Weekend Reading: Getting from College to Career by Lindsey Pollak
February 29, 2008 at 11:53 am | In Book Reviews, Career Development, People, Personal Branding, Success Strategies | 4 Comments
As I say, the time when you should be paying the most attention to your personal brand is in college. During college you are given the most amount of choices and the highest degree of education before you enter “the real world.” Choices, such as what major and minor you want to enlist in, as well as what extra ciricullar activities you want to participate in, internships to apply for and an overarching career path. College is a time when brand discovery is essential and that initial investment will pay off in the long run.
Students have very little support, aside from a few counselors, family members and friends. Classroom experiences cannot mimic what a day on the job is, but rather train your mind to think critically and strategically. There are no classes that are built for preparing students for what awaits them. They say that college prepares you for the rest of your life, but in my opinion, it doesn’t unless you make it. You need to take college for all that it is and soak up as much knowledge as you can in 2-4 years, as well as create a network.
This all leads me to Lindsey Pollak (soon be be married), who is a wonderful woman (that blogs), that sent me a copy of her book recently. I get a lot of books in the mail by authors, but have very little time to give them the review they deserve. I do enjoy books and will always find them valuable, even though eBooks and blogs are taking over (I’m writing a book as well). Before I get into one of my rants, I would like to say that Lindsey’s new book “Getting from College to Career” is perfect for students, who are clueless about their careers and have listened to too much “typical advice.“
Aside from her 2 other books, this one is clearly special. For one it is published by one of the most acclaimed publishers (Harper Collins). Also, there are worksheets, tips and resources in the book that are both helpful and informative.
Here are some of her tips (out of 90 tips!!!!)
- Associate: It doesn’t matter what your career is because their are associations to support you and introduce you to new people.
- Intern Early and Often: Internships build your resume, business sense, contacts, and industry knowledge.
- Minor: You have the opportunity to take courses outside of your major and it’s smart to learn about subjects that may position you for an easier job search.
- Relax: Your first job isn’t the only one you will ever have, so don’t marry it.
- Get Carded: Being a student is no excuse not to have a business card.
- Seek a Mentor: “How can you turn a hero into a real career adviser? Cultivate a mentor.”
- Follow Every Rainbow: Go to job fairs, search newspaper ads, classifieds, get a referall from your teacher, and use your network.
Want more? Pickup her book today on Amazon.com. I highly recommend it and the fact that I took time to read part of it really means it’s something special and important for college students. If your not a college student, most of the same principles apply anyways.
Have a great weekend everyone!
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Hi Dan, thanks for your great review of my friend and podcast co-host Lindsey Pollak’s book. I’m a new reader of your blog, but what I especially like about it is that it’s one of the few to intersect my two worlds as well – marketing communications and career development. As you mentioned, I know you get a ton of books to review, but I’d be very curious as to what you think about my new effort, How’d You Score That Gig? (Random House, April), which is about dream jobs – many in communications – for twenty and thirty-somethings.
Best,
Alexandra Levit
Author, How’d You Score That Gig?
Blogger, Water Cooler Wisdom
http://www.scorethatgig.com
Comment by Alexandra Levit — March 1, 2008 #
Another post people can use, Dan! I will share that many of my clients and contacts in general are Gen X which offers interesting insight to career strategy. Consistent behavior of the top producers is mentor relationships from college on and pushing out of the box – “I can do that!”
The common “I wish I had” comments I hear from the boomers is learning how to network/connect sooner to add value and to be more proactive. I have not read this book, but seems like a valuable resource based on Dan’s recommendation.
Comment by David Sandusky — March 1, 2008 #
Hi Dan,
I never knew you had soo many websites/blogs under your belly. Remember me? Salman..the one whose comment you read in ProBlogger..
I haven’t read this book but the name itself seems to say it all. Considering I am left with 2 more months of my college (my engineering finishes May 2008) I guess I know the importance of building our brand while in college. I have been blogging for around 1.5 years and I as was a student during this period so I had the time to build my brand. I used to ask my friends to visit my blog (although they used to say I was going mad. No doubt one testimonial in my orkut profile says my future wife will be a robot) but I didn’t ever talk about my blog to my teacher. This semester I included my blog as my final year project and when two days back I told about this to my H.O.D (Head Of Department) she said “Salman..I cannot digest this. How can you do this when others aren’t able to do anything big?”
I have some money in my wallets to hire writers so that my tech blog keeps delivering articles once I join Accenture and for the other blog theSenorita.com (where I publish articles only on Sundays) I am writing articles in advance so that I won’t have to worry about writing articles for this year…things going great and this is all because I gave it a start while in college..
Comment by CompuWorld — March 6, 2008 #
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