Launch your Career

Student Tips for Starting a Career

We may receive compensation when you click on product links from our partners. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Lots of those who have just become students are sure that they have already done everything needed for a successful career. The point is that even the best college cannot provide you with an excellent future and dream life if you do not make enough effort to study and get professional experience.

If you want a job right out of school, you need to start building a career track record from the moment you enter college. Spending time on the right things will bring you excellent results.

There are very useful tips that may help to get the life of your dream.

Do not be afraid to fail. Afraid not to try

Quite often when a professor is asking a question, many college students know the answer but they are afraid to say it. They are afraid that their answer is wrong. But you have to show that you have been listening to the professor in a college and express your own opinion about the subject.

Here are our career tips: start doing the projects that seem to be too difficult for you, and join the discussion of the topic that is new for you. In this way, you improve your knowledge and skills that will be useful for your career.

Do not procrastinate

Procrastination during college is a common thing. If a college student prepared for the exam one night, he would quickly forget everything he had learned.

How to get rid of the habit of putting everything off until the last moment? Don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world. The best student career advice is to set your life priorities right.  Why do you want to work in a particular career field? What is the most important? How difficult is it? The key to successful studies is to engage in daily activities. It is known that we better memorize information in small parts. So, the career tips are to divide the topic into sections and study them one by one.

Plan ahead

For instance, if you study the media, you have to choose what career path attracts you the most. You can be a journalist, radio producer, commentator, marketer, etc. After you have made the decision, it is much easier to get the right skills and start learning the things you are going to need. The point of these career tips is the sooner you will make up your mind about the future, the more useful info you will get in college. It is very important to bake time into your schedule to develop your own work product and to work side-by-side with experienced professionals.

Lots of those who have just become college students are sure that they have already done everything needed for a successful career. The best college can't provide you with an amazing career if you don't make the effort to get practical experience.Click To Tweet

Start now

Some students do not think about their resume and professional experience until they hit their senior year. Do not lose time and start gaining experience in your field of study. How to start? We have good student career advice. Try to find a part-time job or look for internships to get professional experience.

A lot of students work as waiters, couriers, etc. But it is much better to make first steps forward your dreams now. You have to be creative and proactive in order to get a good job. For example, if your goal is to become a marketer, call the companies that manufacture their own product or service and offer to work for them. Be sure, this life has many opportunities — just find them using these career tips. Prepare yourself for the real world.

Tell people about your professional goals

Do not hesitate to share your thoughts about starting your own business or getting a particular job with members of your family, relatives, and friends. It is very likely that they know of someone who is looking for a person just like you for an internship or maybe even a full-time job.

Ask

If a good career is really important for you, then you will need to persuade others to do something you need. If you want to be the head of human resources, a famous journalist or are planning to stay in a college as a professor, ask the questions you have, ask for career advice, and ask for the favors you need. Your friend can help you to get a job in his father’s company, and the owner of some big company can give you an interview that is going to be useful for your future resume and professional life. The world is full of opportunities — do not lose them while studying in a college.

Keep being curious

Do not stop learning the things you may need for your job. Whatever career you choose, there is always something new to learn. With the rise in websites like Udemy, there are plenty of online courses you can take in your spare time to flesh out your skills. For more niche skill sets, you can use Udemy alternatives like Skillshare or CreativeLive to keep on learning. It’s all about identifying the skills you need to succeed in your chosen career – keep being curious; be excited to learn new things. 

Spend your time finding out what can make you different from other students. Work hard — this is one of the best career tips. It is better to start your professional life while you are at college because this is exactly what professionals do.

Track your progress and evaluate yourself objectively

Write down what steps you took to develop this or that skill. Determine what progress you want to see. It can be a solution to a specific problem (for example, getting a certain grade for a task), or a small step to solve a problem (for example, asking a professor for the first time).

Listen to career tips

We have created this list of career tips in order to make a college student’s life easier. But while studying you will hear plenty of other useful advice. Listen carefully when the professor is telling the stories of past students. Memorize all the career tips you hear in college as they will help you to grow, find a job, or open your own small business.

While you are young and your freedom is almost limitless, do not forget about what career you want to have. Among other career tips, we would suggest you not miss the lectures. There you can ask questions and receive feedback. Attending classes will save the time you would have spent reading various books and articles on the Internet.

Author Info

This article was written by HR specialist Jake Houtman who works as a recruiter at PapersOwl, a company where students can get professional educational consultation. Jake has held many student employment conferences. He has made numerous publications in well-known magazines for employers.

How to Write Powerful College Student Resumes and Cover Letters: Secrets That Get Job Interviews Like Magic
$16.95 $16.00
The ultimate guide for college students and grads seeking interviews in a tough economy. It explains how to transform even modest educational achievements and non-paying life experiences into persuasive statements
Learn More
We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
11/21/2024 05:43 am GMT

What's next?

home popular resources subscribe search

You cannot copy content of this page