Getting a job is a big challenge, especially when you don’t have significant work experience. This is the case for most college students, who generally only have internship as experience.
So, is it hard to get a job as a college student? The right answer to this question is dependent on some factors like your field of specialization, the kind of job you are seeking, location, salary expectation and competitive advantage.
Is it Hard to Get a Job as a College Student?
Generally, it is considered hard to get a job as a college student.
The experience of each budding young professional varies according to the skills they possess and the opportunities that have been presented to them.
Due to the lack of opportunities and the need to find employment, many young people including college students become entrepreneurs, work in other positions and positions that are far from the career they are studying for and the job projection they initially had.
The limitation
Although ‘being young’ and not having consolidated experience seems to be the major limitation, there are those who consider it to be an advantage in the world of work.
Other limitation such as loaction, the type of jobs wanted and salary expectation can be easily worked around.
The flipside
The ‘obstacle’ in being a college student “is the lack of consolidated experience, but the opportunity lies in the willingness to learn, the ability to innovate and bring creativity to the processes.
Nowadays, companies value aptitude and attitude more in a selection process and not just knowledge.
Getting a Job as a College Student
Companies always ask for experience and you’re still in college so we have to change the way we look for jobs, we have to attract the employers instead.
You may ask how you can acheive that, it called creating a personal brand.
Creating personal brand
Creating a personal brand is easier than what many people make of it, here is what i think we should do if you’re creating a personal brand.
Join career based platform
If you are not on career based platforms like Linkedin, please join, you can join as many as possible.
After joining start creating posts relating to your field, interact with professionals already in the industry and offer solutions to everything related to your chosen career path.
Do not give your opinion or discuss topics that are not relating to your chosen career path.
Buy a domain name
Buying a domain with your name seems cheeky but is a smart move, create a blog and update all your achievements no matter how small while also creating valuable content relating to your chosen career path and offering your services.
Customize your email
Use the domain to create an email which you are going to be attaching to your resume instead of a Gmail, yahoo mail, hotmail, iCloud.
It would be something personal and professional example: jobs@yourname.com, this will generate curiosity on the part of your employers to visit your website.
Volunteer and offer your services for free
Be on the lookout for volunteering opportunities and internships in your chosen career path while also offering your services or perform tasks for free to the companies of your interest, that will increase your skills and knowledge, and it will depend on the way you perform that you become part of the company’s payroll.
Obviously if you see that you are giving your best but you do not see interest on their part in formally hiring you, go to the next one. 3 months should be more than enough for them to observe your performance.
Use referrals
Although the present day college student is part of a population that is distinguished by a high level of knowledge in the use of social networks and technology.
Most interviewed agreed that they prefer to share their resumes with contacts who can refer them and it has worked for them or in other cases they prefer to communicate directly with the human resources areas of the company in which they wish to work.
Conclusion
The wonderful thing about all the above listed steps is that if you do it well, dedicate yourself to learning and improving in practice, by the time you graduate from college you will not need a job.
Instead the work will come to you, and if you take it even further, you will be the person that offers jobs and at the same time help others who have the same problem.