Greetings and salutations everyone!
Today I will be talking about how to survive in the professional atmosphere when working in college.
Throughout our time in school, we can be prepared for a lot of things. How to think critically, how to work on certain projects, troubleshooting, creating, etc... However one of the bigger problems that could potentially arise is the idea of having to work on a professional level and to go out and find things such as job opportunities, or submitting paperwork where necessary as well.
Although this may seem to be a daunting task, it's really not that bad, and I'll go step by step in generally what you should do when trying to build a professional profile, or just simply how to carry yourself!
Generally when you're going in for job opportunities or interview opportunities, it is always best to put on your best face, clean yourself up, and look presentable in all sakes and purposes. If you find yourself at one of our semesterly career fairs, it certainly doesn't hurt to dress up where necessary (I would recommend business casual, however if you want to include the suit jacket as well, go for it!).
Always carry a copy of your resume with you when working in this sort of situation as well. Business cards go far as well, but the good old fashioned resume definitely helps as it can highlight your skill-set and what you want from your opportunity! Keep it short and sweet though. I've seen a trend of double sided resumes, however I still keep mine at a single page.
Working on a LinkedIn profile can be good assuming you are keeping up with business professionals and executives of companies you may follow, or have people that you are endorsing or they are endorsing for your skills provided. It provides somewhat of a social media approach to finding out more about the potential applicants, so if you keep your profile updated with the different things you have done in regards to your field, then it will certainly help.
Finally, depending on your major, you may have a portfolio ready to go. In some instances, I've seen business cards that either have a link or a QR code linking to their portfolio website, or may have examples of their works either remotely on them with a tablet or so, or would provide it on their profiles as well. For the Game students, it's really nice because you guys have the different projects and tangible pieces that you can present. For Computer Science and the like, we have portions of our code, or some applications, however moving further from that could prove difficult because of the heavy nature of our documentation.
Most of all, just make sure to be honest with your potential employer, in what you can and cannot do. If you try and hype yourself up too much, you could very well find yourself in situations that you cannot handle. Or when it does come down to working with the tools you have said you know like the back of your hand, it truly stands out. It doesn't hurt to try and sell yourself off as better than your competitors, because you are! Just do not blatantly lie about the things you are capable of doing in the workplace, being modest where necessary, and truly shining once it comes down to it.
For the final installment of this series, I will go over just a general run-through of what you should do to survive college overall.
Until next time,
-Nicholas "TAE"
