For most young people, making the transition from college graduate to employed professional is a time fraught with tremendous anxiety, but also enthusiasm as they are finally joining the workforce after years of academic pursuit. Candidates can take solace in the fact that the current job market is very favorable for qualified candidates, and there is a high demand for people to fill skilled positions. Determining your overall career path is key.
Even though you may have limited experience or none at all, your chances of landing a stable entry-level job are better now than they have been for many years. For instance, only 3% of all declared accountants in this country are currently unemployed, and that figure drops to just a little over 1% for computer programmers. The bottom line is that there are tons of opportunities for people with the right skills and knowledge, especially those with a positive work attitude, and those with sound communication skills.
You can also feel secure about the fact that employers place a high value on academic accomplishments and a willingness to learn because most jobs require incoming personnel to acquire new on-the-job skills. To some extent, your career path may be dictated by the academic pursuits which you specialized in, and the career types that hold your interest. In order to have the best chance of starting out on the right career path, you should also consider the following recommendations carefully.
Don’t be Hasty
The thrill of finding a new job soon after graduation can be very powerful, but if you take the first available opportunity that comes up, you are probably selling yourself short. There may even be a little bit of pressure on you to secure that first job because you need to support yourself, as well as to handle other financial requirements. While it’s perfectly understandable that you take these factors into account, you should not allow them to be the driving factor in your job selection.
If you take a more studied approach, just as you would have in college, you are far more likely to end up with a job you can appreciate, and which you prosper in for quite a while. It will be worth your while to research job statistics in your country, including pay scales and anticipated growth of demand.
You should also take into account the things that appeal to you the most about a job, and be prepared to seek out those specific elements when opportunities do arise. All that said, you should also be aware of the fact that no single job will be perfect, and if you find one that meets most of your requirements, that’s probably one worth exploring.
Getting a Foot in the Door
Being hired for an entry-level position is not the only way to break into the career you seek. You should be open to other possibilities as well if it seems likely that they could be a steppingstone to your ultimate objective. As an example, you might search for internships which are available in a field that appeals to you. During interviews with the hiring manager, you should be able to learn what possibilities there are for converting that internship into a full-time position.
You might also want to give some thought to taking on contract or project work since it will provide you with valuable field experience, despite it not being a full-time position. There are also some part-time jobs available from companies, and these too may have the potential to be converted into more permanent arrangements. Again, you can learn more about the potential for future employment by asking the right questions during an interview, and by showing your interest in a permanent position at the same time.
Don’t Rule out a Shift in Your Career Path
It’s entirely possible of course, that even though you have painstakingly laid out your objectives and the career path by which you hope to achieve them, that something goes awry with the execution of your plan. When something like this happens, you shouldn’t look at it as though it were a resounding failure or a powerful impediment to achieving your original goals.
Another way of looking at it might be that it presents the possibility of an alternative you have not yet considered, and if you look at it from an objective standpoint, it may offer just as excellent an opportunity as your original plan. In fact, this has happened to many people who set out expecting to be involved in one type of career, and due to changing circumstances, wound up in quite another.
This should be a well-considered opportunity when it does come up, and you should see the value of making this kind of career shift before you come to a final decision. But it’s good to be aware that for most people, it’s somewhat rare to graduate from college and immediately slip into the specific career path they had envisioned. There are a great many surprises that life has in store for most of us, and the winding route of your career path is likely to contain more than a few.