My Personal Branding GPS eBook received a lot of appreciation from my readers and I am thankful to all who provided their feedback and asked questions. Your feedback makes a lot of difference in my ability to make positive changes and continue to improve myself and my ability to serve.
This post is for you if you are in one of the following categories:
- You are just out of college with a college degree and looking forward to have a good, respectable job.
- You know somebody with a new college degree looking for employment. In this case, you may be able to guide them.
Earning a college degree is a big deal with the amount of time, money and resources it takes. Once you graduate, the next logical step is to find a job where you can put that knowledge to work and build your career. Additionally, you might already be in doubt and fear if you did not get your employment confirmed through campus selection for any reason.
But worry never fixes anything. What you need to do is: build your confidence, improve your self-image and hit the job market – the right way! You can take control of your career and make it happen.
Although people still in school and colleges can and should follow these to get ahead in the game, these four steps are going to help you as a new college grad in your job search if you take action:
1. Self Assessment
Most grads (including those who get campus selections), do not pay much attention to this. They do not take time to find their strengths, their passion and the type of career they want to build. Then they get some job and in many such instances, end up doing the work they don't like. No wonder they feel frustrated later about their careers. This reminds me of this powerful quote from Lewis Carrol that says,
If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there. [Tweet This]
Having a clear idea of your goals and skills gives you confidence and clarity in the type of job you want to search for. You need to perform a self assessment. For example, answer these questions:
- What are my career goals?
- What are the things I am good at?
- What kind of work do I love?
- What skills do I need to do my job well?
- What is the career path I want to choose?
Please take time to answer these questions for yourself. This is critical to your career, both in the short-term and long-term.
2. Plan Of Action
Once you know your strengths, your skills and your career goals, it is equally important to have a plan of action. Your action plan should include the following two areas:
- Plan to gain the skills identified as a result of your self assessment.
- Plan of market research and a plan to market yourself to meet your career goals.
Remember, you need to get organized and work on your plan because if you don't do the work, the plan will not yield any results. Once you start working on gaining the skills, your market research will give you clarity on your personal marketing strategy.
3. Create Your Personal Brand
Many new grads may think that their chances of getting a job is slim just because they do not have much working experience that most companies are looking for. That assumption is not true since there are so many opportunties in the market for those who have positioned themselves properly.
Yes, the market is extremely competitive today, whether or not you are a fresh graduate or you have some experience. You need to position yourself better than your peers and that is why Personal Branding is so important.
The good news is, no matter who you are, your personal brand is completely in your control. You can do it and it can have a tremendous impact on your chances of landing a good job. Here are two simple things you can do right from this moment:
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Build Strong Social Media Presence
Your resume no longer is a good enough representation of you. Today, the Google search on your name, your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles reveal a lot more about you than your resume.
If you don't have a fairly well written LinkedIn and Facebook profile, your professional presentation is weak. If you do not have a good social media presence, that is not necessarily a good thing for you. It actually may work against you because it might imply that you have something to hide or you are not open to new ideas.
Therefore, I would encourage you to have a good looking strong presence on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. You do not have to be 'super active', but an active profile does increase your influence and sets you apart from the average Joe looking for 'a job'.
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Own A Blog – Share Your Expertise Online
The experience counts because generally, the assumption is, people with experience have the knowledge required to do the job better. But, if you have the expertise, you can break that barrier and positively influence your job search results even if you are a fresh college grad.
It all starts with you making a decision to start your own blog to strengthen your brand value. To begin with, you can start blogging either at blogger.com or wordpress.com as these two services are not just highly valued by search engines, they are free as well. Register yourself for free, create a good website with a blog page and start sharing your expertise with the world. You may start blogging by solving problems that demonstrte your expertise in your industry, your domain of interest.
When you do that, you start establishing yourself as a 'go to person' in your industry. This can dramatically increase your chances of getting selected in job inerviews when you get the opportunity. This sets you apart from average job seeker. This approach has helped many across the industries and has many side benefits.
4. Networking With The Right People
Robert Kiyosaki says, "The richest people in the world look for and build networks while everyone else looks for work."
