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Future of Work Expert, Keynote Speaker, NY Times Bestselling Author - Dan Schawbel

Future of Work Expert, Keynote Speaker, NY Times Bestselling Author - Dan Schawbel

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My 10 Best Pieces of Career Advice for College Graduates

May 29, 2013 By Dan Schawbel • 29 Comments • Blog, Career Advice, Gen Y, Personal Branding

Giving advice to college graduates is extremely important to me because I was one of them and even though the economy was better back in 2006, it took me eight months to find a marketing job. I succeeded because I started six months before graduation, collected eight internships, seven leadership positions on campus and graduated with honors. I failed because I didn’t know how to build and leverage relationships. Either way, I learned a lot about what it takes to build a successful career over the years. Good career choices are extremely important early in your career because you can set yourself up for success later on. Even though you might end up in a completely different career, the skills you acquire and the people you meet, are what will open the doors for you. I dedicate this post to the class of 2013, a group of optimistic millennials who have a lot to offer to the world!

The job market is still tough for more graduates, unless you’re an in-demand engineer or accountant. Two-thirds of college students have debt and 39 percent live with their parents. In 2012, 284,000 students graduated into minimum wage jobs, according to the Wall Street Journal. Companies only expect to hire 2.1 percent more graduates this year than they did in 2012 and 66 percent of recruiters believe that college graduates aren’t prepared for the working world. Although there are clear obstacles to finding work, there are also a lot of big opportunities that students can take advantage of. The following are ten things that new graduates should do to get ahead in their careers. Of course, older generations can benefit from these too.

1. Think of your career as a series of experiences. The most optimistic and intelligent way to look at your career isn’t how long you stay with one employer or that you focus on what you majored in at college. You need to collect experiences throughout your careers, whether that be with five employers or ten, with one business function or five or in one country or three. The idea is that you need to be a lifelong learner if you want to make an impact, succeed and feel accomplished. The experiences you have expand your world view, give you new perspectives and make you a more interesting person.

2. Don’t settle for a job you’re not passionate about. A lot of people are pushing college graduates to just get a job to pay the bills and that isn’t the greatest advice because research shows that you won’t last long there if you do. Furthermore, no smart company is going to have someone who is only there to make money because there’s always someone else who wants it more. When you’re passionate about your job, you’re excited, you work longer hours and end up accomplishing much more. Life is too short to settle for a career that you hate!

3. Focus on making a big impact immediately. The quicker you make an impact in a company the more attention and support you will get. Millennials understand this well because they won’t want to wait five years to get on a project where they can make this type of impact. Starting on day one, you have to learn as much as possible and start mastering your job so you can latch on to the bigger projects faster and prove yourself. By doing this, you will explode your career and become more valuable in your company, which will increase your pay, title and you’ll get to work on better projects.

4. Take risks early and often in your career. One of the important lessons this economy has taught us is that not taking risks is risky. There is so much out of our control and if we just keep doing what we did yesterday, we can’t get ahead. By taking a risk, you are putting yourself in a position to learn, whether you succeed or fail. You’re also showing to your management that you’re willing to put your reputation on the line to make things happen. As we become an ever more entrepreneurial society, those that take risks, both inside and outside of the corporate walls, will become more successful.

5. Spend more time with people than with your laptop. Students are plugged in and don’t understand that he strongest relationship are formed in person, not online. I constantly see students looking down at their iPhones and iPad’s instead of at people’s faces and it’s a missed opportunity. Soft skills will always become more cherished in companies so it’s important to drop your technology and actually communicate with people. People hire you, not technology and you have to remember that!

6. Measure your work outcomes and build case studies. If you look at any student resume, they almost always look the same. They have the same fields (education, experience, school activities). Under their experience fields, they list a company and then general information such as “Managed XXX project”. They dress up their experience bullets so they can turn menial tasks into something more marketable. The problem is that recruiters today, and especially in the future, are looking for outcomes. They want to know the numeric impact you’re having on a company through your work, which means increasing revenue or decreasing costs. Always think about measuring your projects and keeping track of the results because that’s what’s going to help you justify promotions.

