MyLifeMyCareer.com

Good question brought up after that last post. I guess that would have been useful information. How do you get an internship aka quasi-professional position when you have never had any other professional experience? Always work from the time you get a car until present day, and avoid having large gaps of time where you are unemployed. This is the truth, walk around any career fair and just listen to the questions being asked by recruiters. I have been grilled on this, and many others have as well. Work ethic is a thing of the past, and if you have held steady jobs (an indicator that you realize work is necessary even though it is not always fun) for significant amounts of time this will bode well in the interviews. Believe it or not, you gain professional skills in almost every job, and these are what you need to put on your resume under your work experience. As previously mentioned, I worked for an estate management company the summer after my freshman year. Did I put "mowing straight lines", "gassing up the riders", and "trimming perfect edges" as my skills? Yes. Just kidding. Rather, I put "worked collaboratively and independently in a fast-paced, demanding environment", "developed multi-tasking skills by working in different positions on over 25 different properties", and "took pride in my work, and developed a strong sense of accountability". Sounds good, and it's true. Dig deep to find out what you really took away from a job that may seem ridiculous when you look at the position or title you held. What if you don't work? Are you screwed? Up the Ganges without an oar, so to speak? Not totally, but you are definitely at a disadvantage to your competition. If you don't work I would recommend taking 18+ credit hours of courses each semester and going to school in the summer and graduating in 2.5 years, and holding a 3.5+ GPA. College is definitely considered a "job" where you build up skills. Be sure to mention collaborative projects, research papers, favorite courses, technical skills, and all of that. One of the biggest questions I got in almost all of my interviews was actually a statement: "Describe a time when you worked with others as a team to complete a project and the problems you encountered along the way as well as the solutions developed to prevail". Be ready for this one, because you rarely work alone in professional settings, and they want to make sure you agree that there is no 'I' in team. I'm sure there's more that I will remember and add to this at some point down the road.