Recently I was interviewed by Career Rookie for an article about college majors and their relevance to certain professions. But the bigger piece of my interview revolved around the stress many parents feel as their children embark on their first job search in a challenging market. I find that many college students don’t start learning about the job search process until they graduate, which in my opinion is at least four years too late. So here are my top ten tips for helping your child craft a career management strategy while they are still in college to increase their chances of landing a job swiftly after graduation.
- Work a minimum wage job during the academic school year. I’m a firm believer that everyone should work at least one minimum wage job during their life. Flipping burgers, bagging groceries, running deliveries, or working a cash register are all jobs that help kids gain a comfort level dealing with people and working under fast-paced and often stressful conditions. These jobs teach humility, patience, and control and give kids a sense of independence. And they will make them better appreciate the next job when it comes along. Juggling school and work efficiently also conveys a certain level of responsibility and maturity to prospective employers later on when the student is searching for a full-time role.
- Visit your college career services office early and often. Most students show up in the college career services office once or twice and rarely before their senior year. A better strategy would be for the student to make an initial appointment freshman year and build a relationship with the counselors so they can guide him throughout his college career and keep him top of mind for appropriate internships. This may be the only time in your child’s life when they he receive career counseling services at no additional charge as it is included in the college tuition.
- Get as many internships as you can as early as you can. During the summer months and winter breaks, recommend sourcing an internship. If your child worked for pay during the school year he may be able to go without the paycheck over the break and pick up some specific professional experience crunched into a 2 to 3 month break. If he has a strong interest in a particular industry,he can try to source something in that industry, but if not, he can shoot for an internship where he can pick up some general professional skills that he can repeat in other industry internships later on until he figures out his career aspirations.
- Source relevant volunteer opportunities. This may include taking on a leadership role in a student chapter of a relevant professional organization or starting up an on campus club related to something your child is passionate about. Help him brainstorm activities that can supplement the college curriculum, showcase leadership skills, and provide opportunities to source important connections.
- Join LinkedIn. Freshman year of college is not too early. Your child will already have some skills to add to the profile, maybe a job or two, and perhaps some volunteer or internship experience. For a student, it’s better to have an abbreviated profile on LinkedIn than none at all. And by being a member, he can begin to search for people who may be able to help him decide on a future career direction and eventually land a job.
- Become findable. It’s easy for anyone these days to create a digital footprint without years of experience. Students can position themselves as subject matter experts or at least subject matter experts in training by showcasing their talents online. A journalism or English major could start a blog and link to articles or creative writing pieces. A finance major could blog about the financial markets. A theater major could post performance videos on YouTube. A history major could post a video explaining a particular historic event. The possibilities are endless.
- Show your kids how to source important connections. Teach your child to be cognizant of who on campus may be an ally for him once he starts looking for a job. It may be his favorite economics professor, an alumni that came to the school to do a presentation, or a guest lecturer who presented on a topic that fascinates your child. Suggest he build relationships with upper classmen. By doing so, he will be able to learn from their experiences following graduation and benefit from their trial and error of what worked and didn’t work during their job search.
- Encourage good grades… but not too good. We all want our children to succeed academically, but it’s important not to overemphasize the importance of grades over other critical career building and character building activities. The reality is that the only time an employer will ever care about your child’s grades is the year he graduates from college. At that juncture, employers may view the GPA as an indicator of success in school which may have some transferability to the world of work. But once your child applies for that second job out of school, few employers will care what his GPA was and will base his candidacy on success achieved in the previous job. So achieving a 4.0 while sacrificing opportunities to attain real life work skills and build authentic relationships with others is not a sound career management strategy. Achieving a 4.0 doesn’t make a student a better candidate and it may even work against the student as some employers will wonder what other important life experiences the student gave up in order to attain the exceptional GPA.
- Suggest an activity to improve public speaking. Interviews can be daunting for seasoned professionals. They can be even harder for new graduates. A public speaking class, a job giving incoming student campus tours, or a role in an on-campus play can help students hone their public speaking skills and become more confident during interviews.
- Let go. Be supportive, offer suggestions and recommendations, and introduce your child to contacts whenever possible. But set the expectation that this is your child’s job search, your child’s life, and another important step on his road to independence.