How do students prepare themselves in their college life for future career success?
For most students, their undergraduate career starts in their late teens or early 20s. It is a great opportunity to redefine yourself and lay the foundation for the rest of your life.
As a college student, many of you are excited about the next chapter of your life, yet you’re not entirely convinced about the changes that you will need to accommodate. As things are constantly changing, some of you could be distressed or feel uncertain about so many things. Your parents, friends, and teachers are setting too many expectations for you, and many of you are clueless about your next step forward. Like every college student, you want career success, but are you really prepared for the so-called “real world” after you graduate?
Here, we share some insights that every college students should do for their career success.
Life gets boring when it is monotonous. Yes, student life is tough, juggling exams, college assignments and attending lectures. Why would you add another task to pressurize yourself? To answer that question, extracurricular activities are like extra cheese to your boring everyday sandwich. It teaches you better time management skills, widens your knowledge, lets you explore your interests, improve your communication skills and help you succeed in much more than just academic endeavours.
There are plenty of activities to get involved in while you are pursuing your education. It’s important to find out what really excites you! Based on your interest and passion, you can choose activities and make a significant impact in your college community.
The business world is getting smaller with the globalization. This means today's student should be well prepared to work in a diverse workforce. Participating in extracurricular activities, for instance, college club allows you to interact with other students from a different ethnic and cultural background. Students can benefit a lot particularly interacting with each other because these activities cultivate a personal relationship and social skills. “Students who encounter diversity are more prepared for the workforce. They have a distinct advantage of developing social skills, it matters more than ever in the present context as people would like to work with someone who is likeable and incompetent than with someone who is skilled and obnoxious”- says Tiziana Casciaro, Professor at Harvard business school.
By this time, you may not have much work experience, but you don’t have to wait for graduation either. So what are you waiting for?
Internships are the best way to gain relevant knowledge, skills, experiences and furthermore, establish connections with people in your field. An internship offers you an opportunity to network with people and it's a perfect platform to improve your communication skills.
When beginning your internship search, you need to ensure that the internship you are choosing is related to the field that you wish to pursue, once you graduate. If you’re not sure which career field you suited in, you can pursue an internship to test drive different career options. In other words, it is key to explore and experience what your desired job looks like or decide if you really want to do it.
Start applying for the company you want to work for. The job market is getting more and more competitive each day. Therefore, prepare yourselves- what are the job requirements and start developing the required skills to have an edge over other candidates.
As you graduate college, there are many students who apply for the same job. In most of the cases, employers often use the internship as a recruitment tool to hire future employees. They give more preference to an experienced employee to recruit in a job, that’s why doing an internship increases your chance of getting hired in comparison to others who haven’t done an internship.
What every college student must understand is how you’re providing value to the organization? Maybe your academics and internship might help you get a job interview but unless you share how you create value to the organization, they won’t hire you. So, always think about creating value and do your best at your work for career success.
When a new building is constructed, at first an architect designs a plan (blueprint) that serves as a guideline for the successful construction of the building. Similarly, having a blueprint is important for career success so that you have clarity in your goals that help you make effective decisions to reach there.
For instance, If you’re looking for a career path and you figure out that you lack certain skills, what you do? Either you give up or develop the required skills. How you develop the skills? Well, you can learn from mentors, books, online tutorials, coaching classes and many more resources. Similarly, you can attend meetups, connect with like-minded individuals and learn the skills.
There are so many opportunities out there, it’s all about how you are leveraging yourself to become the best in your chosen career field. For example, if you’re in college, you aspire to be a graphic designer or wish to pursue any career that involves creatives, you can use social media as a medium to showcase your skills. You can create a website, post your design in platforms such as Facebook and Instagram regularly. Furthermore, you can connect like-minded professionals through Facebook groups, email or direct messages. Doing this can make a significant difference in your career by the time you graduate college.
Networking is a long term investment that you make in your life. Many friendship starts in college, and if you’re good at networking, you will make many friends. As you build up a network, you will meet people with different creative abilities and professional skills that can be truly beneficial for your career success. Research shows that professional networks lead to more job opportunities, deeper knowledge, improved quality of work and job satisfaction. Here are some tips for building an effective relationship with people:
A college is a place where you’re surrounded by so many students from different fields. By joining college groups and clubs, you will have an opportunity to meet amazing people and expand your network. The connection you made in college might help you a lot in your future career success.
If you do part-time jobs and internship, you can use your time wisely to meet new people, ask questions and learn from them.
Cold emailing is an approach you can use to connect with people you’ve never met before. It’s awkward and not easy to reach some influential people in your field directly. However, if you show up, chances are you have a better connection with those people that might help you to move forward in your career.
Leverage social media for building a relationship with people. One way of building a relationship is leveraging social media platform such as Linkedin. Build your online portfolio, connect with people and this might help you secure job opportunities.
SAIM College offers reputed courses on BBA and MBA programme that focuses on enhancing the holistic approach of student life and their career success. Throughout the years, SAIM college has successfully educated thousands of graduates from various BBA and MBA programmes in Nepal.
SAIM College focuses on providing quality education with adequate research and outstanding faculty to prepare students with skills that are most sought in the global job market.
For more information about SAIM College, Contact us.