7. Sacrifice today to position yourself for tomorrow. You can’t have everything you want today so you need to work hard to put yourself in a better position in the future. From 2007 to 2009, I put in over one hundred hours a week working on something I loved. As a result, now I have the freedom to do what I want, when I want. While others would have used that same time to go out every night and party, I realized the bigger picture and you can too. The more you do early in your career, the more it will pay off later in life and you will be thankful just like I am.

8. Start your own website to centralize your work profile. You need a single place where you can store everything you accomplish and that should be a website under your name (yourfullname.com). By doing this, you can easily refer others to your work, whether it be hiring managers or for freelance projects. As you grow and develop your career, add new projects, education, skills and examples of your work to your website. Your website is a living, breathing resume that is always available to people even when you’re asleep.

9. Travel as much as you can, while learning about cultures and languages. We live in a global marketplace now and companies are looking to expand and hire the best talent, regardless of location. The more you travel and experience the world, the better you will be at serving this marketplace and taking advantage of it. Furthermore, if you’re learning new languages, you are ahead of the curve. It’s hard for companies to find workers who are fluent in languages so if that’s you, you become more marketable.

10. Locate mentors who live your desired lifestyle. Most students aren’t selective about mentors and just feel fortunate to have them in the first place. I believe you need to choose the right mentor, who you can support and who has time to support you. That person should be someone in your industry who is living the lifestyle that you dream of. This way, they can tell you exactly what you need to do each day to get to their level. For instance, if you want to travel and do consulting in the future then find someone who has a job at McKinsey or Accenture to mentor you. Based on your meetings with them, you might even decide that the consulting lifestyle isn’t a good match for you after all.


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Comments

  1. Bruce Lynn says

    June 4, 2013 at 10:44 am

    11. Figure out what you can do better than (a) a computer (that gets better, smarter and more capable every year), and (b) highly motivated Asians (ie. residents of China, India, SE Asia).

    Reply
  2. David Garcia says

    June 4, 2013 at 2:09 pm

    Really good advice.

    I can identify some mistakes I made during the first years on my career on some of the pieces you gave, and I can also say that I’m already taking some steps into the right direction: not working only for the money, sacrifice myself now and put effort into things I believe in, build a personal brand, find the right mentors and acquiring soft skills.

    I’ll keep this post as a reference for the future,

    Thanks for this great piece of content,

    David

    Reply
  3. Llyane @ J-Ouellette.com says

    June 5, 2013 at 1:49 pm

    11. Try different paths in your career early, to tackle every possible ramification in your industry. This way, you find out what you really like, what you definitely don’t like and what your strengths are, while getting paid for it 😉

    Thanks for the tips, they are awesome, and I’ll definitely share them,
    Llyane

    Reply
  4. Mary Finley says

    June 25, 2013 at 11:14 am

    Great advice, especially number 10. I attended one of the Catholic colleges in PA and this advice holds true. I met some really wonderful mentors during my college years!

    Reply
  5. Mikaela says

    August 22, 2013 at 4:14 pm

    A lot of people can’t afford not to take a job they’re not passionate about, with the job market the way it is and people having student loans due. Traveling is out of the question too.

    Reply
  6. Kayode Olatuyi (@kayodeolatuyi) says

    September 24, 2013 at 1:36 am

    Brilliant ideas. The Introduction truly captured the reason why undergraduates need to embrace and use these brilliant advice.
    Keep them coming Dan!

    Reply
  7. Ishika says

    December 9, 2013 at 1:47 am

    Thanks Dan for this. But rather having a website, can we have a blog on some blogging platform (wordpress or blogger) to showcase our resume and accomplishments? Do you think having self owned website gives better impression than having such free blog?

