THE BRAZEN CAREERIST- 8 things: Stuff to do in college to get ahead
1. Take leadership roles.
The best way to learn to lead is to do it. Generation Y has been raised to be great team players– in everything from school to work to social lives– and will live its life out in groups. But for all the hoopla about being on a soccer team where everyone plays, there has been very little focus on leadership for young people. You can address a deficit like this by taking leadership positions in college.
2. Get a good internship.
"In the United States an internship is no longer an optional benefit but an essential stepping stone for career success," says Mark Oldman, co-founder of Vault, a career info company. With 80 percent of graduating seniors completing at least one internship, your job as a student is to line up good internships. The way to set yourself up for success as an adult is to balance the school stuff and the work stuff– even now, before you graduate.
3. Don't worry about straight As
There is little correlation between how well someone does in school and how well that person does in adult life. School rewards people who follow rules and are motivated by grades. Adult life requires people to figure out how to steer themselves and motivate themselves. Spend your time in school doing something besides studying so that you will steer well when you graduate. People who spend their college years getting straight As often say they regret it.
4. Be a joiner – sports, fraternity, cheerleading
Cheerleaders do better in business than everyone else except athletes, who do as well as cheerleaders. So be a joiner. Figure out how to work in teams and how to exude enthusiasm even in the face of bad news. And, when it comes to building networks, a fraternity is a ready-made network of people who are generally similar to you, so get started in college, when it feels more like a party than a network.
5. Read novels, even if they're not assigned
"How we value competence changes," says Harvard Business School professor Tiziana Casciaro, "depending on whether we like someone or not." And people who lack social competence end up looking like they lack other competencies, as well. This is why social skills are as important as other workplace skills. The best way to learn social skills is to put down your books and go meet new people. But if you insist on reading, pick up a novel. It will require you to understand what motivates people, and that, after all, is what social skills are all about.
6. Take a Myers Briggs test
We are each born with strengths and weaknesses. Instead of banging your head against the wall trying to change who you are, take a personality test and find out your strengths. Then, forget about overcoming your weaknesses and focus instead on leveraging your strengths. Many studies conducted at the Gallup Institute show that we find more success through our strengths, but you have to know them to leverage them.
7. Start a company
You can run a company out of your dorm room. Try anything. It's free. The software is free, the viral marketing is free (your friends list) and your time is almost free since you wouldn't be getting paid right now anyway. So even if your business does nothing, you will have the experience of starting one, and that will give you the confidence to try many more times after you graduate, when the stakes are higher.
8. Turn a professor into a mentor.
People with mentors are more likely to do well in work than people without them. It is hard to find mentors and hard to keep them motivated to help you. So start practicing now, with your professors. They want to help, and, like corporate mentors, professors want to help the people who are most motivated to help themselves.
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