Recently, I have been hearing stories from a good friend about an intern helping out in his department at work. This intern is graduating soon and has been talking, at length, about the type of position he expects to obtain as soon as he graduates. It seems he is applying for management positions and is unwilling to consider the possibility that he might not be qualified.
It compelled me to remind all of you, my dear job seekers, to have realistic expectations when you begin your job search. As I have discussed in past articles, it is absolutely critical that you understand what your skills are and in what types of positions you would be most successful. But, lets focus a bit on our newly minted/soon to be minted graduates, shall we?
If you are getting ready to graduate from college - Congratulations! - now go and apply for entry level positions in your field. Every position, whether it is in human resources, information technology, accounting or any other area, is going to require actual work experience before you begin moving up the ranks towards management. Regardless of what you might think, a college degree does not make you miraculously qualified to pass go, collect $200 and go right to management. Guess what? Your degree? It doesn't make you special. It makes you employable in an entry level position and until you gain a little humility and a whole lot of work ethic to go with that degree you aren't going to have much success.
Don't get me wrong; you should be proud of your education. You worked hard and you earned some bragging rights! Just understand that there are a lot of people out there looking for jobs and the ones who get management positions have degrees coupled with years of experience.
You should also keep in mind how small the Boise area is. If you are an intern bragging to your co-workers about how you are going straight into management because you are steeped in awesomeness and don't have to play by the same rules as the rest of polite society...well, that might just get repeated to the very same people you will eventually be interviewing with.
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