5 Simple Steps to Take Now to be Ready for the Job Search

As a student, you’re understandably focused on grades and trudging through classes your not even sure why you have to take them. The problem is that your university might also only be concerned with your grades and not your post-graduation success.

The number one thing that people looking for their first environmental career tell me is that they don’t feel qualified to work, even in the entry-level jobs they are applying to. It's also very common for recent grads to turn to coaching after the pressure to get a job increases or they’ve gotten a job only to discover it isn’t going to lead to their dream career and there is a lot more paper pushing than they had expected. The best thing you can do for yourself while you are still in school and to make sure to protect the investment you’ve made in time, energy, and money to get that degree is to start figuring things out now!

Here are five simple things you can do before you graduate to ensure that you are ready for the highly competitive world that is environmental career searching.

1. Make the most of the career services that are available to you as a student. Find out beforehand, if those resources will still be available to you after you graduate.
2. Find out if the career advice is specific to the environmental and sustainability fields or if they are general. If they are general you should consider doing your own research or hiring a coach. In a liberal arts school, the advice often covers everything from marketing degrees to environmental studies, two very different industries with different tactics for developing your career path.
3. Start building your environmental leadership skills now. Join environmental student groups and seek to be on the leadership panel or board.
4. Subscribe to environmental news. This will help you to not only be knowledgeable about the types of careers available to you but will help you to have networking conversations.
5. Learn about the types of jobs your degree is suited for and then find ways to discover what the best fit for you is. For example, if you think you’d like to be a park ranger find a volunteer park ranger job, ask to shadow someone for a day doing a job, or have a conversation with someone via LinkedIn.

A lot of people tend to jump straight into applying which is understandably overwhelming as a student, you don't know what exactly to put on a resume, aren't sure you can commit to a job now if you got an offer, and you can't even say that you have the degree yet. Start with these prep items and you'll be a lot closer to being prepared to start applying for jobs. 

If you want more help knowing how to build a strategy for transitioning into the job search check out the Job Search Expectations Webinar.

Stay gold!
-Laura