Why Attitude and Knowing Yourself is More Important than Internships at College

It’s a competitive world out there. No one knows this more so than graduates, with competition for graduate jobs as high as ever and not looking to drop in the near future.

Stack up the experience is the usual advice. The more, the better. Grab any internship you can and prove yourself as someone who can achieve in a corporate environment.

Apparently companies want ‘tried and tested’ above everything else.

If you can’t snag an internship, then run something…..anything. Basketball club president? But I don’t play basketball? Just do it – it will look good on the resume and give you something to talk about come interview time.

I have absolutely no issue with this well rounded approach to education, but I don’t think it’s the trump (of dear, you can’t use that word anymore) card to play. After all, if everyone is collecting ‘experience’ like 1980s footie cards then what is the differentiator?

I’ll raise you 2 club Presidents and 3 internships? Not so fast, I set up my own charity and am running a student accelerator forum on the side!

I think the difference maker is a combination of attitude and knowing the ‘WHY’.

Attitude:

Attitude is everything when it comes to graduate recruitment. It’s everywhere; on your application, your resume and before you even open your mouth for your first interview.

So how do you foster the right attitude in such a high stakes, competitive environment?

The first step is to consider yourself among equals but still believe in your own ability to achieve. A sense of entitlement (possibly through collecting more ‘experiences’) is very unlikely to show up in a positive light. There is always a process to follow and wherever you feel you ‘should’ be on the ladder, at this point in time you are simply trying to get on the ladder. This is going to be the hardest for the most competitive, who will need to work extra hard at coming across as a real team player.

Listening and focus are two skills that seem to have gone out of fashion. There will be plenty of opportunities throughout the recruitment process to show that you can actively and deeply listen to what is being said, summarize it and build upon it with relevant questions. This skill alone will separate you from the pack.

Enthusiasm knows no bounds. Enthusiasm is like a short code for a positive mental attitude and will be immediately noticed. Can you still maintain that enthusiasm towards the end of a very long, gruelling recruitment day? Can you help foster that enthusiasm in others? Enthusiasm speaks to ‘giving it a go’, no matter what the task is. Who doesn’t need one of these people in their company?

The WHY

Interviews and recruitment are changing. I have written about strength based interviewing before, as companies try to find candidates that have aligned interests and innate abilities. They want people that truly want to be here and they want to know that those people can succeed and thrive based on a deep motivation.

Regardless of whether you face a strength based interview, knowing why you want to work for someone is going to be a big difference maker. It shows that you have given thought to what you truly want in life, where you think you could contribute significantly and how you think you will be able to sustain motivation and a sense of purpose.

Companies are all too aware that people have the opportunity and mindset to change jobs more frequently than in the past. They need to know that you genuinely want to be there and they need to know that that desire extends to something deeper than just money.

Internships are not essential to help you figure out what you really want to do with your career and why. They can help you with that process and a candidate who can tell the story of their internship based on their own journey of finding ‘their path’ will come across as a more mature, genuine and thoughtful candidate.

Knowing yourself requires a level of self-analysis and experimentation. Are you able to articulate your strengths, values and interests and how they have shown up in your life up to this point? Can you relate those to the job and company that you are applying for and, even better, link them to your career path, desire for learning and your thoughts on why you will succeed.

Graduate recruitment has always been about opening doors and each door may require slightly different elements. But it is you who is knocking on the door and the clearer you are about your attitude and your WHY, the easier it will be for someone to open that door and progress you through to the next stage.

For Career Tools that can help with your WHY, please visit iandboreham.com/career-tools