Your first job out of college
doesn't matter all that much. Learn from the experience.That’s the
advice Lori Dickerson Fouché of Prudential Group Insurance gave in a
recent interview with Adam Bryant whose column Corner Office appears in the New York Times.
I agree. My advice to college students is this: Your first professional
job after graduation, more often than not, has one purpose which is to
get you the second job—the job you really want. Your first job will put
you in touch with your working self, learning more about your
abilities—strengths, weaknesses and values. Your first job is supposed
to set you on your way. Use the information you gain as your compass.
Also similar to college admissions, there's a lot of outside influences at play. As a parent of a student told me, "Goldman doesn't recruit from my son's school. He'll never get a job there. We never should have let him pick the school he wanted to go to." Its true, he might not ever work at Goldman Sachs but it isn't because of the school. It's because when I talked with him it wasn't his ideal. Listening to students talk about the jobs they want I hear are a lot of shoulds. Shoulds are about obligation, habit, and other people's expectations. Shoulds put too much pressure on you, and frankly the job and the company. From my own experience and those of students I work with, shoulds are not criteria for strong decision-making.
An important thing to remember as you job search is this: You didn’t die when rejected from the school you had set your sights on, and your career, which has not even started certainly does not end when you don’t get the job at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Leo Burnett, Apple, Google or Amazon. However, your experience from your first job gives you a better shot at those companies. On the other hand, you also do not want to take the approach of I just need a job. Just any job won’t give you the experience you need; you’ll probably end up having a number of first jobs, and will never get the opportunity to explain why because employers will see you as a job hopper. A recent grad who took this approach is looking for this fourth job in less than two and half years. Although he now knows from his experience what he wants to do and the value he offers, he is struggling to get interviews. Another client who also didn’t know what she wanted to do, found a first job in which she was able to utilize many of her abilities and build up her job search confidence. It’s been exactly a year and she now has a very clear vision of what she wants to do and has experience to make it happen. Her experience finding the job she wants has been very different.
You’re building a career, one job, one experience and one accomplishment at a time. Careers that thrive and are of great value in the marketplace are those in which each step along the way builds on the previous experience, equipping you for greater success in the future. Strong careers are built by the decisions you make.
It’s more important you find a company that is a right fit for what’s important to you and your values. Fit is linked to an organization’s culture—the values, beliefs and behaviors of its individuals and groups. Fit is how work get done. The right fit gives you experience that employers look for, and the learning you need to make decisions about your career as you go forward.
The job search for graduating seniors and recent grads looks too much like the college admission process.
The aftereffect from those graduating during the recession when unemployment and underemployment among recent grads was high, has made the first job search for today’s grads stressful and for some a terrifying experience not unlike college admissions.Why is that? For starters, too many students I work with begin their job searches with unrealistic expectations of what is available to them not because of where they went to school, their major or GPA. As it turns out, those are not factors that determine success. Instead it’s because of the experience they will likely have in the job and/or company. New York Times bestselling author Frank Bruni in his book Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be, profiles a number of successful people who say not getting into an Ivy and instead going somewhere else, provided them with the confidence and skill building experience they likely would not have received had they attended any one of the Ivy schools.The same is true in the workplace. For some, working at Apple might be the ideal but not be the best place for them to launch a career.
Also similar to college admissions, there's a lot of outside influences at play. As a parent of a student told me, "Goldman doesn't recruit from my son's school. He'll never get a job there. We never should have let him pick the school he wanted to go to." Its true, he might not ever work at Goldman Sachs but it isn't because of the school. It's because when I talked with him it wasn't his ideal. Listening to students talk about the jobs they want I hear are a lot of shoulds. Shoulds are about obligation, habit, and other people's expectations. Shoulds put too much pressure on you, and frankly the job and the company. From my own experience and those of students I work with, shoulds are not criteria for strong decision-making.
An important thing to remember as you job search is this: You didn’t die when rejected from the school you had set your sights on, and your career, which has not even started certainly does not end when you don’t get the job at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Leo Burnett, Apple, Google or Amazon. However, your experience from your first job gives you a better shot at those companies. On the other hand, you also do not want to take the approach of I just need a job. Just any job won’t give you the experience you need; you’ll probably end up having a number of first jobs, and will never get the opportunity to explain why because employers will see you as a job hopper. A recent grad who took this approach is looking for this fourth job in less than two and half years. Although he now knows from his experience what he wants to do and the value he offers, he is struggling to get interviews. Another client who also didn’t know what she wanted to do, found a first job in which she was able to utilize many of her abilities and build up her job search confidence. It’s been exactly a year and she now has a very clear vision of what she wants to do and has experience to make it happen. Her experience finding the job she wants has been very different.
Your first job does not define you. Your experience and the decisions you make do.
Like Bruni’s assertion about colleges in Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be, your first job does not define you. What you take away from the job and do with the experience does, however. Go find something you want to do, and even if it’s not your ideal, learn whatever you can from the experience and then leverage all of it to get the job you want—your second job.You’re building a career, one job, one experience and one accomplishment at a time. Careers that thrive and are of great value in the marketplace are those in which each step along the way builds on the previous experience, equipping you for greater success in the future. Strong careers are built by the decisions you make.
It’s more important you find a company that is a right fit for what’s important to you and your values. Fit is linked to an organization’s culture—the values, beliefs and behaviors of its individuals and groups. Fit is how work get done. The right fit gives you experience that employers look for, and the learning you need to make decisions about your career as you go forward.
Experience is your goal with the first job.
When experience and fit, not brand name is your goal, there are planning questions and decision questions to ask to help you find a first job you will be able to leverage to land the job you really want. Start your job search planning by asking the following questions.- What are my abilities? What am I not good at doing?
- What are my greatest interests?
- What types of experience am I looking for the job and the company to provide me?
- What are my personal and professional goals?
- Does this job leverage my abilities? Is there an opportunity to excel?
- Is the work, industry or product/service interesting to me?
- Does this job and company provide me the experience I need to build on and develop new skills? Will I have measurable accomplishments?
- Does this job help me accomplish my personal and professional goals?
Agree with an author my first job after the graduation was an outstanding experience, but I didn't like it a lot. Mostly because of the low salary and tight schedule. It was hard to enter 9 to 6 job after the colleges freedom. I am freelancing now. This is the reason that I often need to sent my resume and always looking for tips how to improve it. This resume service helped me a lot once. Hope you will also benefit of it.
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