How can I make the most of my college experience in order to ensure a successful future career?

Building on the two tips given by Austin, it helps to create meaningful relationships with other students that are also on the path to success. Try joining clubs and groups such as an honors society, debate club, model united nations, sorority, etc. Don't be afraid to talk to people in your classes and set up meetings with them outside of class to do things like homework or studying for an exam together. Taking an interest in the people around you will let you build relationships, and being able to leverage these relationships later in life makes it much easier to have a successful future career.

Having a good GPA and internship experience is very important but by no means is it the be-all end-all. Most competitive positions have hundreds of applicants with good GPAs and relevant experience. Knowing someone that works in the field you're interested in is an easy way to get your application to the top of the pile. At that point your GPA and internship experience becomes more relevant.

Hi Emily,

It's great to see that you are wanting to make the most of your college experience to ensure a successful career for when you graduate. Four years may seem like a long time but it honestly flies by and you don't want to end up living with regrets. Below are some tips that I have found will allow you to have a college experience to enable a successful future career.

Internships are the key to your success after you graduate and the more the merrier. Internships are a great way to gain experience and expertise in your field of study. They allow you to explore a particular career in a low risk environment given their short time duration. They allow you the ability to learn what your career is actually like and provide you with experiences vital to doing well in any job interview. Do as many internships as you possibly can (internships of substance that is) as the more time you take to explore and gain experience, the better position you will be in for when it comes to apply for a full time job. I had a friend who I interned with during the summer between sophomore and junior year who thought that one good internship was enough, he was sorely mistaken. Many people do more than one and he has found it hard to find a job because he didn't do more than one internship and simply stopped.

Getting good grades in school is also important to having a successful post graduate career. Many employers have GPA minimum for when you apply/get recruited and it would be a shame if the only reason you didn't get a job was because of a lackluster GPA. This is a really important for your first job out of college as many other college students will be applying for the same job and given the lack of years of work experience, one way to decide is based off of your GPA. If you can maintain a high GPA, you will be in an advantageous position

These are my top two tips as I have found work experience and GPA to be the greatest factors in your success in getting a first job out of college. I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck.

Best,

Austin