There couldn't be a more appropriate opportunity to practice this principle than at the beginning of your career. You worked hard to get that degree, you have the skills, you are building your online presence, you are blogging too. While all that is awesome, you also need to be careful about:
- Who you are connected with on social networking platforms?
- What kind of content are you sharing on these platforms?
- Who are you interacting with on these platforms?
These are important aspects of your brand building. Be intentional about creating connections and networking with people who are successful and who can add value to your career goals in now and in future. Connecting with people from the industry of your interest, networking with people from the organizations where you would like to get an opportunity to work, and adding value to others by being helpful, you actually increase your own reputation.
If you network the right way, with the right people, it not only just increases your brand value, it can actually be a very powerful asset to you in your efforts to land a good job.
Question:
- What challenges do you see for fresh college grads in the job market today?
- How do you think they can face them and succeed?
- What do you think of the steps discussed in this post?
Please add your thoughts in the comments.
This is the best piece of advise to give to a student. Instead of wasting their time on Facebook and trying to have a “good time”, if they spend their online time wisely, it can be a career booster.
I think that the biggest challenge is that most companies look for hiring experienced people and a fresh college graduate can not have experience unless they get a chance to work. So it is a chicken and egg situation. But, if college students follow these steps, they can surely overcome this challenge.
This is a great article and I know some people who need to read this. Thank you for this post, again!!!
Thanks, brother! Appreciate your inputs.
Along with these 4 steps, improving the self-image and developing the self-confidence is equally important when it comes to clearing the job interviews.
I remember during my initial days of the job hunt. It was the mentorship and confidence boost I got from my coaches that I could crack the interviews.
I couldn’t agree more about the online reputation and personal branding. We have seen it’s influence on the society today and one must take responsibility to create and manage their online reputation.
This is really a great topic bought by Kumar. He covered all major points here.
I would like to add the same points but in different word …I believe, everyone dreams, Dreaming is good. Especially college student start dreaming about their career, as soon as they join college, or before joining college. I understand, everyone wants to be successful in their life.
Now I would like to talk about a dream which is not actually a dream, it is a desire mostly anonymous desire. That is some called “joining in a dream company.”
If you ask a question to any graduates/or pursing graduate, what is his or her dream company? I’m sure you will get an answer. Someone will say ABC or XYZ etc. Now my question is
Is ABC or XYZ is right choice? Or it end up with this quote “ If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there” ? we need to think and find solution on this…
Excellent thoughts! Having a self assessment is to discover the dream. Until somebody doesn’t take time to think about what they really want to do with their life, there is no clarity. That is why self assessment is so important and like you rightly said, most people don’t have clarity of dreams. Reason? – not taking time to think about it.
Thanks for the response, Ranjan ji!
Thank you sir. This is great! I had some doubts about online blogging, but you have motivated me to start and keep improving. You are a great motivator!!!!!
I am glad to know you found the motivation in this article, Divya. I thank you for the compliments and also, wish you a good luck!
Bhaiya, though I took a long time to comment but i have gone through your post very minutely. As you told that you have posted it keeping me in mind it proved very moving and inspiring. I referred many of my friends to read this blog. They also downloaded your eBook on Personal Branding. Its really so nice of you to have you at one end and that too in caring couch. Hope you post some more inspiring blogs.
Very good Ankit. I am proud of you for the changes you are making. Keep up the great work.
I will bhaiya..I am proud to have you as my mentor..
Very nice tips for college students to hired. Using Social Websites can be one of the main source of getting Jobs. Professional Social Networks such as Linkedin plays a very good role in meeting new recruiters and fellow workers, but not much students are using them, instead they keep wasting their time on Facebook.
Thank you Gaurav. You have made a great point. Students do spend a lot of time on Facebook and less on LinkedIn. It should be the other way to succeed.
So you’re saying that students will benefit a lot in linkedin more than someone who shares the joy of getting herself in facebook.
This is very helpful information for finding a job. Especially the part about setting up a plan. If you go into anything without a plan, your odds of failing are really high. Setting up a plan is one of the best things you can do for anything.
