As a senior in college, it is probably unsurprising to find out that I have been interviewing (like crazy) to find a full time position after graduating. This week, HER Campus Vanderbilt is hosting our first ever career panel and in honor of this, I thought it’d be useful to share my tips for how I landed a full-time position (and past internship positions), as well as everything I learned through the process.
- Be Flexible
One thing we forget as students is that we are young and have so many options open to us. Although it may be tempting to box yourself into a certain career path, being flexible not only lets you diversify your resume and show employers that you’re a curious person, but it also allows you to challenge yourself and learn more about what you like (or don’t like).
- Know the Company and the Industry
Google is our friend y’all – make sure to use it! Google the companies that you’re interested in working for, learn about the industry it’s in, and make sure that you have the basic skills needed to be successful in that area.
For internships, this means that you don’t necessarily need to already be an expert to work in a certain industry. For example, when I was interning in the financial services industry this past summer, I learned that I could have interned in an investment strategies part of the company even as a Political Science major without a Finance background. That’s because internships are designed to teach you more about potential career paths rather than requiring you to already be an expert. As long as you have some basic skills, such as analytic thinking or problem solving experience, you should be able to learn what you need to be successful in an internship role.
For full-time positions, this means that using Glassdoor, Handshake, and even Reddit gives you first hand experiences from past and current employees to help you learn about what a company is really like. Make sure to do some deep research before signing any contracts!
- Use Your Network
LinkedIn stalking is not something to be afraid of – embrace it! One of the most useful things I have done throughout my college career is look through the LinkedIn profiles of people in my network, see what professional pathways they have taken, and reach out to them with questions or to get some tips on how to enter the same fields they have. Everyone I have ever reached out to for help has been more than willing to, so don’t be afraid! People want to help others succeed, so all it takes is some initiative on your part to send a message and make it happen.
- Creating the Perfect Resume
Crafting the perfect resume requires some skill, and having a great resume can be the difference between even getting an interview or not. Everything on my resume was chosen with the intention to show that I am a well-rounded person who is interested in a lot of things. It can be difficult as a freshman or sophomore to find meaningful experiences to put on your resume, and may require relying on volunteer or unpaid internships (I know, it’s not ideal) to get to the better positions. By utilizing sites like Handshake, Indeed, or even LinkedIn, you can find ways to make your resume something that attracts the kind of jobs that you want.
Interviewers want to find candidates who are curious, flexible, and have experiences where their impact on an organization or company is quantifiable. Make sure that the experiences you find are ones where you are able to do something of value and that shows personal growth.
- How to Make the Final Decision
So you got an offer or multiple offers – congratulations! Making the final decision depends on whether you are looking at an internship or full-time job, and what kind of resume you want to create. When deciding on my summer internships, I had to consider the level of time I was willing to dedicate to the position over the summer, the location, and if it was unpaid or paid. The year that I did an unpaid internship, I had to get a paying job in order to make up the difference (again – down with unpaid internships!). It was a lot of work to juggle everything at once, but doing so allowed me to add a great, albeit unpaid, experience to my resume that interviewers love when I bring up.
For my full-time roles, I had to strongly consider the benefits of the position, the location, the people, and how this would impact my overall career path. Over the past few weeks, this has looked like me having coffee chats with people in my professional networks about the companies I’ve applied to, researching the cities I’m interested in, and speaking with my school’s career coach to make sure that I was taking all the right things into consideration when making my final decision.
At the end of the day, nothing is final or permanent. It is important to remember that it is not the end of the world if the internship you got was not what you actually wanted, or if you didn’t get the job that you wanted at the time you wanted it. By remaining flexible, curious, and vigilant in your career search, you’ll find those meaningful experiences that help you grow as a person, and that’ll lead to your dream career.
Good luck!