Next Move, Best Move

Chapter 7Building Your Career Strategy

Career Affirmation: I am building a successful career strategy to support my goals.

Seasons do not end when you're finished with traditional schooling. The average professional with a collegiate degree has spent 16 to 20 years in some form of traditional schooling, which means adhering to the cycle of fall, winter break, spring, and summer break – rinse and repeat, year after year – a pattern we've learned to accept. Before we enter the workforce, we receive more “insider information” through the syllabus that each professor provides at the beginning of the semester. The syllabus shares exactly what is needed to pass the class successfully. If you follow the syllabus, plan to study, and submit your assignments on time, you should earn a good grade. If you ignore the syllabus and allow it to lay crumpled at the bottom of your bag with leftover chip crumbs and gum wrappers, the entire semester will feel like an awful surprise, and it will be extremely hard to do well. As that last year of college comes faster than you would have ever imagined, intense conversations arise about “getting the job.”  The consulting, finance, and big‐tech students get offer letters before Thanksgiving (or earlier) due to how the recruiting season works at big banks, technology, and consulting firms. The remainder of the student population does its best to secure placement before graduation in May.

Meanwhile, your parents have been happily and excitedly talking ...