I, Graduate

You are surrounded by friends and family as you reach one of life’s major milestones. You are walking across the stage, donned in your mortarboard and gown, seeing your school colors streaming all about. The jumbotron shines a light on your passage from student to graduate. You pause at the other side of the stage to flip your tassel as your tribe shouts and whooo hoooos! their support and congratulations to and for you. Walking down the stairs, filing back to your chair you realize that school has ended and a new chapter in your life’s journey has begun.

That short walk may have marked the end of anywhere from thirteen to twenty-four years of institutional learning. Wow! Congratulations, you made it. So what now?

Did you participate in on-campus recruiting? Did you have former camp counselor, summer jobs and/or internships throughout high school and college? Are you taking a gap year or a summer backtrekking through some distant continent before starting the job you have already secured? If yes, good for you. You have done the hard work to compete and secure a coveted spot. Your first real job out of college. There will be many bends and changes in your career road ahead, but you have your foot firmly planted on the start. Enjoy your breather before the work begins.

For those who passed the graduation podium, collected your diploma and as you flipped your tassel you were saying to yourself, “what now”? You find yourself at graduation parties and in social situations responding somewhat halfheartedly to the ever present question, “what are your plans?” You have been busy working and studying, but internships were not your thing or your circumstances did not lend themselves to career promoting income while going to school. You are asking yourself, “how do I get experience (a job) without experience?”

This is a good time to reach out to family friends, fellow graduates, professors and acquaintances about your interests and inquire about what they might know about openings in your area of choice. Most people remember what it was like to be graduating and trying to land their first job. This is an area where I find people are willing to take a chance on someone. They knew you as a good kid your whole life and know the CFO of XYZ company and are happy to provide you an introduction. Say thank you, make sure your resume is polished and reach out, connect and shake hands. This could be a promising new beginning.

Aha! That too, is not your circumstance. You find yourself spinning. You have signed up with temp and contract agencies. Nothing seems to be working. Interviews are not leading to offers or the openings are not in your area of specialty.  What do you do?

Give back! This is a good time to volunteer. With as many complexities as the world offers there are good substantive volunteer opportunities that allow people to have some purpose, benefit others and garner some experience. Are you willing to travel? Perhaps a stint in the Peace Corps or like organization is right for you. A couple of options for locating volunteer positions are www.idealist.org and www.volunteermatch.org. Many local agencies or government sites will offer volunteer listings, too.

If you are saying, “but I have to support myself.” Okay, find work that pays the bills and in parallel give back in interesting ways that gets you closer to the work that you want and have a zeal for. The important thing is to feed your life with purpose and interest. If the “right” job doesn’t seem to be finding you, add variety and give back to spark ideas, put you in circles where you meet new people that can see your value and contribution. “Give back” your way into a good job for you. List all of the salient points of work and results on your resume. Demonstrate that you are enterprising regardless of whether it is paid work. Results are results.

How do you gain experience without experience? You create your experience. Now flip that tassel to the other side and instead of saying, “now what?”, take action to find a path that will give back in the most interesting and fruitful ways. Think of the stories you will be telling twenty years from now on how you launched your career. You gave and benefited others as a means to your first job. So, go get 'em! Take action. There is no time like the present to start your career…

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Julia Klasson is a change leader and executive coach focused on programs that engender satisfaction and strong results. Find her at rebuildingtomorrow.com.