It goes without saying that you acquired a host of new skills and experience during your time in college. Some of them you won’t be sorry to leave behind: consuming more frozen and fried foods than any human being should in a single week, for example, or maintaining the sleep schedule (and hygiene) of a sloth. I hope that you made efforts to change those habits after you’ve graduated.
But as you begin your career as a young professional in whatever field you studied, you should know that there are many viable experiences and habits that you learned in college that will help you make a positive impression in the workforce. I’m talking about strong study habits and the keen networking skills that you acquired as you made your way through classes as an undergraduate. These two habits are among your strongest assets as you begin your career in the professional world.
A strong work ethic
This perhaps the most marketable skill you can bring into your career as you transition from an undergraduate student to a young professional. In college, you (hopefully) took advantage of your free time to study and review course material from the day’s classes. This is after all the grand idea behind a college education: giving a promising young adult unlimited free time with which they can pursue their studies at their own pace, so as to benefit any learning style a student might have. Reading assignments that took hours to complete, class projects that demanded large swaths of your personal time and all of your intellectual muscle: these are the types of experiences meant to prepare you for the fast-paced atmosphere of most professional outfits.
Many college courses are designed to prepare students for extremely tough scenarios that they may encounter in a future workplace environment. If you were able to preserve when your professors assigned you seemingly impossibly assignments, you can surely tackle the hazards of an entry-level job. And should you excel at your job duties, your employers will surely notice.
Forming relationships with your peers
This is another skill that most college students employ during their tenure as a student, and it’s not one to be overlooked by graduates in their new jobs. When you’re in college you’re encouraged to meet and collaborate with classmates and students who share the same major (indeed, sometimes you don’t have a choice in the matter). Though initially uncomfortable, is doesn’t task long for a student to realize that the task of networking and befriending their peers is something that benefits everyone. The more friends you made in your classes, the more people you had to study with and discuss the classes. And the more friends you made in college, the better you could network with other people in your desired field. A friend of a friend may have a relative with a prominent engineering firm that you could contact for a potential job, and so forth.
The same social skills will be a huge boon to you in your first job out of college. You’ll have a much easier time settling in with a company if you’re amiable and engaging with your employees. Networking among experts and well connecting officials in your field is critical for a young professional in any field. The experiences that you had meeting other students in college will undoubtedly help you as you form professional relationships at your workplace.
By-line:
This guest post is contributed by Angelita Williams, who writes on the topics of online courses. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: angelita.williams7 @gmail.com.