For this week’s Linky Love, I stopped at Kelli’s first link. It was to a blog post by Edward Boches titled Five ways college students can jumpstart the job search. There could not be a more perfectly timed post than this one! With graduation looming over the heads of my roommates and me, Boches’ pointers are extremely relevant.
I love that right off the bat he talks about building relationships. Boches notes that finding a job is all about putting oneself on someone’s radar before the hunt begins. It is about building genuine personal relationships that make you more memorable. This is a tactic that I am learning more about, as the connections that I made in high school are coming back around and helping me now. It is proof that a personal touch is key!
Another key point that he makes, which was also a part of my personal social media plan in the beginning of Kelli’s course, is to establish these relationships on Twitter. He suggests doing this by sharing links and participating in meaningful conversations by contributing relevant content. This is something that many of us PR students are practicing. Every day there is a learning curve with Twitter—the dilemma of what to tweet, when to tweet, who to tweet is a big one. Boches’ approach is to pay attention to what your superiors talk about, and what they share. This way, you can figure out the best ways to “add value to their conversations”. I always follow professionals in my field and fail to interact with them, so this is an area I intend to work on.
My favorite tip of his is to challenge those who you respect. Start an engaging conversation with an opposing view to professors. This shows that you are not only listening to and interested in what they are saying, but you are also intelligent and well versed in the subject matter. I am definitely a passive listener, and being a contributor in the classroom or office hours is a personality trait that I do not possess. So my resolution for spring term is to break this mold and stand out. After all, I only have two more terms (three if you count summer) to make an impact at the University of Oregon.
Chronicles of a Twenty-Something 