5 things you must do from freshman to junior year
No matter what year you are now
No matter how desperate you are for college
No matter how much you dislike your major
Anyway, please read this article carefully
I cannot guarantee how much you will gain from this
But I guarantee that every friend who reads it carefully will benefit from the entire college life
He will teach you to take fewer detours. Compared with other confused classmates, you are just taking shortcuts
p>No matter how impetuous you are now, calm down and finish reading him
I guarantee that your college life will take on a new look from now on
You must act on all your ideas!
Only action can help you succeed!
Encourage yourself and encourage each other
Do five major things well from freshman to junior year
A senior resume is not actually written in words , but was written based on the actions taken bit by bit from freshman to junior year. An impressive resume comes from the five major things you have been busy with from your freshman year to your junior year: academics, skills, clubs, internships, and examinations. This section revolves around these five major events.
1. Academic: What can you use to prove your "learning ability"
Well-known recruiting units generally regard academic performance as an important screening criterion. The following question is asked in famous recruitment companies: It is almost a must-ask question in the online application form of foreign companies:
Please indicate your academic standing during each period of education that applies to you. Top 10 of students? Top 25 of students? Lower half of students ? (Where does your academic performance rank? Are you in the top 10, 25, or below average overall?)
Why does the recruiting unit attach so much importance to your performance? The reasons are as follows:
(1) Results prove your "learning ability". Learning ability, like leadership, creativity and other important qualities, is an employee quality that any large company attaches great importance to. The famous Siemens Company lists "learning ability" as the first of the nine workplace qualities that fresh graduates must possess (learning ability, communication ability, ability to focus on customers, result-oriented ability, strategic ability, ability to guide and help subordinates, Environmental sensing ability, hands-on ability, team ability).
(2) Results prove your competitiveness. Students with excellent grades have higher quality. This rule is correct in at least 90% of cases.
(3) Your results prove your "motivation". If you don’t have the mentality to strive for the top in your studies, how can you strive for the top in the workplace?
(4) Achievements prove your sense of responsibility. A student's vocation is to study. If you don't care about your vocation to study now, how can you possibly care about your vocation to work in the future?
2. Skills: "tailored learning" for the workplace
Most college students are "passively" learning various skills. Since the school requires me to pass CET-4 or CET-6, then Naturally, I have to study hard to pass the exam; since the school has arranged computer courses for me, then I naturally have to learn how to use WORD, EXCEL, PPT...
Passive learning may cause your skills to derail the market. , or that it is not closely integrated with the market.
For example, when you struggled to get the Level 4 certificate, you found out that the recruiter required "Level 4 and fluent oral English"; when you thought you were pretty good at using EXCEL, Watson's sales assistant's written examination actually required you to use two EXCELs. Perform calculations on the data in the table, and then automatically generate the third table!
The workplace always clearly requires skills like this:
* Guangdong Mobile is recruiting operators: Typing speed 30 words/minute
* Citigroup (Citigroup) Bank) is recruiting "Credit Card Customer Service Specialist": able to speak Cantonese
* China Mobile is recruiting human resources assistant interns: able to use SPSS statistical methods
If you start researching from your freshman year According to the recruitment notice, you have three and a half years to "tailor-make" the skills you need; if you start preparing from your senior year, you may only have one month or even one day to prepare!
So, freshmen to junior students, start studying the recruitment notice today, and then, according to the requirements of the recruitment notice, master various skills "tailor-made"!
3. Societies: Strive to be "big and professional"
College students in the 21st century are no longer satisfied with being bookworms, but focus on developing their own interests and publicizing their own knowledge. personality. Inspire youth and let it flow to your heart’s content! This has given rise to a wide range of clubs and organizations on university campuses: Love Club, DIY Studio, E-era Dream Studio, Webpage Production Enthusiasts, Youth Volunteer Association; as well as campus activities with various popular themes: Environmentally Friendly Handicrafts Design Competition, "PSC Cup" DV competition, Sanxiaxiang, Avon campus agent, NOKIA mobile phone road show (road show)...
Looking at the resumes of new graduates, everyone lists a lot of club activities , dazzling. So, what kind of community activities do recruiters value?
