How to Actually Get a Job Early

By: Alena You

Getting early work experience is the key to landing an entry-level job when you graduate from school! It is oftentimes more important than what you have struggled through or learned in school. Something nice about getting work experience is it does not require you to stay up late studying at a library until 2 AM like school does. With that said, I am not disregarding the importance of school because it is very important to learn how to learn and the knowledge you learn in school can also be useful to you. However, getting work experience will help you improve important skill sets such as operations, time management, communication, and more. Getting an early internship is not hard to do if you are consistent and develop good networking skills. Here are some ways to find jobs or internships early.

Ask Faculty or Friends from School

One way to receive a job or an internship is from friends or faculty from the school. For example, I got one of my previous jobs through my basketball coach. It was a job at a local gym helping out with ticketing for school events. For my next job, I found out about an internship opportunity from my friend who was working at a local radio station while talking to her one day. You never know what opportunities you can find through networking. Seeking opportunities from people you know is a great strategy because it is a lot easier to get a job when you have a referral..

School Career Pages and Forum

One of the best ways to access early jobs and internships is through your local school career page or Facebook page. This allows you to have digital access to anyone who is hiring and also looking for job opportunities. Direct Messaging on Facebook is fast and easy to use. The faster you reply to a job posting, the better chances you can have. Usually, you would have direct access to start a conversation with the person who posted the job or even the manager. Do not overlook this method because it can help students identify where the opportunities are as soon as they are posted.

Online Job Sites (If you are a college student)

If you are a college student, another great way to find jobs or internships is through online job sites, like LinkedIn or Indeed. While it might be a while until you are looking for a full-time job, there are a lot of part-time options on those websites as well. Uploading your resume is all you need to get started. From there, you can filter out the jobs specifically to “Part-time”. You can filter out by industry, days posted, type of work and more. Before applying, make sure to read the description to see if you meet the qualifications and to see if the role really suits you. This is a great method as well because you have access to many job postings and are able to filter out jobs that you do not want.

Goodluck on your job search!

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