AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
By Scott Shrum
Even if you’re still not certain what you want to be “when you grow up,” odds are that you have already started to form some pretty strong feelings about what will and won’t make for a good first full-time job after college. I’ll skip most of the “you need to be willing to get your hands dirty” advice that I normally dispense to college grads and instead discuss three traits that can make for an ideal first job for you, no matter what career you eventually want to pursue. If you can find a job that has at least a couple of these traits, then you may have found yourself a perfect first stepping stone to your future career path:
• A chance to interact with a wide range of people. Sometimes the most valuable lessons you learn on the job are the things you never considered at the start of your career. When I took my first job out of college, working for a software company in a marketing and business development role, I was eager to learn about customer research, pricing theory and enterprise software sales strategy. While I certainly did learn some lessons in those areas, after a couple of years I realized that my most marketable experiences were in fact ones that I had never even thought about going into the job. What made me most valuable in future employers’ eyes were my experiences dealing with senior management; comfort in working with people from the technology, sales, and finance departments; and my experience in coordinating teams consisting of members from across the company. If I had been chained to a desk and had only worked with the same few people over and over, I never would have even sniffed most of the opportunities that ultimately made me ready to take on bigger roles later on.
AFP/Getty ImagesThe great ones look for opportunities to go beyond their job description.• The opportunity to go beyond your job description at times. One of the best ways that hiring managers (and graduate-school admissions officers) identify budding leaders is by looking for a willingness to go beyond one’s job description to make things happen. Imagine a customer-service representative who not only handles calls and fixes customers’ problems, but who also identifies chronic problems and makes an effective case to management for fixing customers’ most common pain points. While a good employee would take those calls and make dissatisfied customers happy again, a great one would go the extra step to help prevent future problems from coming up, campaigning for big changes when needed. Jobs that give you those opportunities will help you keep growing, even if your day-to-day role itself isn’t the most exhilarating job in the world. Of course, the key is to take advantage of those opportunities and make things happen when the chance arises.
• A capable manager who’s willing to mentor you. The best manager I ever had took my success as seriously as her own, and devoted countless hours to helping me master the things that she knew an early-twentysomething simply wouldn’t yet know. While I probably could have figured things out on my own, I got up to speed much more quickly—and ultimately reached a higher ceiling, I believe—thanks to the effort she put in. If it weren’t for her willingness to invest in my development, who knows how far I would have gotten while still in my 20s? Apprenticeships haven’t been in vogue (at least not in the U.S.) for the better part of a century, but managers who view their young employees as apprentices are worth their weight in gold. Find one, and learn as much as you can for as long as you can.
Notice that “A Lot of Money” never came up in this list. While you certainly have a right to pursue a good wage, remember that—no matter how smart you are or what you majored in—you’re going to be a development project for whatever company hires you, at least for your first few months. And while several years in a relatively low-paying job may not get you excited, keep in mind that this is the start of a career that may last more than 40 years. So think broadly about what you want to gain from your first job, and you may very well be on your way to a successful career thanks to some less obvious job traits that you might have otherwise missed.
—Scott Shrum is director of M.B.A. admissions research at Veritas Prep, a test-prep and admissions consulting firm. He is a regular contributor to Hire Education.
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