What do you do when you graduate from high school? It depends.
Some teenagers immediately get a job to earn money to help support their family.
Others continue their studies by enrolling in a trade school, community college or 4-year university.
A growing number of others choose to take a gap year to explore a range of possibilities in the world as they grow up and decide what to do with the rest of their lives.
For the young man walking his dog in the park this morning, he said his goal was to “learn to be an adult.”
What does that even mean?
As he clearly articulated to the other friendly dog owners, “I had never worked 40 hours per week. I had never had to support myself. In fact, I needed to grow up.” In his case, he got that experience by enrolling in The Metropolitan Police Department Academy. He grew up fast and learned a lot about himself as part of that experience.
So how do you “learn to be an adult” if you go directly to college?
That is a tall order for high school students who learn limited life skills in the traditional high school curriculum. Most arrive at college with a lot to learn – academically, personally and professionally.
Figuring out a career track is really hard for most students.
Unfortunately, according to a recent survey by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse, the campus career centers are not meeting student expectations.
Student feedback nosedives on satisfaction, however, with just 36 percent of students saying they’re satisfied with the career center services they’ve used. Similarly, just 32 percent agree that their center’s services are effective.
The dissatisfaction with one’s college career center is not unique to a particular institution either. While some universities like Johns Hopkins and Cal State Fullerton are notable exceptions, the vast majority of the college career centers are falling short.
In their current state, most career services offices are ill-equipped to tackle the opportunity gaps that underlie employment and wage gaps.
So what do you do if you are in search of your dream internship or incredibly important first full-time job after graduation?
Focus on how to outsmart the AI bot that is going to read the resume that you are planning to submit online for every internship you identify? Absolutely not.
We recommend you be human instead.
Focus initially on what you CAN control:
Build an aspirational career story that is both interesting and feasible. If it is not simple and straightforward, then re-work it immediately.
Ensure all parts of your story align. Consistency is key. Resume, LinkedIn, social media profiles – they all need to work together as part of that harmonized narrative.
Allocate time to formally build your professional connections. Apply the same creativity and discipline that you bring to your college coursework to your professional networking.
While graduating from a college is for many a worthwhile investment, it’s not enough.
The benefits of building a professional network and experience via internships need to be factored into your college ROI calculations, as the Strada and Burning Glass Institute’s new Talent Disrupted report call out.
the odds of underemployment for graduates who had at least one internship are 48.5 percent lower than those who had no internships, and the benefits associated with completing an internship are relatively strong across degree fields.
The future is bright if you plan your steps deliberately and with intention.
Learn to be an adult. Adults figure things out.
At least that’s what they teach you in high school.
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