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Student Success Tips Book

From a student who graduated from high school with a 4.0 GPA, college with a 3.7+ GPA (and ZERO debt)...AND a good job

What to focus on in college instead of thinking about what jobs will look good on a resume

The simple answer is college students should focus on creating a portfolio of real-world work more than just about anything.

Too many people take jobs they hate, just so it "looks good on a resume" or because of the money. I've done both.  It's not motivating or conducive to long-term growth and excellence. So how does one go about developing a solid portfolio? Well, let's keep it simple and stick with tried and true strategies including the following:

  • Do free work for people
  • Do volunteer (also free) work for organizations like non-profits that may be strapped for cash
  • Service exchange (offer to do something for someone which you're good at in exchange for the other person returning the favor with something you're not good at)
  • Paid side gig (aka "freelance")
  • Get a job in the field you want to be in
  • Get an internship in your desired field
  • Become an apprentice of sorts
  • Find stuff that you can improve online and create a new presentation of what you'd change (who cares if the person takes your feedback or not - it's still building your portfolio)
  • Do an online education program or educational bootcamp
  • Create your own projects based on business ideas you have (college
  • is the best time to start a business)

At the end of the day, the quality of your portfolio rules quantity, but it certainly helps to see a good depth and breadth to work that you've done. Get started on your portfolio by creating a website using Simvoly​. Simvoly is the most affordable, easiest user experience, and feature-rich tool to help you have a solid online presence for your personal brand. If you don't want to create a website, create a document and save it as a pdf and include it on your LinkedIn profile. As long as you can send someone a link to your portfolio at any time, you're covering the major things you need to cover.

Resumes will probably still be used for awhile, but it's a rare situation where your resume actually helps you land a job. Start with a portfolio and mix in some focused networking, and you'll be well on your way to success.

The "80/20" of getting a great job

If you haven't heard of the "80/20" principle, it goes something like this: "20% of the work you do accounts for 80% of the results."

When it comes to finding a great job, most people are approaching the process all wrong.

How people attempt finding a job:

  • Apply on different job boards like indeed.com, monster.com, etc.
  • Rely on a resume' or cover letter to make them stand out.
  • Practice for their interview and hope they do a good job answering the right questions.

A better way to find a great job:

  • Get specific with what type of work is best aligned with your goals and interests.
  • Create relationships with people working in the area(s) you want to get into.
  • Do a deep dive with researching the company and people at the company.
  • Demonstrate your skills before you even apply for a position.
  • Over-prepare for your interview by communicating results of a targeted employer project.


 

How to accelerate your goal of starting your own business

Many people choose not to start businesses "today" because they think they need more of something...

...more education

...more time

...more money

I always wish I had more of those things, and the pursuit of those things is not necessarily a bad thing. The sad truth is that by the time most people get around to actually attempting to start something, they have more obligations, more bills, and less energy/motivation to be successful. Life just seems to get in the way, right?!

Starting a business is in large part about being resourceful. More important than having lots of money, is being able to attract the right types of resources. Resources like mentors, advisors, initial team-members, and more. A few tips I'd recommend you think about to accelerate you goal of starting a business include the following:

  1. Get specific on your goals (what type of business do you want to start?)
  2. Identify your focus (what specific problem are you going to be tackling within a broader and bigger business category?)
  3. Offer free project work to specific people (influencers in your space are often great people to do free work for)
  1. Develop a specific offer (what major problem can you help solve for
  1. someone with 100% confidence?)
  2. Test different marketing strategies (but not all at the same time) and focus on what performs best to get your first set of clients

Don't wait until you've achieved the apex of your education or career to give yourself permission to start something. You know what they say, "the best time to start a business was yesterday, and the next best time is right now."

What parents want from colleges but are not getting

While college can be a great experience, sometimes students and parents are left wanting when graduation day rolls around.

I recently read some highlights from a study of nearly 1,000 people who were either high school or college parents. In a nutshell, parents are asking for a more tailored college experience that teaches students skills they can find employment with, without breaking the bank.

The biggest gaps of what parents wanted for their kids vs what they felt they didn't get include the following:
*Acquisition of real-world marketable skills
*Getting into a good graduate or professional school
*Quality of career placement support services
*Graduating with no debt for the family
*Living in a safe environment
*Graduating in four years
*Ensuring college is the right fit

To help combat the rising costs of college, many parents are recommending community colleges, scholarships, and military enrollment. While these can be worthwhile strategies for many people, they still don't address the gaps in education parents are seeing. Just because you go to a community college so you have an affordable higher education doesn't mean that they'll supply you with any more real-world marketable skills than a more expensive college.

