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Sections Non-Fiction Getting from College to Career
Sections Non-Fiction Getting from College to Career | Getting from College to Career |
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| Written by Webmaster | |
| Wednesday, 30 April 2008 | |
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Virtual Book Review Network interview with Lindsey Pollak, author of Getting From College to Career How do you get a job without experience and get experience without a job? It's the question virtually every college student or recent graduate faces. In Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World, Lindsey Pollak offers the first definitive guide to building the experience, skills, and confidence grads need before they start their first major job search.  Getting from College to Career LAUREN SMITH: What inspired you to write Getting From College to Career – your own experiences, the experiences of others, or a little of both? Lindsey Pollak: Getting From College to Career is the book I wish I’d had when I was in college. It’s the book I wish my younger brother and sister had. It’s a collection of all of the tips, ideas, advice, secrets, strategies and warnings that I didn’t even know I didn’t know. It has also launched a dream career for me—working as an author and speaker helping college students and young professionals. My senior year of college I was a freshman counselor (resident advisor), living with and advising a group of freshman students. To this day it was my favorite job I’ve ever had—and this book provided the opportunity to continue this work. As a counselor I learned that helping students build confidence and a sense of themselves is just as important as teaching them specific skills. That’s the attitude I brought to writing Getting From College to Career—compassion for this very challenging and scary time of life, and a desire to help each student/reader find his or her own path and not fixate on what a recent graduate “should” do. I think of the book’s readers as extensions of the freshmen I counseled in college. My goal was to be a big sister to the reader—young enough to relate to their time of life and old enough to have some wisdom and perspective to share. LAUREN SMITH: Do you think today’s college graduates face bigger challenges than ever before; if so why and what are those challenges? Lindsey Pollak: In many ways, yes. Demographically, there are simply more young people today, who are more educated and who more aware of available opportunities and global competition because of the Internet. Millennials are building careers in a time of tremendous competition, but also unprecedented global opportunity. I think it’s incredibly exciting! LAUREN SMITH: What are your top three or five tips for college grads? Lindsey Pollak: Here are some of my top tips: • Avoid the biggest mistake in career prep and job hunting. The biggest mistake by far is doing nothing. Whenever you are stuck, frustrated, clueless, or overwhelmed, the answer is always action. Challenge yourself to take one action every day on behalf of your career. • Become an industry expert. Set up free keyword news alerts [http://www.google.com/alerts] for companies, industries, products or events related to the industries that interest you. This means you’ll be the very first to know about new products, new management and new job opportunities, and you’ll be able to talk intelligently with people in the industry you want to join. • Interview eyewitnesses. The best way to learn about a job is to talk to people who are already doing that job—informational interviewing is the best job search and career change tactic I know. To get the most out of any meeting, ask your interviewee to recommend actions you can take to help your career prospects. Then you have a built-in reason to follow up: to report back that you’ve taken the suggested action. • Mock interview. Mock interviews are usually free at college career services offices (even for alums!) or you can do this with a trusted friend or parent. Wear your interview suit and treat the mock interview like a real opportunity. Then, ask the mock interviewer to provide you with honest feedback. Are you articulate enough about your skills, experience and goals? Do you appear to be too shy, too confident, too negative or too bubbly? Honest feedback about your interview performance can help you address any problems and ace your next face-to-face opportunity. • Don’t curb your enthusiasm. All my research into career success yielded many tips and tactics, but one truth stood out above all: passion matters. An employer will often choose to work with the person who is most excited about his or her work and loves coming in every day. Be that person and let your enthusiasm shine through! LAUREN SMITH: How does the Internet play a role for college grads looking for their start? Lindsey Pollak: Technology has changed the college and job search experience. Most job searches today start on the Internet and most first impressions are now made by email instead of in person or by phone. There are advantages—today’s students are very good researchers and have a ton of information at their fingertips—but there are also