Student Career Development for the Workforce
By Mike Restivo of Restivo Media
Please keep this article/essay as some review from time to time will be to absorb the information that any workforce entrant requires. The first is to pay strict attention to the words that I use in proper manner: should, could are mere elective alternatives. Must is the initiative towards optimum success in anything. I use such words of finality specifically to prevent confusion with mere suggestions. No need to re-invent the wheel or be broken upon the misfortunes of labour workforce experience. Learn from others’ experience, good, bad and assess critically for oneself. This foregoing is to set one’s mind to psychologically prepare serious and novel roles that you can perform now and when you graduate.
Like most, but not all, students you are in student, passive listening/learning mode most of the time. Students with Psych or Marketing major are already essentially prepared to enter the workforce and may already through volunteer and selected summer work qualitatively adding to their resume and applied skill sets. Feel free to print out and make a marked up copy for reference including yellow highlighter for ease of reference, even daily as needed.
Now, your resume is about perfect. Merely 1 page as is typical. No need to re-arrange or polish over and over like some resume service or other advice might suggest. This is essentially “blame the candidate”, under which one never feels adequate or qualified. In the beginning, no student has best confidence in their simple and short resume, so all are at risk of self doubt and sense of inadequacy. The task of all students is to acquire skills and personality traits demanded, not suggested, but demanded by commerce and industry. Why?
Often, I structure my discourse with “Allow me to go backward …” to set the stage or give the motivation or both. For motivational purposes, it is the occasion of the prospective job interview of the candidate, should one even get to that stage, that is at root the target of any candidate’s career development of which a job search is an important part but not the most important component.
The typical interview is between 60-90 minutes long. The only valuable components of which are psych evaluations, not all obvious. The candidate comes usually minimally armed with college/university transcript in one hand and resume in the other, with a few personal, even a few business references “available upon request”. The transcript is only a record of what you have done, that is learned. It is expected that all graduates are approximately capable of critical thinking, of analysis/synthesis and able to follow instruction manuals on their own, to be memorized as soon as possible. GPA 3.0-4.0 is more than adequate. The resume is also a record of what you have done only. Both say nothing about what you are in personality traits and the implications of how you can perform as a good employee. This situation practically demands that any candidate will fail the interview on the very demanded informational ground that is absent from both transcript and resume: personality traits.
All students should have been told this in grade 11 at the beginning of their career educational path choices. Some reading this type of material from my keyboard are already graduates and already feeling the stings of declined acceptance. Whatever the stage, focus is necessary to repair career inadequacies as soon as possible and avoid feeling overwhelmed. Now reconsider in this light your resume for the hidden job gold as it were, for most candidates, the job seeker is merely begging for the job, with nothing substantial to use as employment leverage or bargaining position. It is assumed that a new graduate would not have any negotiation capacity as a mere student graduate. This common stereotype is usually true, but is not determinately so.
A review of your resume in the light of personality traits indicate, indeed prove, proof is what one wants, not mere claims; talk is worthless unless it is done using applied science as in Marketing and Behavioural Psychology.
Your volunteering proves strong personality traits of unselfishness, people engaging/helping with implications for good customer relationship management (CRM), also prove your leadership skills. These 2 qualities require many years to develop and cannot be faked or studied from books or weekend cramming. They are the light undistorted into the very being of how good any candidate will be as an employee. Seek other ways to exemplify your leadership, CRM skills, social skills, given attendance to your student studies. Now you assume the role of investor in your career most seriously like detective and hunter, to seek out targeted opportunities along these all too neglected lines even in the student role.
Review all leadership courses, leadership student volunteering and peer mentorship. As a mentor you exemplify good worker quality to other mentees, even supported by actual part-time experience. As a mentee, you can study the personality trait formation and delivery/execution of your mentor; learn form example and ask careful questions that reveal how the mentor thinks and acts.
It is not necessary to take psych courses, but acquire these texts for review, even download, where possible for free on YouTube: Personality, Social Psychology, Human Development and Behavioural Psychology/Motivational Behaviour. Also, if you do not already have, obtain a first and second year text in Marketing. These just to get the big and complete picture, not to pass any exam.
If you cannot, without harm to your studies, take on more Co-curricular studies, stick with the volunteering experience, which are qualitatively of greater value, as these are under your volition, not undertaken in student learning only mode. Continuing education will be a necessary part of working life to keep relevant both as employee and as entrepreneur. After graduation gradual progress can be made toward certification in Leadership then Innovation and Entrepreneurship over a multi-year timeline. Leadership will yield the most bang for the buck as it were.
With great accomplishment qualitatively already in hand, I will review the more dismal and bleak possibilities of work for most motivation for all students:
The workforce duration is about 30 years from graduation, approx. from 25 to 55. One must have become financially independent by then else risk layoff, termination, loss of position, whatever excuse to ease such a stereotypically less productive worker out of the company. Career change at that date is almost impossible, due to ageism discrimination. Retirement means leaving the workforce and dependent upon one’s own income streams if any. Average life expectancy is about 30 more years, say to 85. How much non-borrowed cash or cash equivalents funding is required to live? It requires between 1 and 2 million dollars for even a C$60,000.00/year pretax income, including government benefits of CPP, Ontario Trillium and OAS, which may not be nearly enough to meet the living expenses after taxes and credit debt serving.
Thusly, the need to be financially independent as soon as possible: The purpose of all socio-economic work is to fund one’s financial independence. We live far longer than our meager savings and investments. Furthermore, we are unable to financially assist our children as they need for education and to assist them in their job acquisition difficulties, which can find them living with their parents for years to the accelerated drain of parents’ retirement funding of a lifetime of labour.
That is the motivation and strategic search for skills and qualities in brief. Feel free to keep in contact.
Oh, let me go back a bit to the interview. Now with open eyes and armed with leadership skills that can be used as both demonstrated proof and character virtues to apply in the interview itself pro-actively… no passive student mouse student now, but a disciplined mature minded individual of personal power ready to add to the company top and bottom line, staring eye to eye always, firm handshake and strong voice, drawing in all into your sphere of influence….
Interview questions-
- “What are your hobbies?”
Acquire and list hobbies that prove outgoing disciplined time managed activity, either mental or physical, best some of both. These prove you have fortitude and will to apply yourself to work with over 100% as is sometime needed and will be tested, so-called stress test. Be people oriented in customer service mindedness. Social/soft skills are valuable and rare to find by employers.
- “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”
- “Well … taking 2 half courses a year will culminate in sufficient course requirements for my next certifications towards improved accomplishment to the profit of this or another company.”
- Most people do not have the courage and/or the skills to say such a thing. But one with leadership and personality traits developed and proven by resume and transcript or certificates has these powerful levers of employment negotiation, more valuable than gold and the necessary differentiators from other equally qualified peer graduates but without these attributes.
- “What are is your greatest failing?”
“Well I get annoyed when tasked to instruct a person how to perform a job that they should already know.”
Most have not the courage or leadership to express this. Demonstrate a serious, business mind always with no wasted time of yourself or tolerated by others’ time wasting. These are company benefits of your good employee attributes and excellent example to all other employees of how to work best in the company.
That is sufficient to get started.