How to Get a Job Before You Graduate

1. If you do not have a job offer before receiving your diploma in your senior year, you are not qualified for employment. You should attend graduate school immediately and focus on developing maturity and skills, while also obtaining relevant licenses and certificates. Taking a year off from college looks absolutely horrible on a resume. Not working while in college also looks terrible, as you will have a resume with four or more years of being unemployed!
2. Stop using pencils, pens, or drawing tablets for homework. It is fine to use those tools for notetaking in class and exam preparation, but when you do your homework, focus on using Microsoft Word to create professional documents. YOU WILL NEVER GET AN INTERVIEW without 3+ years of Microsoft Office experience. LaTeX is not a skill, Google Docs is not a skill, third-party crap on the internet is not a skill. Microsoft Tools are required for every company on the planet.
3. Working: You need work experience. Side hustles do not add to the resume. Sacrifice luxury while you are young so you can have it for the rest of your life. Start any job you can over the summer to get a W2 for work experience. Then, move to internships in the second year. You have to have work experience before graduating. And you can’t get related work experience without having some type of experience already. Do not think you are too good for a job at Chipotle or something. A few months of recorded work experience from a W2 can be the difference between getting an internship.
4. Skill building: Every time you do anything in college, you should think, “Will this add to my resume?” Start building a resume via WordPress. This way you can add WordPress, HTML, SQL, JavaScript, …, to your resume and get a professional website-resume in the process. Don’t use LinkedIn or other social media scams.
5. Certificates and licenses: Most companies require multiple certificates and or licenses. You do this over the summer. You don’t sit around playing video games, adding “unemployed” to your resume all summer. You are going to be working 10+ hours a day, 5-6 days a week, for the rest of your F*CKING LIFE! Get used to it now!
6. Resume building starts in the first year. Work experience, skill building, licenses, and certificates start in summer one and during semester 2.

Summarize

First semester – get your feet wet and stabilize your study and routine. Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8 am-8 pm, dedicated to study and mental/physical health. Saturday is your day off—relax. Sunday, sleep in and prepare for the week. It is a simple schedule most adults follow. Sixteen weeks, twice a year, for 4 years is nothing! You are not missing out on anything. The only thing people regret about college later on is not working harder because their job sucks and the pay sucks. “Get with the program now or forever hold your diploma.”