Four Reasons Not to Relax After Graduation

This is a guest post from Sandy Demarest of Demarest Career Directions.

If you are one of the people who recently walked up to a podium and received the diploma that renders you an alumna or alumnus, rather than a student, you’ve probably sent out hundreds of resumes over the past semester. If you are lucky, you may have gotten a response. If you got a job you may have a guardian angel you don’t know about.

So what’s the plan?

Should you succumb to the pressure — surely mounting on all sides — to take it easy and relax after a grueling few years of term papers and unwanted requirements? After all, you might as well relax; you aren’t likely to have the opportunity to take a summer off again. And there aren’t any jobs anyway.

You do need to get a move-on. Try to file away the inquiries from concerned relatives about your job hunt as background noise, but you do need a plan, and I don’t mean applying for summer jobs flipping burgers.

Get an internship now while you pursue full-time employment.

Internships After Graduation

Seriously, you ask, an internship after graduating?!

Here are the four major reasons you ought to try this two-pronged approach:

1. It’ll make your resume more robust.
   Blindly emailing out resumes is a series of shots in the dark, but maybe one of the reasons no one got back to you was because your resume lacked the essential skills employers in your field seek. An internship will help enhance the basic skills you already have.

2. It’ll grow your personal and professional networks.
   No offense, but with very few exceptions, recent graduates have limited networks. It’s not that you aren’t worth meeting, but you are just at the start of your career. Internships will introduce you to new people. Let them get to know you and your work. Then, ask for introductions and recommendations.

3. Work experience shows initiative.
   If you make an honest effort to land a job, you will impress potential employers far more than a candidate would who has done nothing but play video games, “hung out”, or “caught up on sleep” since graduation.

4. Internships have a way of turning into full-time employment.
   This one is the clincher. It doesn’t happen always, or even most of the time. But in some instances, employers treat internships as trial runs for full-time positions. While your employers are trying you out, it’s not a bad idea for you to do your own sleuth work about the company and its culture. You will be building confidence before committing to full-time employment.

So, forget the excuses. Cancel your Netflix account. Get off the couch, get out there and find an internship. You have four reasons to inspire you now.

For 25 years Sandy has worked in non-profit management, education and career development. In each role, her mission has been to help people move forward in a positive way. Her philosophy is that one really needs to know who they are, what they value and what they want their life to look like as they transition to a new career. In 2009 Sandy become certified as a career coach and opened the doors of Demarest Career Directions. She has used her background, experience and positive energy to help clients successfully navigate their path of career transition.