Kick Ass in Life: Career
How to Prep for an Informational Interview
Research. Once you have a target for who to have an informational interview with, research your person. Cull talking points from LinkedIn and social media, such as details about their current position, prior experience, and professional memberships. See if you can discover how they spend their time and what hobbies they enjoy. Be prepared. Now that you know a bit more about this person, write down specific questions that target the information you need. What did they learn most from…
Create a Badass Resume
A resume is the most important tool in your toolbox to sell yourself, but most people are lazy and do a terrible job of crafting theirs. They use Word templates so their resume looks like everyone else’s, including generic duties and responsibilities, and invariably fly under the radar of a recruiter. Boring resumes simply don’t get noticed. So craft a good one to sell yourself in the best possible way. Go through your resume with a fine-tooth comb to edit…
What to Remind Yourself When you Graduate
1. Don’t freak out 2. Your first job won’t be your dream job 3. Live in the city where you want to work. Move there. Do anything to get there. 4. Temp jobs are an option – be open to it. 5. Network like hell. Getting a job is not about WHAT you know. It’s about WHO you know. 6. Be patient with yourself. This is not easy for anyone. 7. Have a great attitude. It shines in anything you…
Ask for In-Person Informational Interviews
Once you’ve crafted your elevator pitch, you’ll need to meet people face to face. Ask your friends, professors, family, or connections to introduce you to working professionals who would be valuable for you to meet. This could be a grad three to five years out of school or a seasoned professional with more than 20 years of experience. Either way, you are now on a fact-finding mission to understand their professional path and listen to any advice they have for…
Craft The Perfect Elevator Pitch
Imagine the CEO of your dream job company just walked into the elevator. You now have 16 floors to make an impression, get noticed, and get hired. What do you say? Do you panic, convinced that this person won’t care, is too busy, too important, or not interested? No! You have from floors 1 to 16 to make an awesome impression. What do you do? Ok, so maybe this rarely happens in an elevator, but creating a version of the…
How to network like a PRO
You’ve heard getting a job is not about what you know; it’s about whom you know. In a job search, you can only cast a net as wide as the network of people you know. Face to face connections are imperative to grow your network to include key players who can help you, recommend you for jobs, or direct you to someone else to meet who can further expand your network. The goal is to create a huge web of…
Manage First-Day Job Jitters
How do you manage those first-day job jitters? You got the job, the start date and you have your first-day outfit picked out. Excellent. Now you want to make a great first impression. Get plenty of sleep before your first day. Ensure you’ll be well rested. It might be hard to get to sleep with the anxiety you might be feeling, but do your best. Set a bedtime, power down and get a good sleep. To deal with the anxiety…
Do the Work
When you’re just getting started, don’t be above anything. You can’t just self-select out of doing the work because you feel like you “earned” getting where you are today. The world doesn’t owe you anything. Employers notice the workers. They notice the people who get it done. Aspire to be a worker. Yes, you have goals for what you want for yourself and your career. We all do. By just hunkering down and working hard you’ll be able to build…
Looking for a job? Just get started!
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” -Mark Twain The beginning is the hardest place to start but begin we must. The job search is all about getting started. All action starts with a single step. But taking that step is incredibly difficult. Once you graduated, the path was laid out in front of you. It was simple. You will go to college and get a job. However, after graduating, it’s not as easy to just “get a job.”…