Students’ Most Powerful Tool to Uncover their Career Plans

“Who of you has a precise career plan for the upcoming two years?” was one of the first questions directed at my fellows and me during the introduction ceremony of our master program, a couple of weeks ago. Around ten arms rose hesitantly. Admittedly, some of us probably just did not want to stand out, but the reaction provoked the assumption that the career plans of most master students are still a bit foggy. And how could they not? There are countless different industries, sectors, companies and potentially amazing jobs. The question is, how to clear the fog? 

Luckily, there are dozens of options to help us structure our career plans and to understand what we are passionate about. And although this leaves us with another agony of choice, most of the tools are helpful and widely used. Given the impermeable tangle of career paths, it is not very striking that we differ in the tools we use to uncover our career plans. However, what strikes is what we commonly answer, when we are asked why we appreciate a certain option: “It is very helpful to consciously reflect on my goals, passions and plans.”

Certainly, there is a lot more to career counseling sessions, company workshops, career magazines, LinkedIn, etc. than just reflecting on plans and ideas. From personal experience, I consider all the named tools valuable in one or the other way. Nevertheless, it brought my attention to a less prominent tool, which every student is employing and which is by far more powerful than it appears to be: Casual conversations with friends, fellows and young professionals.

Over the past years, I have been involved in countless discussions, exchanges of opinions and small talks about former career achievements and upcoming career goals. The conversations differed widely, based on career stage, individual goals and beliefs, cultural, social and professional backgrounds. The variety of different experiences, career paths and opinions was incredibly inspiring and the impacts of these conversations were regularly observable. Just recently a friend told me that he had decided to work in M&A, based on the recommendation of a fellow student he barely knew. And this is only one of many examples. Frequently, one of us would close such a conversation with phrases like “Working at this company sounds amazing” or “I should maybe re-consider starting in this industry.”

The profound effects of these conversations led me to the insight that chit-chatting with friends, fellows and young professionals is one of the most powerful tools, employed by students to clear the career fog. The main reasons for this assumption are, that

?      these conversations come at no cost (or low cost, if you consider including beverages) and without restrictions to time or location.

?      they allow us to consciously reflect on our passions, ambitions and goals.

?      our dialogue partners supply us with first-hand experience reports and enable us to match our plans against their plans, be it with the same or different goals.

?      these discussions allow us to have our plans challenged by others.

?      the conversations allow us to connect to people and expand our network. 

Basically, these discussions include all the ingredients we hope to find in career counseling sessions, company presentations and career magazines. They offer one of the simplest and most effective ways to shape our career ambitions and expectations. Admittedly, our conversation partners will rather rarely be trained career counselors, though majorly experienced career path seekers and chit-chatters.

Isn’t it remarkable, that simply nudging the perspective, converts a day-to-day small talk into an opportunity to uncover career plans? Although my insights on this topic are solely based on my experience as student, young professional and student representative, I am convinced that knowing about the power of casual career conversations changes a lot. Not only does it allow students to leverage day-to-day chit-chats into effective career development tools, but the awareness of this tool enables companies to improve the utilization of their recruiting efforts.

------------------------------------------Background------------------------------------------

Since I started my academic and professional career in 2013, I talked to uncounted friends, fellows, colleagues, professionals, recruiters and professors about career development and recruiting. During this time, I took part in career counseling sessions, career workshops and job tests, visited company presentations, career fairs and networking events. Conclusion: A lot of people have a lot of experience when it comes to careers. Nevertheless, I found that many students have no clear idea of their career plans and many companies are engaging in recruiting events, without understanding what their audience is really looking for.

Therefore, I decided to to share my insights from the perspective of a student under the overwhelmingly creative title "Insights from a student's perspective".