Empowering Your Career

In an ever-developing world filled with thousands of students studying something similar to, if not exactly as your major, it can be hard to stand out; however, who is to say you cannot get a head-start on your career without any prior experience? The following tips will help you become more mentally prepared for a striving career!

Be Confident in Your Failures

There is a reason this has been repeated at almost every motivational speech. If you do not try, you “lose” by default. Everyone is afraid of failure. The fear of failure is every time your heart skips a beat before a presentation, every time your throat closes up when you are about to speak in class, or every time you turn in your test, but, guess what? If you do not push yourself enough to be afraid, you are doing it wrong. Fear is good. Failure is good. The more afraid you are, the more you wil prepare, and the better you will feel when you FINALLY do it, so instead of giving in to this fear, accept it with confidence. Tell yourself: “I will do this. I might fail, and that is okay.” Once you get rid of your fear to fail, you will never hold yourself back again.

You can do this. All you have to do is try.

Photo courtesy of Pixnio

Dream Big

If you do not have a vision, you do not have a path. The first step is to have an enormous dream or goal. One that scares and excites your very bones. If you do not have it, then there is no path to follow. Once you have it, it is about splitting it into tiny “doable” pieces and work up to it. It does not stop there. This is the trick: consistency. People may tell you to dream big, but quite frankly, anyone can dream. It is the hard, consistent work that matters. Dream and work, and you will find yourself climbing heights you have never imagined before.

Photo courtesy of Pixnio

Network

People can help you get your foot in the door, so you can shove your way in afterwards! It does not matter how bad you are at names or faces, there are tricks to help you with that. I met a career counselor that would make index cards with people’s names, contact information, and sneakily take a picture of them to post. Is this recommended? No, but if you do find any image of them online, feel free to use this technique, too! People will often give you the tools or information you need if you are bold enough to ask. Think of it this way, if you get two free concert tickets, chances are you will pick someone you know to go with you rather than give them to a stranger. This happens everywhere. An employer might reach out to you first if they are close to you, and same thing happens with leadership positions in student organizations, or any internship position. 

Photo courtesy of BizDate

Be confident! You can do anything!