4 Tips to Help Your Child Transition from College to Work

I’ve noticed a trend lately.

My executive clients are sending me their college-aged and adult children.

They’re asking for help in one of the most stressful transitions a family can face – the move from college to the real world.

With graduation approaching, I know many of you are dealing with this stress right now so I wanted to share the 4 tips I’ve found most critical during the transition from college to the world of work:

 1.     What to do if your resume is feeling light on work experience. There’s a workaround here which is YOU create your own proof of concept. You can beef up your resume with project work and volunteer work that demonstrate hirable skills. How do you get project work? Pitch a few ideas to someone you admire in a profession that interests you. Make it difficult for them to say no by doing the work remotely and making it work you can do without access to any internal information. This could include providing insight on trends or doing research on competitors or target consumers. I’ve helped many students and recent grads come up with project ideas that ultimately lead to full-time roles.

2.     What to do if you keep applying and never hear anything. This is really frustrating and is the ultimate confidence killer, which is the opposite of what you want after you finally finish college. The key is that just applying isn’t enough. You need to stand out to the decision makers. Yes, you need to have a great resume and you need to submit an application but that’s just the beginning. Use LinkedIn to figure out who the decision makers are and politely reach out to them – this can be on LinkedIn (if you have a profile) or via email by googling to figure out the company’s email formula. In my book, Made To Hire, I share ideas for information you can send beyond just a resume to help you get noticed. For example, a suitability map, is a great attention grabber as it maps your experience against the role you’re applying for.

3.     Be mindful of your social media. If you’re a job seeker, anything you put online is fair game. Before diving into applications, do a social media audit from the perspective of a hiring manager to make sure you’re putting forth a personal brand that is consistent with the values where you want to work. I have done this for many students as there are definitely generational differences that can be missed on what might be off-putting to a hiring manager.

4.     Stop focusing on your identity as a student or recent graduate and start positioning yourself as a problem solver. A degree is important but companies care about what you can do for them. You need to craft stories and examples that demonstrate how you solve problems and can make an impact on the company. I help students and new grads do this when we do interview prep. It’s amazing how many strong stories they actually have to pick from – they just need to learn how to package them in a way that connects with an interviewer.

My background as a long-term college instructor gives me unique insight into the strengths and challenges that pre-college, college, and post-college students deal with. I’m also a mom of 3 so I know how stressful it can be wanting to do everything you can to help your child be successful. If I can help, feel free to reach out at merryn@madetohire.com. When I work with a student or recent grad, we typically I do a 1hr session where we talk through their goals and build a plan of attack to make their goals a reality. I love how, at the end of the hour, their confidence and motivation end up on a whole new level.

My book and/or online course are also great, low-pressure tools you can offer to your child if a 1-on-1 feels like too much.