Article Title: What College Students Should Do For Their Job Search Over Spring Break
Author Byline: Caroline Ceniza-Levine is co-founder of SixFigureStart (www.sixfigurestart.com), a career coaching firm that specializes in working with Gen Y young professionals. Formerly in corporate HR and retained search, Caroline most recently headed campus recruiting for Time Inc and has also recruited for Accenture, Citibank, Disney ABC, and others.
Author Website: http://www.sixfigurestart.com
What College Students Should Do For Their Job Search Over Spring Break
Seniors who have a job offer lined up, use the break to thank everyone who helped you. If your prospective employer gave you a book list or other tips on how to prepare, start tackling that.
Seniors who don’t yet have an offer, you still have three months before graduation, plenty of time to execute a proactive search. Spend the break identifying your preferred industries, companies, and functional areas so you can hit the ground running when you’re back at school.
Juniors, you still have three months to land a summer internship, and this is a critical internship. Your competitiveness in senior year recruiting is very dependent on how strong this junior summer internship is. So take the same care of seniors looking for full-time. Spend the break identifying your target areas and be prepared to launch an aggressive search when you get back to school.
Freshman and sophomores, many (but definitely not all) internships are exclusive to juniors. You will need to be more creative and find companies that are open to underclassmen or who might have less ability to attract the juniors (perhaps smaller companies as opposed to brand names). If you intend on doing your internship at home rather than at school, the break is a perfect time to scout out companies that may have summer needs. You can be the first to inquire. If you will work where you go to school, then at least identify these companies by name so you can start calling on them after break.
All class levels should also plan for logistics such as where they will live and what financial resources their parents will provide. For interns whose home geography is dramatically different from their school geography, this could mean a dramatic difference in the choices available. If the support isn’t what you planned, you can start planning for alternatives. For seniors, you can start budgeting and may decide to save your holiday cash gifts, depending on prospects for after you graduate.
Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.