College is an excellent place to prepare for life in the real world and offers a significant amount of resources that college students should learn to take advantage of. Your college puts together plenty of opportunities for you to find that first job……
But it is up to you to make the most of your college experience, use the resources you have available and make the contacts that will help you find that first job.
One of the misconceptions about job hunting is that the resume is a standard document that includes all of the same information for everyone. If you want a chance at landing a good first job, then you need to understand that a good resume is an open conversation with the hiring manager that is designed to help you land that first job. You want your resume and your qualifications to stand out, and one way that you do that is to get involved while in college.
If you want to follow a career that involves any kind of writing, then join the school newspaper. Students who want to get involved in careers that involve presentations should join the debate team. This would be ideal for students studying to go into sales or law. A student that wants to have a career that involves communicating with others should look into being part of the school radio station.
There are also organizations on campus that you can get involved in that do charity work and get involved in corporate internships as well. Fraternities, sororities and other organizations will allow you to stay involved in the community and make valuable contacts that could be used later in your job hunt.
College is an opportunity for students to start networking with the people that will make a difference in their careers. Professors often have corporate jobs or hold positions of corporate boards that can help you get closer to getting the job you want.
Try for an internship at a company that is in your field to add that to your resume. If you cannot get an official internship, then volunteer to work for free during the summer just to have the experience to have on your resume. When you reach graduation, your resume will look more accomplished than some of the other candidates.
After years of networking, school activities and internships you are finally ready to put your resume together. Because you are looking for the first real job in your career field, you should start your resume off with an objective statement. Let the employer know how you intend to apply what you learned in college towards your career. Add value to yourself to make you a more appealing job candidate.
Your resume should be professional looking and consistent, but it does not need to follow a specific template. Most resumes list job experience by company, title and date. As a new college graduate, you will not have much to talk about in the way of pertinent work experience. This is the section where you outline all of the internships and other work you have done to gain experience. Do not leave anything out that could enhance your status as an employment candidate. Use your college experiences to make your resume stand out.
Your school has a career center that can be an invaluable resource towards finding your first job. Check the school employment center to find out when it will be holding job fairs or when companies will be coming to campus to hold interviews. Get involved in every event that your school career center offers because it will give you valuable experience on speaking to human resources professionals. The job fairs could also be your ticket to your first real job interview.
Before the job fairs and corporate interviews, use your college career center as a place to develop your resume, improve your interview skills and help send out resumes to companies in your field. The college career center can be an invaluable job hunting resource even after graduation.
A college graduate needs to be focused on his future career the moment he starts his freshman year. With the proper planning and vision, the college graduate can have an impressive resume put together and the right contacts available to find the job he is looking for.
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