You just finished your gruesome years of schooling and now you need to hit the job market hard.
Trust me, I had the same intuition, find a job in my domain and I’ll be set, well you know, I had a bachelor’s degree and that automatically meant success.
Nope, not true.
I graduated university with a bachelor’s degree in History and English literature, and no, I did not want to continue on in teaching, and no I did not want to work in history and in English. Sure, I love reading, but nope I couldn’t do that to myself. I was heartbroken, didn’t finishing university equate finding a job?
Nope.
I proceeded to go back to school, in Human Resource Management and I started working at the bank. I worked there during my schooling, and I stayed until I found a job in my domain. Which took forever.
I wish, I had some help during my college and university years where I can ask questions, get help and grow professionally. Here are my post-university tips:
- Are you sure that’s what you want to work in? Finishing university, working and then going back to school is never fun, find what makes your boat float. It is never that easy but its better to return to school while school and studying are still fresh. Trust me, I went to school after 5 years to get my coaching certification, and it is really hard to go back to school after so long.
- Network, find people with common professional interests, go to your school networking events, company events. Talk with your peers and see what they foresee for themselves. Try and grow your network. Network= net worth.
- Create a LinkedIn. Add a picture (not a selfie), add your professional experience, what you are looking for, and your schooling. What’s neat about LinkedIn is that you can follow your favourite companies, your idols, and see what is trending. It is a great source of information for anything and everything related to your career.
- Job fairs, go to them, bring your resume, make business cards. It is really hard to stand out, so do something noteworthy, hence the business cards. Make connections at the job fairs. Speak with HR at the job fairs and the subject matter experts who are there representing the company. Ask questions at the booths, ask if they hire fresh out of school students, see what they are looking for, and when they hire students. Ask for their contact information and e-mail them after the event.
Once you’re done school, you need to hustle. The work hustle is way different than the school hustle and you need to get shit done. Need help? Contact us.