Career milestones while in college

As you may know from previous posts, I am a relentless advocate for a proactive mindset when it comes to managing your career.   In my opinion, college students who seek out opportunities to develop their own professional paths --while in college—will ultimately increase their success rate to find internships and jobs. 

In order to be proactive, one has to become goal oriented.  The same intent placed in writing a great paper or being an outstanding student while in college needs to be applied to creating and opening doors that ultimately will lead to jobs.  With this in mind, I offer you a few suggested goals—or milestones—to accomplish at each year of your college experience. 

Freshman Year. This is a year of transitions.  Students leave the high school lifestyle—familiar and structured-- and embark into college life—individual and unknown.  The focus during this period—in addition to academic achievement – needs to be in two areas:  social skills and managing time. Developing social skills while in college means to learn to interact with others—not only as friends and buddies—but also as team members.  This is the time when your professional reputation starts to take shape.  Time management is a key ingredient of that reputation.  Whereas in high school most of your classes were scheduled for you, in college you pick what you want to take and when.

Sophomore Year. At this stage, you know the law of the land.  You know who is a lazy student or who is a good team player.  You also have a better idea of professors’ preferred way of teaching and grading.  This is the time to up your game.  Start to consider a few majors, areas of interest, internships, companies—if have not done so already.  Get involved in student organizations, and expand your horizons beyond your immediate residence hall, or study group.  If possible, take classes or cross register at a different school.

Junior Year.  Start to get serious about internships, jobs and professional relationships.  Take calculated risks.  This is a good time to start an entrepreneurial venture if you want to.  You know enough not to leap into a dark hole and still have a one year cushion in case it doesn’t work.  The same applies to internships.  Explore internship opportunities in different areas if you have several choices.

Senior Year.  During this period focus on communicating the value you bring to hiring companies.  Showcase all the skills you have developed in the past four years.  Your resume is only one of the tools to help market yourself.  Networking events, information sessions and tapping into your school’s alumni network are a few other avenues to reach out to your prospective target employer.

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