drawbacks. Most jobs are found through networking, so you can’t hide behind a computer all day long. You have to get out and meet people face to face! Also, college students and grads need to be aware that employers and grad school admissions officers absolutely check your Facebook and MySpace page, so be careful what you post (and what your friends post about you). The golden rule is never to write, do, say or wear anything online that you wouldn’t write, do or say in person. LAUREN SMITH: What was your first job post-college, and how did you get that job? Lindsey Pollak: I went straight to graduate school after college, and when I returned home after receiving my master’s degree, I made the terrible mistake of doing nothing. I thought a job would just come to me, even though I wasn’t clear on what kind of job I wanted! Eventually, I started going on informational interviews, met with a career counselor, attending conferences and talked with anyone and everyone I knew. This led to me to have lunch with a woman who was my boss and mentor at my very first college internship (at the Connecticut Women’s Business Development Center). A few days later, she faxed me an article about the formation of a new website, WorkingWoman.com. I had always been interested in women’s career issues (my master’s is in women’s studies), so the company seemed like a perfect fit. I cold called the HR department (which was brand new), faxed my resume and went in for an interview the following week. It was a great first job in a fun dot-com environment. Unfortunately, like most dot-coms, WorkingWoman.com went bankrupt about 18 months after it launched. That’s when I started freelancing and eventually started my own business as an author and speaker. LAUREN SMITH: Networking is such an important part of finding that perfect job, but what do most people overlook in this area? Lindsey Pollak: Too many young job seekers conduct their job searches almost entirely online. This is a big mistake. Seventy to 80 percent of jobs are found through networking, so 70 to 80 percent of your job search effort should be spent networking. Students should make sure that they are setting up informational interviews, attending events, joining professional associations, talking to everyone they know and keeping in touch with old contacts (Facebook and LinkedIn are great for maintaining connections). As tempting as it is to surf the web all day for jobs, it’s not as effective as getting out there and meeting people. I also advise student and young professionals to remember to network with their peers. Friends, recent alumni (maybe a year or two older) and colleagues from internships are all great people to ask for help, ideas, support and referrals to opportunities. You don’t need to network with CEOs! LAUREN SMITH: What tips would you offer to anyone writing a book for the first time? Lindsey Pollak: A few things: 1) Talk to lots of authors so you understand how the book publishing process works; 2) Attend a workshop or read a book on book marketing and publicity – this is so important for authors to understand; 3) Make sure to build your platform/reputation so that you will have ways to market your book when it’s published—speaking, writing a blog, leading an organization, etc.; 4) Make sure you really love your topic and feel that you have something unique to say. I would encourage anyone to write a book who has the desire. It is an amazing experience, and these days, even if you don’t find a publisher, it is really easy to self-publish and sell books online. LAUREN SMITH: Do you have plans for any other books? Lindsey Pollak: Yes! I love researching and writing books and I hope to keep writing them for a long, long time. Currently I am working on a follow-up to Getting from College to Career. It’s a book for young professionals about building your career in the first few years out of college—setting goals, making decisions (like whether or not to go to grad school or start your own business), how to get the most out of your networking, etc. Interested readers can check out my blog (www.lindseypollak.com/blog) for updates. I’m currently looking to connect with students, young professionals, recruiters and other experts who are interested in sharing their advice and experiences for the book. LAUREN SMITH: We notice on your blog that you like to bake and decorate cupcakes for parties and events - what got you started? Lindsey Pollak: I’ve always had a sweet tooth, and cupcakes are my favorite treat, mostly because of the frosting. When I first moved to New York about eight years ago, I threw a lot of parties and I discovered that cupcakes were a fun, inexpensive and popular party treat. I’ve kept up the tradition ever since, and all of my book events feature decorated cupcakes. It’s a lot of fun—sometimes when I show up for a speaking event at a college, the students have baked cupcakes for me! LAUREN SMITH: Is there anything we haven’t covered that you would like to include? Lindsey Pollak: Thank you for the interview! LAUREN SMITH: Thank you for taking the time to be part of this interview! Tag it:      |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 April 2008 ) |
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