Know what you want, why you want it, and how you can contribute productively to whatever position you're interviewing for. (Read more)

When you’re out of work and searching for a job, it may seem that you have to accept a job offer, even if it turns out that the job isn’t really what you expected it to be or what you’re interested in. While it’s important to accept financial responsibility and pay your own way, it’s also important that you carefully consider every job offer and make sure it’s a good fit for you. (Read more)

If you ask ten Human Resources professionals what they think is the biggest mistake that job seekers make, you’re likely to get ten different answers. But if you ask them to list the top five, you’re going to see some mistakes show up over and over. Avoiding the seven mistakes listed below can put you ahead of many other applicants and will demonstrate that you should be viewed as a serious candidate. (Read more)

Several years ago, I asked a group of students who had just completed internships to tell me what advice they would give to a someone who was about to begin an internship. While there was a lot of variation in their answers, there were several consistent themes that can help you make the most of your workplace experience. (Read more)

While you have no way of knowing which employers have posted jobs on 1stGig.com that would interest you, you should have some idea of the type of job that you’re hoping to find. The more you know about that type of job, and the more you are able to provide evidence showing that you meet requirements for those jobs, the more likely it is that you will get matched with one or more employers looking to hire someone with your attributes. (Read more)

Several years ago, Gallup conducted a nationwide survey of workers to assess job satisfaction, and an astonishing 70% of the people who were polled said that they didn’t really like their jobs! Given that you will spend about a quarter of your adult life at work, you don’t want to be in that 70%. So what can you do to avoid it? You can start thinking now about the factors that would make you like—or hate—your job. I’m going to pose some questions to help you think about those factors, which may be able to help you conduct a more narrow—and more fruitful—job search. (Read more)

A few months ago, President Obama published an article on LinkedIn about why his first job mattered. In the article, he describes his experience scooping ice cream when he was a teenager. He says, “My first summer job wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it taught me some valuable lessons. Responsibility. Hard work. Balancing a job with friends, family, and school.” I completely agree with that position, and I think you can learn those same lessons with any job you hold, whether it’s a summer job or a part-time job during the school year. But I think that if you are thoughtful about both the jobs you choose and the way you work at those jobs, you can gain a lot more. (Read more)

My students often tell me that their greatest fear going into an interview is that they’ll be asked about their salary requirements. That’s a reasonable fear: You don’t want to suggest a salary that’s higher than what the employer will be willing (or allowed) to pay, but you also don’t want to sell yourself short by suggesting a figure that’s lower than what they have budgeted. (Read more)

In my experience, students usually fall into one of two categories: those who know exactly what type of career they want (for example, industrial engineer, graphic designer, journalist, doctor, lawyer) and those who don’t!  Both groups need to do research to help attain desired careers, but that research is likely to start out differently. (Read more)