packed domain. My host described his daily duties while escorting me around the inner workings of the company; I did my best to make mental notes of everything along the way. Although I benefited immensely from the walk-through and picked up a barrelful of insight, smack dab in the middle of the experience, I distinctly remember thinking, This is great and all, but what do I need to do to get a job here? What exactly do I need to do to get my foot in the door with a high-caliber firm like this? Although I greatly appreciated the exposure, I realized straightaway that I had only a faint grasp on my forthcoming senior-year job search. I had managed a commendable grade-point average. I had recently wrapped up a fruitful internship with a top-drawer business. But I remained in the dark on the steps necessary for landing top-level, post-diploma employment. I knew to make use of my campus career-services center to the fullest and to check in with my personal connections, but I had no definitive blueprint for securing passage into the premium end of the professional domain.

I had worked hard to get to that point, but simply wasn’t sure how to proceed. But I learned. After picking the brain of a mentor and other, successful individuals who had conquered their job searches before me and were already entrenched in great careers, I became much more adept at resume-writing, interviewing, and, ultimately, at getting my foot in the door of a top shelf firm. Despite my initial lack of know-how, I pulled off a fruitful job search and landed a position at a distinguished investment banking firm in New York City, my top choice. My story had a happy ending.

You can achieve the same results. You can certainly master the tricks of the job search trade and, given the head start afforded by your academic pedigree, find your way into a topflight employer. It takes perseverance. It takes aptitude. It’s not easy, but, if you are willing to put forth the effort, you can no doubt write your own ticket and land a great career right out of the gate.

Follow a winning formula for success. First off, approach your job search with a winning mindset. Prior to firing off any resumes or reaching out to any employers, maintain robust conviction in yourself and in your ability to succeed. This may very well be the most important thing you can do.

Second, lean on others who have already traversed your path. Rather than go at it alone, implore elder mentor-types already in the workforce – individuals already versed in the ins and outs of getting a great first job – ideally from your target field, to lend their expertise.

Third, get a handle on effective resume composition and interviewing. These are obviously two critical pieces of the puzzle – sharpen both of them to the absolute best of your ability.

Fourth, brush up on the myriad ways of searching for a job. Once you have everything in order, irrespective of the caliber of full-time employment opportunities at your campus career services center, implement a sweeping plan of attack and drop multiple lines in the water at once in order to optimize your chances of success. It is truly a numbers game.

Take these important steps and you will place yourself on a straight line path to a frontline first job immediately after college.

S. A. Eberwein is the author of Cash Your Investment, How to Leverage Your College Degree into a Great First Job

By: Contributing Author

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