As a 22 year-old that is trying to navigate the transition from college to a 9-5, it is occurring to me that while I spent the last 16 years of my life in school, the skills required of me in 12th grade AP Bio might not be exactly the same ones I need to get a job in digital marketing. So, while I do not claim to have this whole adulting thing figured out, I did pick up a few tips from my time interning in Washington D.C. that I thought might be helpful to those interning, applying for jobs, or in a job where they think they’re the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on— trust me, I’ve been there.
Without further ado, here are 4 things no one tells you about entering the professional world.
1. What even is “networking?”
This is just a fancy word for getting to know people. Networking is all about making connections with others. If you’ve ever heard the saying “it’s all about who you know,” the idea behind networking is that someone you meet now might own a company with a job opening you desire in the future, or might know of a position they can recommend you for. But networking isn’t all about self-interested brown-nosing, it can be, and in my opinion, should be, an opportunity for people to learn about another person and their passions or expertise.
*Here are my tips:
– Approach “networking” as just another opportunity to learn. Be genuinely curious about the other person more than you are stressed about putting your best foot forward.
– Exchange contacts with those you connect with, or do some research to find their email later. The key is to save this contact with a few notes about them in a spreadsheet, along with all of the other contacts you have made. You never know who might be helpful to connect with in the future, and this way you can start building an organized network from the get-go.
2. You should be able to communicate what YOU are passionate about.
Even more, how your personal interests connect with what you are doing, or hoping to do, professionally. For example, when I started interning in the U.S. Senate, I hardly thought they would care to ask me about what issues I was interested in, but this was one of the first things they asked me. See, I had been so concerned with getting an internship and chasing success that I hadn’t thought about what SPECIFICALLY I wanted to learn from my internship other than general career development and something that would look good on a resume. By asking me what I issues I was passionate about, my advisors wanted to help connect me with people who specialized in the work I was interested in eventually doing (a form of networking, btw). If I would have taken some time beforehand to think about how many passions, in any area of my life, aligned with the work of the office I interned for, I would have maybe realized that I could learn about the issue of mental-health, which is something extremely important to me, from the employee in the office who specialized in healthcare.
*Key takeaways:
– People want to help you, but you have to know enough about yourself, and what you want, to let them.
– If you want to do work that you love, you have to spend some time thinking about what that is. And not just thinking, but writing it down, crafting a clear message about what you are passionate about and why. Most importantly, your passion doesn’t have to be directly related to the job you are currently in. However, identifying the work you would do in an ideal world, or even an idea that excites you, might help you use your current position in a way that helps you take one step closer to actualizing your dream career.
3. You are the only one who has to live your life.
As you enter the professional world you will be faced with many decisions to make, new situations you have never encountered, and people who will give you advice about what you should do for the next 60 years of your life. My point is this (and it’s one I’m currently reminding myself of)— don’t do anything just to satisfy someone else, because at the end of the day, the life you create now is one only YOU will be living. Your first job might not be perfect, and in fact, it might utterly suck. Have the grace to learn from it, but also have the self-respect not to subject yourself to a lifetime of employment that you hate. It is NEVER too late to change your mind, your college major, or your career path, you just have to be courageous enough to do it.