Launching Your Career – Career Blog Series Pt 3

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Launching Your Career – Career Blog Series Pt 3

Not completely sure if this blog is a hip hangout for those in the under-20 set, but maybe it will go viral. That’s a good thing, right?

My last couple of entries talked about the false burden of expectations that the perceived need to job-hop creates and my perspective as someone who has only hopped (lurched? staggered?) once in my alarmingly long career. This made me think about how my journey began as a wee engineer on wobbly legs, and how my experience might benefit today’s up-and-comers.
 
1. Get an internship. Or several. I can’t stress this enough. You will be a country mile ahead of your competition when you have something other than Glee Club on your resume. You can rule out a bad career path while the stakes are low, and you might even find a home. How would you like to spend your senior year with a job offer in your back pocket? Thought so.
 
2. Employers are looking for a complete package. That’s shorthand for “I don’t have time to train you properly, so I hope you can figure it out”. Yep, even Avanceon. We train pretty well, but the training wheels come off early, and while we don’t expect you to know everything, we expect that you’ll make smart decisions (one of which is knowing when you need help). It’s great that you got a 4.0 at Wassamatta U, but show us that you’re a git-r-done type who knows when to call in the big guns, and now we’re interested.
 
3. If your first job is giving you agita, maybe you need to leave. We all want to hit the ground running, make our mark, and be a success. But sometimes, you need to go back to go forward. (Man I hate that saying.) My first job and I didn’t get along. It would have been better if I’d left sooner, but instead I withdrew and did the minimum necessary not to get fired, which didn’t do my career any good.
 
4. Remember that people are people. You’ve spent your entire life in school, and now the playing field has finally leveled out. You’ll call grown-ups by their first name, and talk with them about things like lawn-care. Look them straight in the eye and know you’ve earned your place at the table. Respect among equals is the new currency.
 
For more information about careers at Avanceon, click here.
 
 
Image Source: Freepik

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