First Job, What to Do?
Posted in New Jobs & First Jobs
Your first job can establish your career path and set your future career trajectory. The below advice, strategies, and exercises should be helpful in making one of the most important decisions of your life.
You will have first to determine your interests and skills; it's time to do some heavy-duty research. (Don't lose sight of the fact that your ability to do efficient, productive research in your quest for employment is the direct result of the skills you gained in your liberal arts degree!) Figure out what job descriptions match your skills and passions.
Determine your long-term and short-term career goals. The Occupational Outlook Handbook and the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, as well as many other job search books can be quite helpful. Don't forget to look into jobs in the non-profit sector.
The next step is reconciling your self-assessment and research with the job market. You may not find a perfect match, but with some creativity you should at least be able to find a job that will put you on the right track or help you gain the skills you will need to achieve your long-term goal.
Since you've targeted some potential employers, it's time to market yourself. When you put together your cover letter and resume, tailor them to the company's mission. Think about how the skills you learned in that Shakespeare class apply to your chosen line of work.
For example, in journalism, the fact you crafted an excellent academic research paper on animal imagery in Taming of the Shrew translates to an ability to write and report a story. In management consulting, your class presentation about madness in Hamlet translates to upper-level presentation and organization skills.
Also, in marketing yourself to employers, use language appropriate to the field in which the company works. It's important to come across as someone with a vision for your future as well as specific, immediate ambitions.
Convey an understanding of the broad goals of the company as well as specific ideas of how you will contribute and better the company. Remember that while your first job probably won't match your long-term career goal, it is a stepping stone, the first step on a path toward your dreams.
You have to determining your skills
The first step is not to think of yourself in terms of your specific degree. Companies often do not hire students because of their specific degrees - instead they use job applicants' skills as criteria for filling positions.
So, instead of asking, "What are good jobs for Romance Languages majors?" ask, "What are my passions and strengths? What skills do I have? What do I want to be doing in my job?"
The first step in responding to these questions is to honestly address what you love to do. What fascinates you? What do you find compelling and fulfilling? Once you've answered these questions, address what skills you can bring to the work place.
Your first response may be that after four years of college, your skills amount to doing close readings of King Lear and analyzing the socioeconomic implications of the Kennedy administration.
However, according to Phyllis R. Stein, a career coach in the Boston area, liberal arts majors tend to have a lot of skills they don't even know they have. "It's not just that you took a Shakespeare class," Stein says. Instead, she explains, in that Shakespeare class you honed your researching skills, you learned to make coherent presentations, and you refined your ability to organize your thoughts in writing.
Stein adds that liberal arts majors generally have excellent administrative and management skills. They write well, they can think critically, they can analyze problems, and they can communicate well with co-workers. Liberal arts majors can work simultaneously with big picture concepts, and with the small details that fit into these large visions. They are also, she says, adept at adapting to the vocabulary of different occupational fields.
For example, the jargon of marketing, law, and accounting is such that different words in each field often have similar definitions. Liberal arts majors are good at achieving fluency in many different occupational languages, simply by virtue of spending their undergraduate careers using terminology specific to English, philosophy, and history. This versatility is helpful to liberal arts majors as they tailor their resumes and job applications to prospective employers.
Also, when you assess your skills, don't forget the skills you gained from doing volunteer and extra-curricular work.