1. Big is always the last word
Since everyone can list a lot of club activities, the appetite of employers is naturally getting bigger and bigger. The interviewer will repeatedly ask you about the scale of the activities you plan, the number of participants, the number of people and resources you have mobilized, and the social impact, etc. In contrast, interviewers are more likely to hire applicants who have planned large-scale projects. In comparison, “inviting experts from Peking University Jade Bird India to give lectures at our school” is definitely not as attractive to recruiters as “cooperating with Guangdong Development Bank to organize the ‘Lighting Up Love’ Thousand People Fundraising Event”.
2. Professional clubs are even better
No matter what kind of club activities can train college students’ leadership skills, communication skills, organizational skills, etc., but in the minds of recruiters Among them, the clubs you join often represent your personality, interests and even job search trends.
Being a leader is better than being a member
This is a typical written question for foreign companies: How many times in total were you president or leader of an organization, club, team, or committee while you were working on any university degree? Please write the name and year for each group below. Once? Twice? Three times or more?
From the setting of this question, the recruiter clearly stated the recruitment purpose Intent: You said you joined a certain club, so are you an ordinary member or a head? How many student organizations have you been the head of? In fact, what the recruiter is thinking is: If you are really a student leader, If you really have a lot of leadership, then in your four years of college life, you should have served as chairman or vice-chairman, president, monitor, football captain and other positions more than once.
Both leadership and team work spirit are the focus of corporate examinations. The key is that people with leadership are often very good at team work and can both lead and be led. Moreover, this kind of talent can often bring fresh impact to the enterprise and make outstanding contributions.
A student friend of mine, in order to be the "leader", withdrew from the student union and went to build a newly established IT club. As one of the three employees, she naturally Elevated to the position of Chairman. The strategy of saving the country through curves has added a glorious touch to her resume.
College students, if you only have super companies such as the Big Four, P&G, and IBM in your eyes, start working hard from now on. Be more of a leader and make yourself top 1 in the campus rankings!
4. Internship: Accumulate “strength” through internship
What can college students gain from internship?
(1) Realize the triple jump of "internship-graduation-job hunting". If your internship unit is quite good, and if your internship performance makes your boss very satisfied, you may get an offer directly and successfully realize the triple jump of "internship-graduation-job hunting".
(2) Obtain valuable guidance from seniors in the workplace. We often see in Korean dramas that new employees respectfully call old employees "senpai", because the seniors who have worked for several or even more than ten years are well aware of the employment secrets and long-term career development of the industry, and they have also accumulated valuable experience in their hands. human resources. If you can get help from your seniors, even if it is just sharing some experiences and guidance on finding a job, you are likely to avoid detours in one or two years!
(3) Accumulate experience! If the nature of your internship is consistent with your job search goals, even an internship of just one week can allow you to accumulate certain experience.
However, there is always a gap between ideal and reality, and real internship experience often makes college students extremely disappointed. First of all, it is the reasons of college students themselves. They find an internship in an industry that is completely different from their major. Secondly, employers all know that interns are "Flying Pigeons", so they often let them do some work that is too busy for secretaries, and even let them pass the time with tea and newspapers. Although the seniors are polite to you, they are actually keeping a distance from you, a passer-by who "comes in a hurry and leaves in a hurry".
In the process of job search consulting, the author learned about many stories of junior college students looking for internship opportunities, and summarized some tips for finding internship opportunities. Now, I would like to share them with you.
1. Look for "matching" internship opportunities
"Countering" internships, that is, your internship is exactly the job you want to do after graduation, which can almost guarantee that you will achieve "matching" internships. The triple jump of internship-graduation-employment. Even if the company where you are interning has no recruitment plans, your internship experience will almost guarantee that you will get an interview opportunity with similar companies.
One of my student friends, Xiao Meng, successfully achieved the above-mentioned triple jump. Xiao Meng's major is administration, a very broad major. When he was in his junior year, he saw that China Mobile was recruiting summer interns, and he was determined to make great efforts to get this internship opportunity. To this end, he analyzed in detail China Mobile's demand for summer interns. Combining the requirements of the recruitment notice with some information on the Internet, Xiao Meng found that China Mobile mainly needed interns to help with statistical analysis of data. The software used was SPSS statistical analysis software. To this end, Xiao Meng rushed to prepare such an application material:
(1) An assignment he did using SPSS statistical analysis software in college: In order to show his proficiency in SPSS, Xiao Meng Meng deliberately stayed up two all-nighters to lengthen the report from more than 4 pages to 10 pages. He also went to a printing agency that specializes in the design and production of tender documents to use Photoshop to do the typesetting.
