2021 Graduates

To the resilient class of 2021; a few words before you begin to pave your road to the adult challenges of life. During these past two years, the world knows you had to deal with an unexpected pandemic, a quarantine, and emotional turmoil from the political and social conflicts.

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Class of 2021; know you had the most unforgettable year of the century and now you must go out to your new and wide-open world to make your mark. It is a challenge from which most of you will feel overwhelmed or feel unprepared. Know that I believe you have all the skills and more to thrive. You have been tested and passed with flying colors. Just think it was only four years ago, that you got into your college of choice and today you are graduating!

Getting into college in this competitive world was not an easy task. You competed with thousands of candidates and marketed yourself to stand out to your college of choice. Sure, you received a rejection or two during the process, but you kept on sending out those college applications. You never gave up. After your acceptance, you spent four years delivering good grades, and today your hard work is what allows you to stand out from the others.

Your college admissions process is similar to looking for a job. You delivered good grades and today your hard work allows you to stand out from other job applicants. With that said, here are some guidelines that can help you in your quest for that dream job.

1.    Start with the “end in mind:” 

Set the stage in your mind for an ideal career. Actually, visualize your ideal job then imagine yourself in that role. Take a step further and now form an image in your mind of what your ideal workplace looks like; Is it a big (mature) company or a small (entrepreneurial) company. Picture the types of people that you want to work with and who will interact with you. Develop that clear vision within your mind and remove all the clutter which is an impediment to seeing your clear and ideal place where you want to begin your career.

2.    Set a small goal to achieve big success:

Once you have a clear vision of where you want to go, you will be able to involuntarily send your positive energy out for others to see and feel, allowing potential opportunities to seamlessly present themselves to you. As an example, let us say you set your goal to “travel the world.” This goal is too broad in that it is more likely you will travel once or twice a year, but less likely you will travel the world. In this example, if you focus your goal to pick one destination; let say Paris. Then you can start saving for Paris. Once you achieved traveling to Paris, you can then plan (as an example) a trip to London. In this focused approach to setting a goal for yourself, sets you up to ultimately travel the world without placing an overwhelming expectation on yourself. This approach gives you a “bite-sized” starting point offering you the ability to have a more direct route to your ultimate goal.

3.    Send resume like you are seeking a part-time job:

When you start working, it is important that you maintain a separation between work time and personal time. This is commonly called “work-life balance.” You should implement this same approach in your job-hunting process. As an example, let us say spend 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, for three weeks looking through a job posting. This approach (by spending this enormous amount of time) will not guarantee an improved response rate but could possibly be setting you up for high levels of anxiety and depression. It would be much better if you spend no more than 5 hours a day and 5 days of the week. This approach allows you the chance to walk away, take your time to do other things which will rest your mind, and lower anxiety levels. This is a good way to transition yourself into a healthy work-life balance once you start that new dream job.

4.    Sharpen your skill while you wait:

Do not sit and wait for a response in front of your computer; keep yourself busy. I do not mean to watch Netflix or surf the social media/internet on your phone. Rather, look for volunteer opportunities that somehow relate to your future career goals. For example, if want to be a teacher, find a career helping kids in summer camps or tutoring kids for unperilled kids. If you are interested in fashion, seek out an organization that helps “battered women dress of success.” In other words, continuously work on building your resume (after university) for the career you visualized.

5.    Use the internet to build your brand and market yourself:

You first must establish a professional media persona. For example, set up a LinkedIn profile to connect with other professionals. Look at your social feeds and platforms and re-assess your social/digital brand by cleaning up your account feeds. Remove those pictures from your last college party which could give a prospective employer the wrong conclusion on who you are and what you stand for. Lean into picking a social media platform that you want to be associated with and allows you to make a difference in the world. For example, if you are interested in marketing (and you are passionate about healthy eating) start posting about what you’re interested in with regards to a healthy culinary lifestyle. This approach will attract like-minded people and prospective employers which will allow the opportunity for achieving your goal. This will give you another dimension that will make you stand out from other candidates.

6.    Network in person:

In today’s competitive job market, you cannot simply send a resume, promote yourself on social media and think you did everything necessary to get that dream job. Human interaction is critical. You must network in person; But how do you start? First, talk to people closest to you within your existing community which includes your family and friends. Talk to your parents, friends, aunts, and uncles. Ask if they know anyone who is in the industry/field that you are interested in. Do not just their opinion about a job. Rather, ask them to share their views and their experiences of when they did when they were trying to kick-start their career. Even if these discussions do not actually lead to a job, you will have secured a mentor and advocate to help guide you through your journey.

 

Graduates of 2021! Do not sit home hoping that someone will cast a hook in the vast sea of the job market specifically targeted for you. Be proactive; act, seek opportunities and visualize yourself in a career. Know you have a unique and special gift and possess all the skills that you need to create your opportunities. Just remember that there is no perfect job, and the world is not perfect. All the difficulties in life are there to make you grow and become a stronger individual. So, take the challenge to focus, grow, and become who you are meant to be.