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After graduating college, what is the best way to get a job relating to your degree?

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Ken’s Answer

The process of securing suitable employment really starts at the point when you enter college and could even start in high school. The most important steps in this process involve getting to know yourself to get a career focus as soon as possible and getting to know people who are working in that field to develop helpful in person networking contacts to allow you to further determine suitability of the career area and learn more about what people do, how they got there, and what advice and suggestions that they might have.


Getting to know yourself and how your personality traits relate to people involved in various career opportunities is very important in your decision making process. During my many years in Human Resources and College Recruiting, I ran across too many students who had skipped this very important step and ended up in a job situation which for which they were not well suited. Selecting a career area is like buying a pair of shoes. First you have to be properly fitted for the correct size, and then you need to try on and walk in the various shoe options to determine which is fits the best and is most comfortable for you to wear. Following are some important steps which I developed during my career which have been helpful to many .

Ken recommends the following next steps:

The first step is to take an interest and aptitude test and have it interpreted by your school counselor to see if you share the personality traits necessary to enter the field. You might want to do this again upon entry into college, as the interpretation might differ slightly due to the course offering of the school. However, do not wait until entering college, as the information from the test will help to determine the courses that you take in high school. Too many students, due to poor planning, end up paying for courses in college which they could have taken for free in high school.
Next, when you have the results of the testing, talk to the person at your high school and college who tracks and works with graduates to arrange to talk to, visit, and possibly shadow people doing what you think that you might want to do, so that you can get know what they are doing and how they got there. Here are some tips: ## http://www.wikihow.com/Network ## ## https://www.themuse.com/advice/nonawkward-ways-to-start-and-end-networking-conversations ## ## https://www.themuse.com/advice/4-questions-to-ask-your-network-besides-can-you-get-me-a-job?ref=carousel-slide-1 ##
Locate and attend meetings of professional associations to which people who are doing what you think that you want to do belong, so that you can get their advice. These associations may offer or know of intern, coop, shadowing, and scholarship opportunities. These associations are the means whereby the professionals keep abreast of their career area following college and advance in their career. You can locate them by asking your school academic advisor, favorite teachers, and the reference librarian at your local library. Here are some tips: ## https://www.careeronestop.org/BusinessCenter/Toolkit/find-professional-associations.aspx?&frd=true ## ## https://www.themuse.com/advice/9-tips-for-navigating-your-first-networking-event ##
• It is very important to express your appreciation to those who help you along the way to be able to continue to receive helpful information and to create important networking contacts along the way. Here are some good tips: ## https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-informational-interview-thank-you-note-smart-people-know-to-send?ref=recently-published-2 ## ## https://www.themuse.com/advice/3-tips-for-writing-a-thank-you-note-thatll-make-you-look-like-the-best-candidate-alive?bsft_eid=7e230cba-a92f-4ec7-8ca3-2f50c8fc9c3c&bsft_pid=d08b95c2-bc8f-4eae-8618-d0826841a284&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_20171020&utm_source=blueshift&utm_content=daily_20171020&bsft_clkid=edfe52ae-9e40-4d90-8e6a-e0bb76116570&bsft_uid=54658fa1-0090-41fd-b88c-20a86c513a6c&bsft_mid=214115cb-cca2-4aec-aa86-92a31d371185&bsft_pp=2 ##
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Simone’s Answer

Hi Leif,

What a wonderful question! My best advice for you is to do research online. What's your passion? If you find a job that you're passionate about, it's not work, just life. Something I did was put words together. For example, I love to travel but graduated with a marketing major and a minor in management. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life and what roles I should take. I ended up googling, "travel" + "marketing" + "management". This led me to multiple random roles, but I realized what I was really good at. I'm extremely organized and love talking to people. Eight years later, I landed an Account Management role in a travel company! Sometimes you do have to try out roles that have nothing to do with your degree. My first role was as a Project Assistant at a corporate real estate company. Not glamorous but that's where I realized I was really good at account management.

Hope this helps. Another piece of advice is to network with people in the field you want to go into. I also used LinkedIn aggressively and never applied for a role. Just reached out to all HR managers on LinkedIn with a personal message and it worked. 😊

Best, Simone
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Ritesh’s Answer

Know what your strengths are, see what jobs are available in the market pertaining to your strengths, use LinkedIn, connect, use your network. This is how you can get a job when you are a freshman.

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