(2) A cover letter: Introduce your experience in using SPSS statistical analysis software, and how to use SPSS to analyze a large amount of user data for mobile.
(3) Personal resume: Mainly highlight your above-average academic performance, your role as a "right-hand assistant" in club activities, and your ability to play table tennis. The reason why these advantages are highlighted is that famous companies have always preferred three types of students: those with good grades, those with strong execution ability, and those with cultural and sports talents.
Xiao Meng's application materials naturally surprised China Mobile and HR, and he successfully passed the interview and became one of the three interns recruited by China Mobile in Guangzhou in 2006. In 2007, Xiao Meng once again used a similar application method, passed the same fiercely competitive interview, and got a formal offer from China Mobile.
2. Can't find the "match"? Find the “biggest” company you can get into
To some extent, the competition for internship opportunities is greater than the competition for employment, because most companies do not recruit interns, and even if they do, There are also very few. In this case, it becomes more difficult to find a “matching” internship unit. Then, you can temporarily ignore your final career positioning. No matter what position it is, as long as it is recruited by a big company, you can try it. When you actually enter that company, you can "silently" approach the department you like most, get to know the people there, and observe what they do while completing your job.
Internship experience does not actually enable you to master the core business skills of a certain industry. Its main purpose is to enhance the competitiveness of your senior resume. At the same time, you can get in touch with some high-quality people. Learn something from them. In this sense, even if the internship does not "match" your employment goals, you don't have to worry too much. As long as you can get in touch with high-quality people, it doesn't matter what job you do.
3. Can’t get into the “biggest” company? You can "take the initiative to deliver it to your door"
One of my student friends, Robert, majored in e-commerce. We met in the BEC advanced class. After class, Robert came to me and said that he was BSed when applying for a job as an intern in the marketing department of a Fortune 500 company (being despised, that is, the application failed), and now he wanted to see if the marketing department of Guangzhou New Oriental was recruiting summer interns. I told him that as far as I know, the school has no formal plan to recruit interns, but if he is willing, he can "take the initiative to send one to his door" and ask the marketing department if it needs a free "handyman" to help distribute leaflets and so on. physical work, as well as half-manual and half-mental work such as updating web pages and statistics.
Robert was hesitant after listening to my suggestion. He said, "They are not recruiting people, so you send them to the door yourself. Isn't this a bit lowly?" I asked Robert: "Suppose One day, a girl suddenly comes up to you and says, 'Robert, I heard that you are making an internship resume. I am good at using Photoshop. Do you want me to help you design it? ' At this time, you will think that this girl is mean. Still feel touched?"
In this way, Robert mustered up the courage to go to the head of the marketing department and explain his desire to do odd jobs for free. Unexpectedly, his enthusiasm was met with a "polite cold reception." The director of the marketing department said that there was someone dedicated to maintaining the web page. As for physical work such as distributing flyers, Robert, a student from a prestigious school, could not be wronged.
What is commendable is that Robert did not forget China’s inspirational saying “over and over again.” After being rejected, he once again approached the director of the marketing department and submitted a printout of a web page he had simulated designed. to each other. In this way, Robert got the opportunity to be an intern in the marketing department, and, more importantly, he was not assigned to do "manual work", but specifically assisted in web design work.
Robert's internship experience became the answer to an open question when he applied for P&G's online application, proving how he set a demanding goal and then see it through. Currently, he is working for Procter & Gamble, and together with many colleagues, he is trying to transform PG.com into a marketing tool that integrates marketing, research, e-commerce and customer service.
4. Why don’t most companies even want cheap labor that is “sent to their doorstep”?
Many college students have said: "I don't want money, I just want an internship opportunity that will allow me to realize my first transition from student to society!" However, most companies still treat interns poorly. Some company leaders even said: "Interns are not only useless, but also cause trouble!" So, why is this?
