I never enjoyed writing. That is, I never enjoyed writing for school. I recently graduated from college, and I have to admit. I find myself writing much more in my free time. It's almost as if having a free mind to write what I want and how I want makes the whole process much more enjoyable. Unfortunately, I did not come here to talk about how much I enjoy writing now. Instead, I would like to discuss the craziness of entering the workforce.
Now, I know what you're thinking. Great, here comes another liberal arts major complaining about not having a job and how the government is a huge conspiracy. Well, I will have to let you down easy and be truthful. I am a programmer. I started programming only a few years ago, but I did well in school and finished with a good, in demand degree. Now, here's something I'm even more proud of, I got a great job out of college. I know, it's crazy, a millennial that isn't complaining about not having a job out of college. Many of my friends, some that are older and in my opinion much smarter than me, still have yet to find a job that makes them happy. I find it incredible how there is such a demand for workers, yet it seems that no one can find a job. So, I wanted to try and articulate my thoughts of why I did so well, where others did so poorly.
First off, I’m nothing special. I didn’t finish at the top of my class, I’m not some specialist in programming, and I’m not good looking. I’m an out of shape, twenty-some year old recent graduate who had absolutely no connections in my junior year of college. I got my internship by attending a job fair at a sister university that some other people in my class were participating in. The only reason I went that day was because I didn’t want to go to classes and that seemed like a good excuse to myself to not go. So, off I went with a few resumes and a cheap suit I bought the night before that didn’t fit me correctly. As I walked around for the first ten minutes, I didn’t speak to any representatives. I just watched. I took in my surroundings and tried to see where I fit in. Mostly, there were interview booths that only wanted seniors. So, basically I had only a few options. As I was standing there, I was off to the side when I noticed the representative from the table I was next to looking at me. Clearly, he could tell that I had no idea what I was doing. So, he asked if I was a senior and I hopelessly replied no. He laughed and said, well let me look at your resume anyway. As he stared down at my unimpressive resume, I noticed that he wasn’t interested. To my surprise, he looked up and said, “how about an interview tomorrow?” At the time, I was shocked, but looking back on the situation I could see what he did for me.
He gave me confidence.
After accepting his offer for an interview, we parted ways and I started going to other booths. Since the first one went so well, I tried to do the same thing as before. Stand there until someone took notice, and I added a twist. I would start to talk about something that had nothing to do with their company or the job I was after. I’m not sure why I thought of this at the time, but it worked. It worked so well that within the next hour I had over five interview offers.
My friends approached me after they overheard me getting my fifth interview request. They were excited because they thought it was my first one. When I told them it was my fifth they didn’t believe me. Mainly, because none of them had any offers yet. Being the kind hearted person I am, I shared my knowledge about how I was approaching the representatives. Before long, almost everyone had interviews.
It turns out that most recruiters just want someone that they can talk to. Sure, you can be an awesome candidate with high grades, work experience, and an expert in a field, but most of us are average. As for me, that was the only job fair I attended. I was lucky enough to get an offer from one of the interviews, and I've been with the company ever since.
I want to leave this thought with this bit of information. Be yourself, be confident, and talk about something other than the job you are looking for. Prove that you can be a normal, friendly person that can be not just a co-worker, but someone that the recruiter can see fitting in with the company’s culture.
Hopefully, you can apply this to the next time you are in a situation like this. If you try it and it works make sure to let me know. If it doesn’t… well… sorry.
P.S. I’m a programmer, my grammar skills and spelling aren’t the best.
