Welcome to the Job Market- 7 Pieces of Advice I’m Giving My Graduate
My eldest daughter, Maddy, just finished her Senior Year of college. She was a Visual Arts major at DePaul University. I couldn’t be prouder. But now it’s time to face the real world and I’m here to help here however I can.
As a mid-year graduate, she’ll walk in the Spring, but right now she’s back home and starting on the exciting path to the rest of her life.
After 25 years in the real world, I wanted to give her the advice I wish I had taken.
1) Take some time off before you dive in. You will have the rest of your life to work, take a minute to live. I started looking for my first job while I was still in school. It took me a while to launch right after graduation. I needed to make money and didn’t take my parents up on the free housing they offered me in rural Massachusetts. I wanted to be in NYC, and that meant going directly into the job market to make money to survive. I wish I had taken a minute to enjoy being young and travel more. I wish I had lived somewhere other than New York. And therefore, I’m encouraging my kids to take that time to explore the world and all their options before putting a ‘ring” on a city and a plan.
2) Carefully curate your LinkedIn profile — LinkedIn is still a thing. Make sure you build a profile that states your objective and be sure to list a few jobs to…