In fact, the root cause of this phenomenon still lies with the college students themselves. During their internship, they have the following fatal problems:
(1) Failure to achieve high standards. Each line of work has its own professionalism, which cannot be learned in a day or two. It is impossible for companies to leave very important tasks to interns.
(2) Unable to settle down. Many college students say: I don’t care about the nature of the job, even if I am asked to serve tea and water! However, when you serve tea for three days in a row, you will unconsciously show the aggrieved look of "a little daughter-in-law serving the parents-in-law", and this look makes anyone feel uncomfortable and feels that they have abused you, so they might as well serve the tea themselves. Forget it, or I wish you could end your internship as soon as possible and find another job.
(3) I really want to learn something! College students come with eagerness and enthusiasm. They not only want to learn "macro" knowledge, but also want to understand "micro" operations. People who want to be HR in the future want to experience the company's talent selection process first-hand, and people who want to be in marketing want to personally participate in negotiations with the media and public relations companies. Everyone wants to do something "very challenging." Not only is it impossible for interns to participate in these, but even in the normal operation of the company, such "big events" do not happen every week. In the 90s, the company was in a state of "detailed operations", and people in the HR department spent every day doing trivial matters: updating employee contact information, applying for four-month bonus and other procedures, onboarding new employees, etc. However, even this "micro" operation cannot be entrusted to interns. What can be safely left to the interns are chores such as copying, filling out forms, and organizing documents. Such chores can hardly satisfy the interns' desire to "learn something." Over time, they will naturally feel resentful and feel despised.
At the same time, departments that use interns will feel uneasy about their conscience and simply stop using interns in the future! Of course, there are some objective reasons that prevent companies from recruiting interns:
(1) No office space. The limitation of office space makes it impossible for many units to use interns even if they want to. Most companies are a mess, and it is difficult to find free space. The author himself once had such an embarrassing experience: every day, when the intern from the department arrived, the most embarrassing thing for me was to find him standing outside the door with a slight grievance, waiting for me to find him a table to sit down at. . When I am too busy to take care of him, I feel very guilty. Most interns are timid and unfamiliar with other employees, so it is impossible for them to casually find an empty seat and settle down. Because of this embarrassing experience, our department only recruited summer interns once and never dared to think about it again!
(2) Even if there is a desk, computer and network interface, it is not enough! When the author was the director of the Listening and Speaking Department of Guangzhou New Oriental, I recruited four college students as teaching assistant interns. Among them, one intern named Xiaoliang left a deep impression on me. Due to his outstanding performance, I once recommended him to go to a US pharmaceutical company to do sales, but I finally gave up because of the issue of headhunting fees. I have always regretted this. Fortunately, the boy finally entered GlobalMarketing based on his own ability and got a good job.
Now, let’s share some details of Xiaoliang’s experience as an intern:
(1) Take the initiative to build relationships with other people in the office, rather than just facing people in your own team personnel. I remember that on the first day of his internship in the office, he took the initiative to introduce himself to the colleagues next to me during lunch and told everyone that they could leave chores such as copying to him. In this way, he was no longer as timid as an outsider, but had a sense of belonging. When there is no seat for him to sit, some colleagues will ask him to sit in his seat when he is out!
(2) Will settle down. Every time he comes to the office, he will first look for an empty seat, and then ask me if he can sit there (because there are employees on business trips or vacations, there must be empty seats). If not, he will go to the tea room to settle down. Moreover, he carries his laptop and a power strip with him every day! After reading this, many students may think I am exaggerating: Doesn’t the company even provide a power strip? It's true, you can't just find a power strip in any company I've worked for. Unless your power strip is suddenly scrapped, it is impossible for you to get an additional power strip. Even if you really need it, you have to apply for and approve it. You will definitely not get it within two or three days!
(3) Take the initiative to find work. There are three types of interns. The first type is those who complete the tasks assigned by the leader and are "waiting for work"; the second type is more proactive and will ask: "Boss, is there any work you need me to do?" and the third type is more proactive. The third type of intern will directly discover what work he can do well. He will say: "Boss, these books are very messy. Let me sort them out and put them in order by category. When can I sort them out?" Will it disturb your work? "
5. Can't find any internship unit? You can be "brought in by the master"
If you can't find any company to accept you as an intern, you can carefully search your "connections" list and think about who can point you in the right direction. A path that tells you how to prepare for employment in your senior year.
