One of the biggest challenges that college students have is finding ways to get work experience before they go out to interview for their first professional job. If you did what most of us did during high school, you probably spent your time studying, goofing off, and working basically forgettable jobs. Now what?
During the brief time that you are in college, you need to take advantage of any opportunity that you can find to gain some work experience that will impress the people who interview you. What you are going to be looking for are jobs that will in some way relate to your eventual professional employment. Here are two suggestions for you.
Option #1: Get An Internship
An internship is good work if you can get it! An internship is a program offered by your college or university that will allow you to work in your major's field of study while at the same time receiving academic credit for it. Note that the number of hours that you can get credit for differs from university to university, but is generally limited to 12-15 credits.
Your university is highly motivated to have you look into an internship. By having you go out and work in the real world, the university is able to showcase their best and brightest students and this results in an improved impression of the university in the local community.
There is always the possibility that your college does not have an internship program set up. Don't let this put you off. Instead, seize the opportunity and get in contact with local firms that are active in your field of study. There is a possibility that you can create your own internship program with them.
Once again, how much you get paid really does not matter - you might even consider doing the work for free if it's the right job. What you are looking for is the ability to add the experience to your resume. Additionally, if you do a good job then you just might be able to get your employer to agree to act as a reference for you. Now that would be time well spent!
Option #2: Get A Real Job
This is the ultimate hard-core option - going out and getting a real off-campus job. In addition to going to college, go out and get a job working for a firm that does something that is related to your field of study.
The biggest cost to this approach is that it is going to consume the largest amount of your time. However, the up side is that it will show up on your resume as a significant piece of employment.
You are going to need to keep in mind that while you are in school, your number one goal is to get through school and graduate. The job is a means to an end, not the end itself. That means that you are going to have to become good at balancing the demands on your time.
Living a double life of a student and worker can be tough on anyone. One thing that you might want to give some careful thought to is just exactly when you'd go out and get a job.
I would recommend that you not do this during your freshman or sophomore years. You've got enough going on during those years that any sort of significant job is going to be too much of a distraction and could end up delaying your progress through school.
Liked what you read? There's a lot more in Dr. Jim Anderson's eBook " Making The Jump: How To Land Your Dream Job When You Get Out Of College!"
Visit Amazon and take a look at all of the job hunting tips that every college graduate needs to know in order to land the perfect job.
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Dr. Jim Anderson brings his 15 years of college education coupled with his over 25 years of real-world work experience to this book. He's been on both sides of the interview table and he's going to show you exactly what you need to do in order to find and get the job that is perfect for you.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00998TR9E
Read the book, get the interview, get the job. It's really that simple!
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