As students in college, we are preparing ourselves for the real world, a world with real jobs, real bills, real issues, etc. College can be seen as a preparation for a future career. It gives you the education you need to succeed. So technically, a college education makes you look good to a potential employer right? Not exactly, considering if all you have is a college education. Then that puts you on a level playing field with all the other recent college graduates. In this day and age, that’s not enough at all. If you want to shine amongst your competitors for a job (and actually be called in for an interview), now is the time to build up that resume.
The first place to start is campus involvement. No one wants to look at your resume and see that all you did in your four years in college was sit in your dorm room and play video games. There isn’t actually a place in your resume to put that. Your future employer won’t care how quickly you beat a certain game or how diligently you kept up with all of your TV shows. Hence, the lesson here is, you need to see more of college then just the inside of your dorm room; get out and do something productive that will shape this university positively. If someone had to choose between someone who is in two honor societies, president of an organization, and actively involved in numerous other clubs and someone who just merely attended class (if that) then the choice is clear.
The second great place to continue improving yourself and impressing your employers of the future deals with involvement in professional organizations and associations. If you do your research, which many of you probably have not, there are numerous professional organizations (for your specific areas of interest) that you can get involved in now just to get it on your resume and your name out there. Many of these organizations have a special membership available to students that is cheaper than the general membership. It’s time to make the effort and find out when the deadline for these organizations are. When someone looking at your resume in the future sees that you have been a member of a professional organization for already two to three years, it’s impressive and it shows initiative.
The last thing I would like to mention, and this goes along with the profession organizations, do some research on conferences that involve your area of interest. As a forensic major, I have attended the American Academy of Forensic Science’s annual conference twice now. Attending a conference is both beneficial in the aspect that it shows your interest to stay current in your field of interest and it puts you into direct contact with people currently employed in areas you are looking into getting into one day. What better way to make connections and hand out your resume.
So, if you are currently sitting on your bed (and reading The Charger Bulletin), and you decided to do some research and find a professional conference you would like to attend, suggest it to a club in that area of interest on campus. There isn’t a club on campus in your field of interest? (That’s hard to believe, but it could happen.) If that’s the case, make your own club. Imagine how good you will look one day after starting your own club on campus, getting it university recognized, becoming a gold status club in USGA, becoming a member of the professional organization, and planning a trip to attend the annual conference. Suddenly, you will stand high above the rest when someone is reviewing your resume. Sure it takes some work, but you’re in college for four years; don’t waste them.
