Neither the New England Patriots nor the Atlanta Falcons
would have made it into the Super Bowl game if they hadn’t keep their focus on
the reaching the goal line during each and every game they played throughout
this year’s season. Staying focused and determined on reaching the goal is
critical to football success and it’s equally critical to students’ job search
success. I often find that students get derailed from pursuing their career
goals and dreams by external factors and pressures.
The reason this bothers me so much is because studies have
shown that people are ultimately happier and more successful when they are
working in a career that they love. If they don’t, they may have regrets later
in life that they never pursued their dreams. I also feel that students have
invested a lot of time, energy and money in earning their degree so should make
every effort to turn find a job related to their major.
A finance major I was recently working really wants to work
in financial services and is applying for internships in that field. However,
he is currently working as a customer service representative in the
telecommunications industry and is doing such an excellent job that his
employer offered him full time employment as a manger after graduation. Sounds
like a sweet deal, right? And one that is hard to refuse. Getting offers such as
these are very flattering, especially to students who don’t have a lot of work
experience and are grateful for any and all offers. The only problem is that if
he takes this position, chances are he will never get back to his original
career goal.
Another senior was in my office yesterday, and she had
received a full-time offer from her current employer. However, it was for an
accounting role, and she really wants to work in human resources. The offer was
flattering and so was the salary! She confessed that the salary would help her
pay off her tuition bills, and that is a very enticing reason to accept an
offer. We discussed that she could work in the job for a year or so but then get
back on track with pursuing her dream of working in HR.
Many students now are also getting contacted by recruiters
on LinkedIn regarding enticing job leads. Again, it’s very flattering for a
college student to be contacted by a recruiter! However, a lot of the time the
recruiters are recommending jobs that have nothing to do with what the student
really wants to do. The recruiters are working in their own best interest to
fill their job quotas, but the job isn’t necessarily in the student’s best
interest. Young college students just starting out in their careers are often naïve
to this fact.
