Career Advice for New College Grads
Posted May 14th, 2012
We’ve been in the workforce for a – um – few years now. As graduation day approaches for thousands of college seniors we started thinking about what we wish we’d known on that long-ago day we donned our own caps and gowns.
Below are some things we wish we’d known “back then.”
- We’d understand that our need to keep learning didn’t end the day we received our diplomas. Instead, we should have realized we would always need to keep learning. Whether new skills, an additional degree, or even just learning more about our mentors, colleagues and supervisors, we would always keep our “learning caps” on and understand that every experience is a learning experience.
- We’d seek out mentors in our organizations. Whether our employers offered formal mentoring programs or not, we’d seek out individuals we admired for their knowledge, savvy and all-around acumen. We would never forget the importance of building a great career network.
- We’d rarely eat lunch alone. What we mean by that is that we’d seek out individuals in all departments of our employer as well as professionals outside our organization and ask them to lunch at least once a week. Taking our cues from tip Number 2, we’d realize the importance of building a network.
- We’d use our college’s career center more often. Career centers are almost always open to alumni to use for networking, researching and so on. We’d contact the employees there for advice, use our alma maters’ alumni career network more thoroughly and also be available to current students/new alumni as career resources.
- We’d watch our budget. In fact, we’d create an actual budget that included not only living expenses and funds to pay off our student loans, but we’d also put aside some monies – no matter how little – for the future (retirement and long-term goals such as purchasing a home, etc.).
- Finally, when we found ourselves between jobs, we’d sign up with San Francisco staffing services such as Bayside Solutions. We’d understand that employment services could help us find work quickly and that even temporary gigs could turn into regular employment.
So, be smarter than we were and contact us today!
