I think I’ve probably mentioned this before, but this project has reignited and re-excited me. I honestly had thought that I’d lost the idealism and excitement and ambition that has so defined most of my high school years, but I think doing these different internships and city-hopping and being independent has totally and completely refueled me and made me so so excited for the rest of my life. Which brings me to today’s list–all the super practical, tangible, and useful things Ive learned throughout this that can really help me pursue a career in the future.
1. I have more information and experience to know what type of company I’d like to work at. I’d prefer a global, growing, innovative environment that isn’t very old. I love the startup feel and I absolutely hate the idea of going by old conventions purely for the sake of it. The values need to align with mine, something I hadn’t considered until I saw that Mastercard’s were practically taken from my heart, as opposed to Edward Jones, which I don’t disagree with, but I’m not passionate about.
2. If you’re working for a global company, it seems like you can just make the case for why they should move you somewhere else and they will. There are people here in New York who’ve moved five or six times just because they asked to. And this is for sure something I want to do.
3. The main thing everyone (that I’ve talked to, anyway) looks for when hiring is capability to learn. It doesn’t matter how specific your degree is, you won’t know how to do the job on the first day. A woman I talked to today said that she absolutely wouldn’t hire anyone unless she saw passion, fire, and an excitement for learning.
4. Confidence is so so so so important. If you think you’re not worth anything, the people around you will sense that. You get to set your own value.
5. It’s not so hard to get a job. You see all of these horrible statistics about unemployment in college graduates, but everywhere I’ve worked is actually trying to hire entry-level people but isn’t finding people who graduated from a respected university with a) a real degree or b) good grades. It seems like if you have those three things you’re all set. I’ve been offered three jobs as a kind of joke and one for real so far.
Yeah, so kind of a summary would be that from what I’ve seen, it’s pretty easy to be successful at a young age if you’re just quick and engaging. People are so excited to hire and get new ideas that they’re offering these amazing salaries and building cool offices in skyscrapers to garner young talent. It’s such an exciting time to be on the verge of the workforce.