When I was a teacher at New Oriental, I helped many people "point the way." The reason was not because I was smart, but because age brings experience, and experience brings wisdom. I believe that if you carefully take stock of the people you know, you will definitely think of a person whose career development is relatively smooth. Then, no matter what industry he is engaged in, you can go and talk to him and pour out your confusion. Listen to the experience of those who have been there.
If you are lucky, you are likely to find a master who is willing to "show you in"; even if your friend is engaged in an industry that is completely impossible for you to engage in, he may still introduce you to other friends of his.
Of course, when you are looking for a "master to lead you through the door", one thing I have to mention is, don't forget the ancient saying "If you want to take something, you must first give it to it". Think about what you can do for it. What does the other party do? Please do not doubt the utilitarianism of this society. This is just a simple principle of life: help each other. Maybe you can't "help" the other person materially. You can sincerely care about the other person and provide some small services in exchange for others' help to you. If you think this is "snobbish", then the simplest way is to "self-help". You can work hard to train your abilities. When your strength reaches a certain level, good jobs will knock on your door. .
Of course, it is not easy to find a "master" who is willing and able to support you. In fact, you do not necessarily need the support of others. You can quietly approach the person you want to be, observe him, and imitate him. What he did, in this way, you can slowly accumulate your own experience and gradually become the same person, just like a wise saying in English: You are the average of the five you spend most of your time with. " means, more importantly, it encourages people to get close to the people they admire, because, in this way, you are most likely to become the same person.
When I was teaching at New Oriental in Beijing, I had a colleague who transformed from a "New Oriental student" to a "New Oriental teacher." After failing to apply for a job as a teacher at New Oriental, she enrolled in the advanced course at Beijing New Oriental Practical English College, which lasted one year. During this year, he summarized the teaching characteristics of all outstanding teachers, and imitated and innovated after class. In this way, a year later, she was hired to teach at the school.
6. Can't find "Master"? "Practice is personal"
If you want to be a teacher after graduation, you may easily find someone to observe and imitate, because teachers are in the public eye. However, if you want to do IT technical support or public relations planning after graduation, it may not be so easy to find a "master". Then, you can only "cultivate yourself personally" and become successful through self-study.
If you want to be in sales when you graduate from college, you need to hone your sales skills. You can open a small online store on Taobao, go to the wholesale market to buy some cheap clothes, or do Amway direct sales. In essence, IBM's sales and Amway's sales are doing the same job: convincing others to buy when others have or have no desire to buy! If you want to do marketing planning after graduation, have you ever thought that you can first help with a promotion case for the small restaurant downstairs in your home? If you feel "you have no idea where to start," then how can you convince a big company to let you do planning in the future?
My college classmate Xiaoyan worked in a state agency after graduation, but he always wanted to do brand promotion, so he always paid attention to product packaging in his life, because he felt that product packaging is the most important form of promotion. , which is much more realistic than placing a large number of ads. When he visits our house, he always pays attention to what brand of laundry detergent we buy and why we choose this brand. Everyone in my family became a subject of his research. Once, this conversation happened at our house:
Xiaoyan: Auntie, why did you buy this Panda brand washing powder?
My mother: Oh? Did I buy the Panda brand? I don't know.
Xiaoyan: Huh? Then why did you buy this brand?
My mom: When I buy washing powder, I don’t look at the brand. I just buy whichever one is cheaper.
Xiao Yan: However, Panda brand laundry detergent is not cheap. There are many brands that are cheaper than it. Didn’t you see it?
My mom: Oh, I usually don’t wear reading glasses when I go out to buy things. Sometimes I can’t see which one is cheaper. However, there is a big yellow box on this bag with numbers circled inside. Very large: 3.5, I think, three and a half yuan is not expensive, and the large yellow box indicates that it is on sale, so I took two bags.
Xiaoyan: That’s it!
As mentioned above, Xiaoyan continued to train himself in life, and soon he found a job as a brand assistant based on his experience in "cultivation". Ten years have passed and Xiaoyan is already the brand manager of a famous daily chemical company.
