Four years never seems like enough time to accumulate an adequate amount of experience to be considered for jobs you want. While you juggle essays, group projects, part-time jobs, social life, and downtime, you’re still expected to use whatever is left to add relevant experience for your future career. And while sometimes these things do overlap, the chance of an employer hiring you based on a Plato powerpoint you did your sophomore year is hopeful, but slim.
You know the drive is there! You’re passionate about causes close to your heart, but you just need an “in” to the professional world to push you over the edge.
Maybe you’re like Olivia Grady, Marketing Management major and senior at Grove City College, who spent her past two summers putting in hours upon hours of ministry work.
Even with that great experience under her belt, she still felt a lack in the “real-world” sector of her resume.
Taking a Chance on Handshake
After uploading her resume and putting out feelers on Handshake, Olivia received a call encouraging her to apply to a prestigious summer internship close to her home. For her it was the “perfect opportunity” for the career path she was following.
“It was in line with what I was pursuing that semester," says Olivia. "I was learning a lot about social entrepreneurship and market research, and the opportunity was heavy on market research and new product development, so I was excited and eager for that.”
Giving it a go, Olivia went through the extensive application and interview process and in return earned herself a summer chocked full of growth and learning.
“I worked a lot more than I expected to because they gave us the responsibility of full-time employees in a sense, so the work was very high-level. It didn’t feel like an internship. It felt like I was stepping into a professional world for a summer.”
With August coming to a close, Olivia returned back to campus to complete one last year, but left with an offer to return to a full time position. The company saw her worth during her months there and is happy to wait for her if she chooses to stay in the area after graduation.
It’s never too late to start on your journey of resume-building and experience collecting. One click on Handshake can kickstart your career!