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3 Tips for Landing Your Dream Job
"If only I'd known my differentness would be an asset, then my earlier life would have been much easier."
Bette Midler
As a college student or displaced worker, it can be difficult to find a path to your ideal job. Many college students I know continue to work in jobs that do not use their level of education and skill. So, what is the secret to getting that professional job that can help you gain independence and begin to pay back those student loans?
Really there are no secrets but rather the ability to think differently from traditional ways of finding work. Here are my top 3 tips for landing your dream job:
- Be willing to work for free. Yes, you heard me correctly.... I know you may have a four year degree or close to it and you need income to begin paying off your loans, but now is the time for long term thinking versus short term thinking. Get clear on what type of job you want and then identify the experience you will need on your resume and find it by offering to work part of your week for free. Let me give you an example. Recently, a college graduate could not find a way into her desired field of human resources (HR) because she was busy making money as a waitress. She could not envision giving one day a week of her time for free to build her experience in HR to gain a paying job. Without giving eight hours a week for free to a company that would give her real life HR experience, her resume would look like all the thousands of others wanting an HR job with only waitressing experience.
- Look for transferrable skills. In other words, what skills have you honed in your past work that can be used in the job you want? One young high school student I met recently wanted to work in a restaurant and could not think of any transferrable skills until I uncovered that she had worked in her church kitchen for several years making and selling pies for an annual fundraiser. In her experience of making pies, she could show her potential restaurant employer her ability to plan, create, bake, serve customers and follow up with cleaning. This sounds simple but we often miss similar job experiences that can really help tell the story of why we are qualified for the position we seek and why we are different.
- Who do you know? Many years ago, I attended a workshop with Harvey McKay and he stressed the importance of getting, keeping and filing business cards. I realize we have much more sophisticated ways of linking with others professionally, i.e., LinkedIn, etc. but the "good old" business card still has its place. Whenever you meet someone in your field of dreams ask for their card and find a way to file it electronically or manually for easy retrieval when you need a resource. If you are interested in becoming an operations manager, accountant, musician, etc. find people who are doing what you want to do and ask for an informational interview. Ask them how they arrived at their current job, what path they followed and what you can do to gain experience and land a similar job.
Question for You:
Are you finding it difficult to create a path towards your ideal job? Do you continue to work in a position that does not tap into you education, skills and knowledge?
Action for You:
It is a difficult time to stand out from a crowd and get noticed when there are so many underemployed college students and out-of-work seasoned employees looking for work. But, by conducting informational interviews, offering to work part of your week for free and communicating your transferrable skills, you will be separating yourself from the rest of the "I can't find a great paying job" work world.
"You must be brave..."
"Not brave - just different."
Stephenie Meyer, Author of The Host
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