Ron’s Corner: Building Your Bridge: College to Career

EXP Board Member and Alumni and Young Adult Committee Chair Ron Roberts, Jr. is a self-labeled “Career & College Planning Partner,” drawing on more than 16 years as a college career advisor, corporate recruiter, and youth nonprofit consultant. Learn more about Ron on his website, Career Intelligence for Young Leaders, and connect with him on LinkedIn.

Making the transition from college to the world of full-time work can be filled with challenges. Whether you are still in college or have recently graduated, below are 5 steps to help you build a bridge over these challenges in your college to career journey.

Step #1: Build with Career Center Support

Your college career center can prepare you for the world of work in so many different ways. From developing a resume to networking with employers to coming up with job search strategies to preparing for interviews, your career center can be a very valuable resource. Your career center can also be a tremendous resource beyond your college experience as many centers provide support to alumni.

Step #2: Build with Knowledge of Your Value

Knowing the value that you can offer employers will help you to be a more marketable and confident candidate. The following are 6 ways that you can potentially benefit an employer: 1) your college education; 2) your abilities/skills (natural or with some training); 3) your unique body of knowledge; 4) your positive personality traits; 5) your experiences (what has shaped you); and 6) your value system (what's important to you, and how it aligns with your target employer). 

Step #3: Build with Value that Employers Invest In

Once you have determined the value that you can offer employers, the next step is to understand the qualities that your target employer values in candidates. Some examples of qualities that employers desire in candidates are teamwork, initiative, a strong work ethic, an appetite to learn, and strong communication skills. If you have an understanding of the types of qualities that employers will invest time and ultimately money in, it will be easier for you to know and communicate if you are a good match with that employer.

Step #4: Build with Value Sharing Opportunities

There are a number of opportunities to share your value with employers (and others) while you are in college and beyond college: your resume, elevator pitches, networking events, student organization involvement, interviews and internships. Actively leveraging these opportunities to demonstrate your value will build your bridge to a good job after college.

Step #5: Build with Career Conversations

A terrific way to identify and prepare for a career that will fit you is to have career discovery conversations with people who are doing the kind of work that you would like to do, and working at places that you would like to work. This practice is called informational interviewing and can yield you deep career insights, expand your professional network and position you for potential employment opportunities. Simply identify people of interest through the network you already have (family, friends, professors, etc) and schedule a 20-30 minute conversation (phone, Zoom, in-person) to ask questions about an individual's job/career and or company. The information that you gather and the professional network that you develop through these conversations will help bridge you to your target career and company.