I have a student friend, Xingzi, who graduated from a private college and majored in law. Obviously, a college student majoring in law does not have any advantage in the job competition. He did not do any part-time jobs during college. However, as soon as he graduated, he was recruited by a Hong Kong-funded real estate company as a sales manager, responsible for selling villas and high-end apartments. Real estate to Hong Kong and Taiwanese. The reason is simple. During his studies in college, Xingzi not only mastered relevant legal knowledge, but also studied "Feng Shui" and the Book of Changes. In his job application materials, he detailed how he would use these two knowledges to persuade his clients to buy real estate! There is no doubt that Xingzi's interview must be much easier than others. This lovely Xingzi insisted on coming to my rented house to check out the Feng Shui for me for free. It was hard to refuse the kindness, so I took Xingzi to visit my small house. My house is not bad, the only drawback is that there must be a desk in the bathroom! He said: The only place in our house that faces Wenquxing is by the window of the bathroom. If I put a small table here, my daughter will probably achieve success in her studies in the future.
To this day, there is still a small desk strangely crowded in the bathroom of our house. Whenever my 5-year-old daughter asks me why I put a desk in the bathroom, I always tell her that mommy likes to read, so there needs to be a desk everywhere.
You decide on your internship. You must cherish your internship opportunities, accumulate your own strength, and lay the first brick of your career pyramid.
5. Certification: "Cold thinking" on the craze for certification
College students have to take many certificates: English Band 4, English Band 6, Computer Level 2, Intermediate Programmer, OFFICE certification , Intermediate Business English, Advanced Business English, CGA, CPA, ACCA...
There are always students asking me whether the certificate is useful, and my answer is always the same: "Of course it is!" However, I will also use the same certificate again. Ask him instead: "How much time did you spend taking the exam? If you didn't take the exam, what would you do with this time?" The biggest investment in the exam is not money, but the most precious time of college students.
It's a pity that many college students don't realize the scarcity of time. They feel that even if they don't take the exam, it's a waste of time. It's better to be a promising young man, study hard, and get the certificate every day!
Faced with the craze for certification, we should conduct the following "cold thinking" on its "hot causes":
Hot cause one: It is better to have a skill in mind than to have a lot of money in hand, and the certificate represents My skills!
Thoughts: There are many people with certificates but no "skills"! According to the author's teaching and consulting experience, at least sixty-seven out of ten applicants who have a CET-6 certificate but absolutely cannot pass the English interview, let alone a CET-4 certificate! What English skills are most needed in the workplace? It is enough to be able to listen and speak. It is definitely not a high requirement, but why do most students only rush to New Oriental in panic in the second semester of their junior year: "Teacher, how can I improve my listening and speaking skills in a short time?" Dizzy!
Rein 2: He has a certificate but I don’t. The recruiter must be very fond of him!
Cool thoughts: Have you ever seen on the headline of a recruitment notice: "Must have XX certificate"? As long as the XX certificate is not mentioned in the recruitment notice, then the XX certificate will not put you at a disadvantage! Some majors require certificates, such as CPA for accountants. However, many employers recruiting technical personnel are not interested in so-called many certificates. He only cares about one thing: whether you have done relevant projects. The recruitment principle is very simple, that is, "give me what I want, instead of having to use a bunch of certificates to prove your ability in disguise." List one or two on your resume A decent project that can be described clearly in the introduction (even though you are probably just a handyman for this project) will, to a certain extent, attract the recruiter's attention more than a professional certificate.
Reason three: With the pressure of examination, you will be motivated to study. Feeling sleepy and tired, come and check it out!
Thoughts: First of all, I must make sure you are a promising young man! However, the motivation for college students should not be to obtain a certificate, but how to equip themselves with more and more profound workplace martial arts skills. For example, how to practice how to speak in public? How to dress yourself up to look pleasing to the eye instead of looking like Einstein? Have you neglected more important job preparation because of exams? For example, work a few part-time jobs to determine your future career interests, and attend more job fairs and trade fairs to learn about industry trends that interest you, etc.
We hope that our cold thinking will make you stop and think about it, is my time worth spending? Have I learned the skills the recruiter needs?
I hope that after seeing this post, my friends will not just look at it, but take action! Hard work without action = 0.
Do it, truly find your career direction, and find a career that matches your abilities and interests!
My friends, there is only one step from confusion to enlightenment!
Come on, friends! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !