Fresh Grad? Tired of "Resting?" Maybe it's time to STRATEGIZE!

|You’re a fresh grad, and you’re raring to get that job you’ve been working so hard for, through getting great grades in school. You’ve dreamed of this moment for so long, and now, months after school, you’re done with living the life and just resting, and you’re ready to go get a job.

Your mom breathes a sigh of relief when you declare that you’re going out to hunt for a job.

But you don’t know where to start.

There is no 3-step recipe that could get you that job you’ve always wanted, but tips like mine could help you figure out how to strategize and plan for your jobhunt.

Okay, breathe. I'm about to dish on how to plan and strategize for your job. So if you're ready, click "READ MORE"!!!|
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|The first thing you need to do is to: identify what you want.

Do you want just a job to tide you over, to pay the bills, to have fun in for a while, while you wait for a passport to elsewhere, or for you to learn something while you wait to inherit your family’s business?

Or are you building a career for yourself?

A job is essentially different from a career in that a job is just that: a work that is the end in itself. A career, on the other hand, is a series of jobs that you want to take hold of, leading to what you want to ultimately learn in the long run, and leading to that final goal that you have in mind, before you retire.

So when you graduate, in those months wherein you are still trying to find out what you want to do in life, think about the answers to these questions, and you fill be able to map out what you want to do with yourself:

1. 1. What do you want to remember most fondly as you retire? What would you want to be most known for? What purpose do you think you were made for?
2. 2. What job, occupation, or line of work will enable you to get there? What steps could you take to get to that ultimate end goal?
3. 3. What character traits, skills, or learnings should you gather, to serve your core purpose?

When you’ve found some rather clear answers to these questions, it’s time to start forming your career.

1. 1. Create a logical path towards your end goal.
2. 2. Go on an online search for the jobs you could consider, as your starting point.
3. 3. Create a resumé highlighting the traits and skills that would make you more likely to be considered for the job you want to go out for.
4. 4. Go get ‘em, tiger!

If you want a concrete illustration of this, let’s say I’m a fresh Creative Writing graduate and I want to die a famous novelist (not my true course, nor true goal, btw, heheh. :p).

So we put that goal on Tier 1.

Tier 1. Novelist.

How do you get from Fresh Creative Writing Grad to Novelist?

Let’s have a couple of quick goals.

1. Goal 1 - Deadline: By the end of 2 years: Get to the point of writing at top speed, with supreme flair for the words.

2. Goal 2 - Deadline: By the end of 5 years: Build a name for myself and get people to recognize my name or pseudonym, and associate it with a certain style of writing.

3. Goal 3 - Deadline: By the end of 7 years: Get the right contacts, so I can start writing that novel and get my own book published.

Then I would identify my Tier 2 and Tier 3.

Tier 2 is whatever is a prerequisite to my achieving Tier 1. Tier 3 is my problem (and YOUR) problem right now: getting a job to achieve my short term goals.

For this hypothetical strategy, my Tiers 2 and 3 would be:

Tier 2. Become a Famous Newspaper/Magazine Writer.
Tier 3. Be the fastest and most sought-after writer, even though I won't be famous yet.

As I've already identified the overview of my plan, I'll set aside Tiers 1 and 2, and focus on my right-now problem. I will have to answer the question: "What occupations could hone my writing skill?"

The answer to this question would serve the Tier 3 core goal.

Occupations identified: SEO Writer, Professional blogger, copywriter, news reporter, lifestyle writer.

I would then narrow down the choices by what skill I should really learn first.

I’m going for SEO Writer, because the quotas and the pressure would force me to get the hang of writing within the least amount of time.

I’m going to go at that game for, at the maximum, a year. Six months would be best, because anyone who’s been writing for SEO has recognized how tiring it actually gets. :)

Then when I feel like it’s about time to start building my name, while getting to still practice writing at top speed, I’ll go for being either an ad agency copywriter, or a news reporter who passes in perfect copy.

Just an aside: Mind you, I’ve applied to one major daily for my country, and you know what... Some of their reporters pass in the most atrocious copy. So if you’re like me, who’s positioned herself in the writing field, you better aim for passing the most excellent copy you could, in record time.

Back to my creation of a strategy for my career.

I'll consider the traits of each job that would get me to where I want to be. An Ad Agency copywriter actually needs to pass great, sales-pulling copy in record time, while a newspaper writer needs to pass accurate, fact-filled and objective copy in record time.

A novelist needs to be able to sell him/herself to the public, so a sales bent would be great.

A newspaper reporter, however, gets an adrenalin-driven job and some kick-butt training in getting the facts straight.

I like adventure, so there’s a dilemma there. Let’s say I’ve put in around a year in SEO writing, so I’m ready for the next step, but I’d rather have fun first.

I could go at it logically: get the ad agency job first, stick at it for another year to two years, then get the name-pulling job, like in a magazine or on the daily news staff.

OR, I could be a news reporter for around 6 months, make the best friends while I’m there, then I’m going to go for the ad agency for around a year or two, then I’m going back to the newspaper/media industry after, but in a less stressful AND ideally, more influential position.

Over those years, I’d be gathering contacts, friends, and network with the right people who could get me the leverage I need to build a name for myself.

All through those years, I will have to take the stance of being a great friend, a joy to be around, generous to people, and glad to just make friends.

True friends would be there when you need them, and they are willing to help out people in a mutually beneficial arrangement. Try to burn the least, to zero, bridges, if possible, because in the future, if you’ve left unhealed wounds in other people, not only would you have a hate squad lined up against you, but it’s also baggage you won’t want to be saddled with.

On the whole, I wasn’t so mercenary with my career, as I suggest here. All I know was that back in college, I knew the power of the Internet, and I knew I should be earning off it.

In due time, I got my first job, but I left it, for ethical considerations. You see, it was a job making academic papers for lazy American students. Heheh.

When I was done, I decided to concentrate on school for a while, but economic considerations made me want to get another job. And it was my first initiation into the true moneymaking potential of the Internet: I had worked for an Internet Marketing specialist.

Today, I’m working for another Internet Marketing expert, and I’m enjoying the job. I’m not aiming to work at my career the way I described here, in terms of the details. This is just an example of how to strategize for one's career path. I may be considering applying to local dailies for exposure in the future, but as it is, I’m just working on my character traits, especially being faithful at a job and to a boss. :)

I had patterned this paradigm upon my own 10-year plan for my life. I'm a Psychology graduate, but I aim to become a church planter. So while God is still developing my character, I'm working on building a system wherein I would be earning more than enough for my own needs, as well as be able to give to people and the ministries I aim to support.

So my model is actually:

Tier 1: Become a missionary/church planter
Tier 2: Create a self-supporting business/income system
Tier 3: Get jobs that would propel me to Tier 2, to serve Tier 1.

:)

I hope you'll get the HEART of what I'm saying about strategizing for your career. I'm not saying that being a writer is the be-all and end-all of it. For all you know, you may be set apart for another purpose. As it is, this is the best model I know of, to illustrate my thoughts to you.

If you have questions, just leave your email on the comments area, and I'll try to answer them the best way I could.

Blessings!

Next week: I’m writing about how to further customize this process for YOU. Also, I would be putting out an article about creating the resumé and portfolio that is sure to wow your prospective bosses, as well as how to get a job and keep it. Blessings! :)|