disclaimer: I work for traba.co …the following post is based on my personal experience and struggles trying to land a job early in my career.

I was supposed to be a banker. It should have been no trouble for me to find a job.

I graduated with honors from Villanova University majoring in finance. I received mostly A’s in my finance courses. I was deeply interested in my classes and the psychology around buying and selling assets. Stock trading was a hobby from a young age…and I was very interested in making a lot of money. Yes, I should have been a banker, and it should have been easy for me to find a job.

For all the things I had going for me that would have helped me launch a career in banking, here’s the one thing I didn’t have: Someone to tell me how to become a banker.

Villanova taught me about asset valuation, portfolio management, international finance, supply & demand, and competitive advantage. What it didn’t do was teach me how to find a job.

The skills required to find a job are different than those needed to perform a job. Knowing the difference between a convertible note and a zero-interest bond did not teach me what to say to an interviewer when asked, “Why do you want to work here?” To find a job and land it, you need to understand what an employer wants from an employee and how to present your talents, accomplishments, and personality, on paper and in person.

I needed to speak to someone who worked on Wall Street who could tell me what to expect in an interview. I needed someone to teach me the etiquette of job networking. I needed to talk with someone who could relate to what I wanted from a career, and knew something about the jobs that might interest me. I needed someone to educate me about what the hell a banker does all day, and how that related to what I was learning about bond valuations. I didn’t know all the things I needed to know. And that’s not okay.

It’s not okay when any candidate who is qualified for a job, can’t land one because they don’t know how to prepare.

I didn’t really learn what works for job search until I went to business school. My graduate school had a stellar career services department that required every student go through an extensive job search preparation process before they were allowed to interview with any company that came on campus. The training included peer resume reviews, panel discussions with professionals in the field, mock interviews and case study preparation. It was awesome, and I felt like a machine by the time I graduated. But, you shouldn’t have to spend $120,000 on an MBA to learn what it takes to land a job.

Job search is broken. We plan to fix it.

Traba’s mission is to educate the world on how to land a job they’ll love. We’re going to start with human to human job coaching for college grads and provide all the resources early career professionals need to make the next leap in their career, whether that be from college to an entry-level job, or mid-career to upper management. And we are going to continue to build our offerings until the world knows, if I want to learn how to get any job in the world, Traba will be able to help.

To learn more about Traba, visit us here: Traba Services

Traba.co