How to Make the Best of Your College Experience
Part 2 of How to Succeed in Business, Without Any Real Training—A guide to work after graduating from college.
College is an amazing time unlike any other in your life. It is usually the first time you are living on your own and making your own decisions. You are living with a bunch of your peers and exploring what it means to be an adult. All while spending thousands of dollars taking classes and doing homework in a subject you may or may not be interested in.
That is all great and something you should be doing, but college is also the time where you can prepare yourself for the real world and help get that first job. This article is designed to help you get to the next stage in life, while still having the fun college experience.
1. Get an office job. Yes, it is really fun to be a lifeguard at the gym or a barista at the campus coffee shop, but those jobs will not prepare you well for getting your first job out of school, (unless you want to be a lifeguard or open a coffee shop, which is awesome!). If you desire to work in a professional environment after school, get a job in an office on your campus. Work in financial aid, marketing, admissions, anywhere. These jobs will begin to give you those skills that you think are straightforward, like writing an email. However, this will also give you tangible experience to put on a resume and key performance indicators of what you completed. It is easier to translate working in the student development office to working in advertising than it is to translate being a barista to being a paralegal.
Working in my school’s admission call center is what gave me the tools and skills I needed to get a job in marketing. I was able to demonstrate and learn logical, strategic thinking, professional decorum, and brought to the table the ability to communicate with constituents in a way many people have not before.
2. Go to class, and do your homework. One thing that is really hard for many college students is actually going to class every day. I know some classes are a snooze-fest and just feel like busy work, but you never know what you are going to get out of them. And it is just like life. When you are in a professional job, you cannot just choose to not show up because you don’t feel like it that day. You have to go in, or you are going to get fired. And yes, many of the topics on these classes are boring and the homework feels pointless, but it is a good reminder that you are not always going to enjoy the work you have to do, even in a dream job. But you don’t have the choice to not do it. Get in the habit now of going when you don’t feel like it, and trying to find one thing you learned in each lecture and assignment.
3. Get to know your professors. This is one that seems pretty straightforward, but is actually really valuable. Connections are one of the top ways most people get jobs out of college. Your professors are experts in their field and have had a lot of time connecting with past students, other faculty, and professionals in their field. They are a great resource for networking, but also learning directly from someone doing what you may want to do. Take the time to go to their office hours, grab a coffee with them, build those connections now, because you may need to lean on them in the future. Not to mention, they are also great people to have write letters of recommendations for you, but they typically want to know you first.
4. Join student groups you actually enjoy. This one is a little less about getting your next job and more about helping you as a rounded person. When you are looking for jobs, hiring managers also want to know about you and what you do for fun. College is a great time to discover these things because of the mass amounts of student groups on a campus. If you are slightly interested in it, visit that group. See what you enjoy. This will be a great anecdote for a job interview, but also something that you may carry over into life after college to keep you sane and give you something fun to do.
5. Don’t be afraid to try something new. This is an easy one on paper. Try new things and get new experiences. When I began college, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and just did what my dad thought I should do. But it was through trying different classes, going to different events, experiencing new things that I realized I had a love for people, writing, communications, and more. This leads me really well into my final piece of advice.
6. Fail Fast and fail often. This is something many of us who grew up in the US have not learned how to do well. You have to learn how to fail well, and what that means. My boss tells me this all the time whenever I want to try something new. The worst thing that happens when you fail is that you failed. But that is why you do it fast, so you don’t waste too much time, money, or energy on it. If it doesn’t work, try something else. But you have to be okay with failing. Learn that failure is not the end, it is the beginning of something new and something better. I have failed countless times, but taking that risk and learning from the failure is how I move forward and how I got to the place I currently am.
Check out Part 1: Why should I care about what you say?
