What steps should I take to find a job after college?

Hi Ashley,

Finding the right job/career path is a process that occurs while you are in college. During your college years, you should explore different fields, network with your peers, attending many information sessions/career fairs, shadow a working professional for a few days, and have a couple internships. It is really tough to find a job nowadays without some work experience, which is why having an internship or two on your resume is great. But before even obtaining internships, you need to have a general sense of a field you want to be in, which is where the networking, joining various clubs, and attending information session become important. Speaking with your professors in different industries will provide you great insight.

Taking a leadership position in a club to host professional from various companies will be a great way to build your network, which you may be able to parlay into a job in the future. Also, make sure you have a LinkedIn account; most employers post jobs on Linkedin and use your profile/submitted resume for initial screening. Finally, attending as many career fairs as you can to learn about different industries and get some face time with the recruiters. 

The process of finding appropriate employment starts much sooner than "after college". It really starts during your years after middle school, when you are determining what would be an appropriate career for you to follow. During the time starting at that point, as you take advantage of various opportunities to get to know yourself better to see what might be a good career choice and then getting to know people who are doing what you think that you might want to do, so that you can see what they do, how they got there, and what advice they might have, you have the opportunity, through interpersonal networking, to develop contacts that will facilitate locating a position that will offer satisfaction and fulfillment. 80% of people who find jobs find them through such interpersonal networking.

<span style="color: rgb(67, 58, 83); background-color: inherit;">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 .</span>