myUsearch List of College Advice
I am one of the co-founders of myUsearch and I graduated from the University of Colorado- Boulder in 2003. If I would have read this before I went to school, I would have saved myself a lot of pain and heartache.
1) Internships, Internships, Internships. If you don’t know this already, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. I spent four and a half years studying so hard that I didn’t have any time to find an internship until my senior year. By the time I graduated, I had a great GPA and my professors loved me, but the guy who slept through all of my classes had more job offers than me. My professors hated him, but he had a bunch of really good internships, made a bunch of contacts and is now making a boat load of money. I just had a nice peice of paper with a GPA that no employer ever asked about.
2) Learn a skill you can’t learn on your own. In my post about choosing a major, I mention a lot of this, but I really regret not learning some more skills that I couldn’t have learned on my own. I especially recommend accounting and technology (internet and video related are the best) classes because they will look great on your resume and help you no matter what you do. Once you graduate, you probably won’t have the money or time to learn these things.
3) Take advantage of every opportunity to make connections. I cannot emphasize this enough: It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. There are a ton of opportunities to make connections on campus and you shouldn’t take them for granted. Introduce yourself to experts presenting on campus. Use group projects to approach companies you would like to work with. Join clubs that will introduce you to the types of people you may want to work with. People are almost always willing to talk to enthusiastic students, because frankly, they are hard to come by. And lastly, don’t overlook the potential of your classmates. This might sound sneaky, but friends with powerful parents are worth their weight in gold.
4) Listen to your elders: If you are like I was, you probably think you know everything and your parents know nothing. Sometimes, that might be true, but you should at least keep an open mind. If I would have listened to my dad, I would have been a lot better off.
5) Have fun: What other time in your life will you be around thousands of people your age and have the flexibility and free time of college? Don’t get me wrong, you need to make sure that you go to class and do what you need to do, but find some time to have fun.