Parents of high school and college students need to realize they can't outsource educational responsibility to any one source, most notably colleges. Students, more than ever before, need to steer their education the way that makes most sense for them, not for the masses. To do this, they need to be aware of traditional education options, self-learning resources, specific online program offerings, and skills-based "bootcamp" courses. If your son or daughter only goes to college, it will not be enough to help them achieve their dreams. At a minimum, parents and students should craft a plan that outlines the desired outcomes of a specific program/college in addition to how they will navigate the "college to career" transition.

 

Parents: Feeling ill equipped to give your son or daughter help making career decisions?

According to an article by Ernst and Young, half of all parents feel ill equipped to help their children make crucial career decisions.

A couple interesting points of research discovered by EY include the following:

  • 42% of school-leavers look to parents for guidance with careers.
  • 54% of parents are in the dark about their children's careers options at 18.
  • 75% of parents are concerned about costs of higher education.

If that wasn't bad enough, over half of parents consider these types of decisions to be more stressful than moving home or changing a job. To put it simply, parents feel overwhelmed by the thought of helping their kids get off to the right start in life and career. Jobs that exist today didn't exist when older generations were in the workforce. Due to the rise of the internet and technology, there are hundreds of different career options for young people to choose from today. I'm confident in saying that "tomorrow" will also bring new innovations that create new types of jobs. With so many career choices, it's easy for parents and students to feel overwhelmed. Parents oftentimes don't even have an awareness of a host of careers that might be in perfect alignment with their son's or daughter's future goals and interests.

Because of this feeling of "overwhelm" or "information overload,"

college most often becomes the default choice for most parents and students. College is getting more expensive by the day, while employers keep telling everyone they want people with "real" work experience. Yet, the number one reason people go to college is to improve their economic prospects. According research at U.C.L.A., 86% of people attend college so they can "get a better job." Sure, there are other reasons college may be valuable, but the number one reason people ultimately go is to improve their career. With that in mind, parents need to recognize there are major gaps between college and career, and it's up to them to take joint responsibility to "bridge the gaps" with their son or daughter to ensure a smooth transition from the classroom to the workforce.

 

 

 

 

Why many career centers at most colleges are falling short

I visited my career center a few times during college. It felt helpful at times, but I was left with pretty much the standard "stuff" I've always been given. Types of things like the following:

  • Make sure your resume' stands out.
  • Write a good cover letter.
  • Know what your elevator pitch is and practice it.

The college-to-career transition has been a tough ride for me. I've had many successes, but with those came along many "price-tags" of their own.  Did I utilize the career services at my school enough? Probably not. But heck, if you're a student who wants to avoid debt, do well with grades, and have a social life, you're probably not going to be seeing a lot of free time. In order for career centers and colleges to serve individual students better, some of the following things must happen:

  1. Make career development courses a requirement from the start to end of the degree.
  2. Make career development resources available online.
  3. Re-think career development curriculum.
  4. Invest more heavily in career development staff and resources.

The sad truth is that at most colleges there are thousands of students for every individual career counselor. If you're lucky, you'll get 15-30 minutes to spend one-one-one with a career advisor. Most of the time there is no plan for a follow-up visit, or for whatever reason, those do

not end up happening. I don't know who's fault it is and it doesn't

matter. It's still a problem that needs fixing. Another thing that makes it more difficult to ACCESS career development support is the fact that most counseling sessions must be done in person. I'm a fan of meeting people in person, but schedules don't always make that possible. Why not make career counseling available online via a phone call, Skype call, etc?

In addition to making the process of "consuming" career development support easier, I think many colleges need to place more focus on helping students identify in-demand skills that are in best alignment

with who they are as people and who they want to become. Many jobs I've discovered that I think that I would really enjoy, were not so much as mentioned in 120+ credits of college. Also, instead of focusing so much time on resumes and cover letters, why not help students spend more time on learning how to network for their goals. I don't mean attending random events and handing out business cards "networking", I mean getting very specific about the goals of individual students and helping them identify influencers in those areas. I've received almost every job I've landed as a result of networking in some form or another. It's the 21st century and most jobs happen via referral not resume'.

If you're a student, I fully encourage you to maximize the resources of your school. My only invitation is to not let your career development process end there. Invest in coaching, online courses, and networking that will help you achieve your goals more quickly. Be specific about how your degree ties into a real job or how your education will help guide you to some form of gainful employment. You'll need to begin learning specific job titles that correspond with certain subjects or you'll find yourself disappointed with a big debt load and a job that requires no degree. 

If you're a career center or career counselor, be open to trying new approaches, new ideas, and encourage more advocacy of investment into your own programs. 

 

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