That’s absolutely true Donald! You said the right thing. Network in has always been the most important element of success in every endeavor. Good luck to you 🙂
Nice and informative post
The dream of any college graduate would be to get a good job with great package. So is it really a happening ?
I guess not to every one.
There are many reasons most graduates fail to attain the job they want. The above post explains some key points which if followed can help you in getting a job. Setting up a career goal and plan accordingly should be the primary plan. Meeting the right kind of people is also very important and helps you in many ways.
Great post and I hope this article would help many people especially the freshers who are seeking for job.
Thank you for sharing.
i think this is the best way to prove yourself and build up career.
I would hope that people start looking at what they want to do after they graduate at least a year in advance. If you can plan for a goal, then you’ll be more likely to get what you want. Doing internships and somehow getting work experience while in school goes a really long way towards that job that you want. If you can take advantage of some newly graduated internship opportunities, it may be your best bet.
i had a blog before but now disabled
but you have motivated me to start and keep improving. You are a great motivator.
It is true that the job market is difficult for new grads. The greatest tip is to network like crazy that is how most people find their jobs. Also, perseverance is key, never give up
yeah todays market have very tough competition and we need some guidancelike you are providin sir 🙂
thanx a lot sir 🙂
This is really an informative article and covered every important things that students really should have to focus on.You also have mention to increase social media presence and LinkedIn is always a best source where students can put their skills and resumes and that can improve their chances to get picked by big companies.
Author explained clearly how to search jobs. Networking system, Plan and Personal Brand things explained clearly. Nice article prepared by author for graduates and job seekers. Be half of them am thanking author. Wishing to give more useful updates for graduates in job selections.
Amazing Article, I have just completed my graduation with B.tech and was looking for something I can do to build my personal brand online. Got these strategies, thank you very much. i want to know some social media strategies. That’d be great if you can refer me to something unusual you’ve written like this 😉
Thanks!
~Nirvan
best piece of advise to give to a student. Instead of wasting their time on Facebook if they spend their online time wisely, it can be a career booster and I also remember during my initial days of the job hunt. It was the mentorship and confidence boost I got from my coaches that I could crack the interviews.
Awesome work Kumar. Those are inspiring words especially to students who are about to finish college and would love to get their dream jobs. Students should try reading blogs that would actually change their lives. In addition they should learn to always plan ahead and hang around the right group of people.
Very helpful article for college pass-outs. Having a blog is great thing for approach in job. But who will prefer to do job if his/her blog is running successfully?
Thanks Regards,
Neha
Hey Gauraw,
This was a really interesting post, and something which really echos my beliefs. With the job market getting so tough to enter, every extra activity counts. I am currently doing my masters in management at ESCP Europe in Paris, and though it is a really well ranked and prestigious school, many people find it difficult to get jobs on graduation.
The reason? Well most of them thought the hard work was over once they got admitted into the college, and took the easy path during the course, partying most of the time & not paying due attention to the course. This directly affected their probability to get picked up by companies after graduation.
I really like the importance you have given to building a online identity, in today’s digital world….we can be known by much more than our Facebook accounts. Possibilities are enormous, in fact while developing your online identity you can build tons of useful skills which will further be valued by companies.
I put this principle to action by merging my love for entrepreneurship & marketing, to form a startup http://www.MiM-Essay.com , aimed towards spreading quality information about the Masters in Management & providing application consulting services. It has been a really enriching experience & i get to learn something new everyday. May it be SEO, digital marketing or just learning how to write better. These are skills which i am sure will be valued by companies, when i enter the job market.
Anyways, thought i would share this. Keep up the good work
I must confess that the thoughts expressed in this article are awesome! I’m from a less developed country bedeviled with the scourge of unemployment. Gone are the days when there are jobs already awaiting every college graduate, now it’s a rather different story. I believe that our educational system needs to be restructured in order to reflect the present day reality of self-reliance. Each of the points you explained are actually a reflection of what ought to be inculcated into our schools curriculum to prepare our teaming trainees ahead of the “real world” reality. Thanks Man.
awesome post. this should be the first stop for every new college graduate. there is a lot to be learn from this post that will changes life forever rather than spending time taking selfies and posting on instagram. nice post