    Reply
  8. Katie Dwyer says

    January 1, 2014 at 8:32 am

    Thanks for this great advice! I particularly enjoyed #6. “Measure your work outcomes and build case studies.” I don’t think schools prepare us well for this aspect of the working world (among others), since we are used to having grades and transcripts to prove what we’ve accomplished. Building case studies and measurable impact at work is an important “real world” equivalent.

    Reply
  9. Mike says

    January 14, 2014 at 2:14 pm

    Hey Dan,
    Your post really opened my eyes. Me and my girlfriend were deciding to go to the college but i gave up the idea. But now it makes me thinking that i should give it a try anyway. She’s nervous and scared, but i think that i let her to read your article to turn her into the right direction and mindset.

    Thanks again

    Reply
  10. Tutors Point says

    January 20, 2014 at 2:48 am

    Extremely very useful tips for graduates!!! very thourough and inciteful. I’m just leaving the comment to appreciate your efforts in disseminating the knowledge. …Thanks for the share!

    Reply
  11. Lisa says

    January 6, 2015 at 6:52 pm

    Getting the help of a professional can help considerably. I write resumes for a living at 86keys.com and have discovered that many college grads are not familiar with what employers are looking for when it comes to resumes, cover letters and even LinkedIn profiles. We offer no-cost resume review services for recent grads as well as affordable price points. In this competitive market, a poorly constructed resume is a sure way to make sure you are overlooked as an applicant.

    Reply
  12. Sara Kramer says

    March 20, 2015 at 3:08 pm

    Great article. In regards to #8 I’ve found a great tool to create an online portfolio that also demonstrates your skills and experiences. It’s great for current college students and recent grads who don’t have a ton of work experience and are looking for a way to demonstrate their school projects and other relevant experiences and skills that make them stand out. I bring my tablet to career fairs and interviews to show them my Portfolium as proof that I have the skills I say I do and to bring my resume to life. Check it out! https://portfolium.com/

    Reply
  13. ITI Helpline says

    March 23, 2015 at 5:51 am

    Such great pieces of advice) Especially the 5 one, that should be used really carefully:)

    Reply
  14. Kay says

    April 3, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    “Always think about measuring your projects and keeping track of the results because that’s what’s going to help you justify promotions.”

    That’s such a great point. The more you keep track of exactly the results you produced, the more you can sell yourself when that time comes. It’s probably a ton easier to get a raise when you can actually show the positive impact you’ve had on the company. (Even better if you can find some numbers to prove it.)

    Reply
  15. Helen Greene says

    June 7, 2016 at 4:36 am

    I made one mistake in choosing my job. I was not comfortable with that job. My passion was writing and later I chosen writing as my career. Now I am working as a resume writer under best resume writing service. Now very happy with this work and getting time for blogging also.

    Reply
  16. Phil says

    January 30, 2017 at 2:06 am

    Great pieces of advice. Fresh graduates are preferred by some companies for their key-entry level positions.

    Reply
  17. Tony says

    April 30, 2018 at 9:28 pm

    outstanding tips! Awesome guide and such long and interesting content, amazing for me.
    Professional Behavior and Communication Development., these things really work.

    Reply
  18. Anurag Mhalotra says

    August 25, 2018 at 8:04 am

    Nice article for college grads, Dan. I think doing what you are interested in is more important than just earning money. You get to learn continuously at the job you do and you should put in your best to make a good impact. You should always measure your work outcome.

    Reply
  19. Freshers Job in India says

    September 16, 2018 at 9:29 am

    Excellent article and best way to get freshers job in India

    Reply
  20. Ayush says

    September 16, 2018 at 10:41 am

    This blog will surely help college graduates to find out the right direction at different turns of life.

    Reply
  21. Zoe Campos says

    October 1, 2020 at 1:08 am

    Thanks for reminding me that soft skills are often recognized and cherished in a company setting compared to technological ones. I thought that taking a computer-focused major in college would automatically secure me a good career afterward, but reading your article made me realize that isn’t always the case. It might be a good idea to seek counseling services before I enter the university to ensure a better career for me after graduation.

    Reply

Trackbacks

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