If you’ve completed the
majority of the items in my articles I can say you’re ready to take on the
unforgiving job market in the middle of a second recession! It’s the Battle
Royale for internships out there and you’ve got to be prepared to be just
another résumé being crunched through the shredder.
I kid, I kid.
The reality of our
situation is that yes, you have a lot of competition for every job you’ll find,
but you are uniquely prepared (as a CABA student) and have our stellar
professors and alumni to help you along the way.
There are two rules I ask you to stick to. The first I have wrested from
Steve Jobs’ famous commencement speech to Stanford students (as well as the
Whole Earth Catalog he quoted it from):
Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
If you have groomed your
résumé, portfolio and cover letter, the open job market can be at best be a bit
of numbers game…but it can still be unforgiving. You’ll be faced with more than
just relentless rejection letters; you will deal with silence and indifference.
It’s very difficult not to be bogged down by this and feel miserable when looking
at your empty inbox or lack of phone calls. Stay hungry for opportunity and
challenges. Stay foolish enough to make those applications for positions you’re
too nervous to apply to.
The second rule is
something I have pulled from Winston Churchill that I see whenever I stride
down the hallway in F building to greet CABA professors in the main office. A
kind professor has posted it by her door.
Never, never,
never, give up.
I would wish you good luck
but you don’t need it. Because you make your own
luck and your own opportunities.
Janet is a freelance copywriter and social media
consultant currently in her fourth year at Humber College’s Bachelor of Creative Advertising program (aka CABA). She is
obsessed with rap, knitting and food.
Janet Ha | info@janetha.ca | @Janet_Ha | http://ca.linkedin.com/in/janetha2
After you've found several internship possibilities and applied to them, your work is not done. Just as with job-hunting, you must follow-up with each company. Don't call the companies every day, but be persistent. The old adage about the squeaky wheel getting the grease rings true here. Follow-up your initial contact with a phone call, follow-up your interview with a thank-you letter, and follow-up your thank you letter with a phone call.
ReplyDeleteThanks to SL Aluminium for hiring me :)