TIP: Don't make excuses!

As a professional who works with mostly "traditional" students, I realize that I am on the very cusp of the "Millenial" generation.  Much of this generation comes across as very entitled and as a generation who feels like they deserve a lot for not much effort.  Now this is not true for all, and especially not all of the students and alumni I work with, but I have viewed this time and time again in various settings, from my current campus, to a high-ranked business school, and finally at smaller, private suburban campuses.

My biggest tip when it comes to job searching: be open to everything.  As a previous supervisor of mine once said, "You have 100% chance of not getting the job if you don't apply.  If you apply, you at least have a chance."  In addition, another supervisor of mine says "You can always turn down an offer later - don't rule out anything just yet."  (I've had some good supervisors, can't you tell?)

It's so true, though.  I applied to my job at my previous insitution completely on a whim.  It was an "Assistant Director" role and I thought there was no way that they'd hire me because I was fresh out of grad school and this would be my first "real" job.  Then I got the interview.  I interviewed and it went really well, but I was still convinced they'd hire someone with more experience in the field.  Then I got the offer.  I accepted, even though it was 2 hours away from where I was living and everything I knew.  It was one of the best decisions I've made in my entire life.

Every day I hear students making excuses as to why they aren't going to even apply to a particular job or company, or why they aren't looking here, networking there, attending this event, so on and so forth.  What they don't realize is that it's often those opportunities that you take advantage of that you least expect anything to come from that lead to something big.  Take advantage of any conversation you can have (even with that stranger sitting next to you on the bus, train, or plane) instead of staring at your smartphone or listening to your iPod.  Don't decide you aren't going to apply to a job because it would be an hour commute.  Figure that out once you get the offer.  Don't rule out a company just because you've never heard of them or something seems iffy in the job description.  Go on the interview - learn more about the company and position, then decide.  You never know what could happen.  And even if you don't get the offer, you've still made some connections.

Don't make excuses and don't pass up opportunities.  You honestly never know where they will lead you.