By Cathy Holloway Hill
2 June 2008

College can be both challenging and exciting. For college graduates transitioning into the corporate workplace, the challenges and excitement can turn into outright stress and anxiety.  This article will eliminate the anxieties by providing you with the necessary information to ensure a smooth rewarding transition.

Research shows that college does not adequately prepare students for an effective transition from student to professional. College prepares individuals for certain aspects of the corporate workplace. Development and education does not stop after college.  A successful career consists of continual learning, effective feedback, and a constant quest to hone your skills. Most industries are in a constant state of change, and you must also change and evolve along with your chosen industry.

Each year thousands of eager college students begin their quest for the ultimate independence - a new career. Many get lucky, find good jobs, and begin their new career with high enthusiasm and energy only to be disappointed soon afterwards. Why? Because most of them will undoubtedly overlook a very critical step in their career quest - planning!

According to statistics, 80% of people in the workplace begin their careers with no planning.   The number one reason most college grads fall into jobs is to please their parents. The biggest mistakes we make in choosing our careers are a lack of planning and allowing someone else to write the script for our lives.

There are two specific popular career search types - traditional and life impacting. You leave your career to chance when selecting the traditional search. This search type consists of soliciting the assistance of an Internet search engine to provide a pool of jobs to select from. The disadvantages of this search type are that you leave your career to chance, and search engines set you up to receive a tremendous amount of unsolicited junk email.

The life-impacting search is an exploration.  This search type requires time, effort, and planning.  But the rewards are well worth the effort.  You design your career (and your life) according to your skills, attributes, and passions. According to research, this search type is 90% more effective in landing your dream job. Below are six steps necessary for the life-impacting search, and, in turn, enjoy a career of happiness and fulfillment.

1. Self Assessment

Self assessment is the process of gathering information about yourself in order to make an informed career decision. Your values, interests, personality inventories, skill assessments, strengths and weaknesses are all critical components in determining which job and industry would benefit you. A self-assessment is first and foremost when choosing an occupation. Learning about yourself helps you figure out what career to pursue.

2. Emotional Cleansing

We miss great opportunities in life by carrying emotional baggage that we refuse to release.  Negative emotions drain our positive energy and prevent us from focusing on good choices for not only our career, but our lives. We live in a constant state of pessimism carrying this baggage.  There are many methods to help release these negative emotions.  There are many methods for learning to release negative emotions (i.e., prayer, meditation, visualization, etc).

3. Assess the market and industry

Understand the conditions of the market and industry you choose. Many industries undergo changes at any given point in time. Understanding the state of the industry provides you with the knowledge of how to approach that specific market. Ensure the industry you choose aligns with your skills and passions. 

4. Set goals

The first step in goal setting is to create your personal vision and mission statement.  Your vision statement is "what" you want to accomplish in your career, and your mission statement is "how" you intend to accomplish it.  Your list of goals will be your roadmap for accomplishing your mission. SMART goals are the best method for goal setting.  Specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic, and time bound goals have all the necessary components to achieve success.  Also, be sure to include a backup plan in the event that your initial plan runs into roadblocks. 

5. Resume and job portfolio

There are many Internet resources and books on the market to assist with creating a powerful resume.  Many job seekers do not have a job portfolio. A job portfolio is a document that highlights your accomplishments.  You can either create a leather bound portfolio to show, or you can create a "leave behind" document. Your job portfolio can be letters of recommendation, achievements, award certificates, or a couple of pages from an outstanding evaluation.  It can be whatever you creatively want it to be. Research shows that a job portfolio is 75% more effective in landing your job.

6. Network of contacts

Your job search will not be effective if you don’t know anyone. It is critical to join several networking organizations, and always take business cards. Don’t just collect business cards, use them!  Stay in touch with your network of contacts because you never know when they may have a critical lead for that dream job you’re looking for.

Website: www.chollowayhill.com

Email: cathy@chollowayhill.com  

Visit my site for inspirational and motivational tips from a Certified Career Consultant and Life Coach.

Copyright © Cathy Holloway Hill, Career Consultant and Life Coach

By Allison MacHaffie, Clark University (2008) and Brian Torrico, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2007)
30 April 2008

The only drawback to being young in the business world is the perception that it takes years to establish a true passion. In our case, our passion for more efficient and green living began long ago, with roots in Berkshire County, Mass., where we both grew up.  But our drive to gear others in this direction and change the way Americans live stems from entrepreneurial programs at Clark University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute respectively; these programs led us to see that what we wanted to achieve was not only possible but necessary.

Our Road to Entrepreneurship

Whether it’s a conscious choice or a natural inclination (a debate for another time), entrepreneurs continually gauge their environments to see if there are ways they can be improved.  Our first step toward wanting to do something came from memories of growing up in Berkshire County, and remembering winters just ten years ago with the snow covering the ground, three to four feet deep. Today, even in heavy snowfall years, we are lucky to get two feet, which often melts in a week.  We weren’t satisfied to just wish things were better, so we started making small but significant steps toward living in a more ecologically sustainable manner and encouraging our friends and family to do the same.

At the same time, we noticed the media’s increasing coverage of environmental issues mirrored our personal concerns. It hit us then that our solution would be to take things in our own hands. So the two of us began thinking of how we could launch a business in the renewable energy sector.

For a long time we struggled with research and brainstorming, trying to come up with ideas to make our mark, searching the Internet, attending free seminars, reading magazines and anything else we could get our hands on. Then one day as we were out driving, the solution came to us.  It was like seeing all of our ideas crystallized before our eyes-we imagined a place where consumers could come to educate themselves about what they could do with renewable technologies. We would create a place where people could touch, feel and see the products, and talk to a human being about them. However, we soon found out that someone was already running a similar business called USA Solar Store.

This chance discovery was exciting and disappointing at the same time. It was a shame to learn that our idea was not an original one, but there was a silver lining that still made the project worthwhile. The USA Solar Store is a cooperative (co-op) purchasing organization so we could actually own a store franchise like that ourselves. We now had the opportunity to work towards neutralizing our impact on this planet and make a profit in the process. 

Taking the Plunge

Applying creative entrepreneurial skills learned in business school, we decided to join the USA Solar Store co-op.  To us, the co-op presented the perfect opportunity to marry our entrepreneurial skills with our personal passion and work to build an organization that mattered to us. The litmus test was seeing how our work would make a difference in the world yet still give us a respectable income at the same time. 

USA Solar Store is a grassroots business promoting the growth of local industries and products, focusing on conservation and efficiency. Through collective bargaining, the co-op uses its large size and bargaining power to get the best available prices for its customers, and in this way, is similar to a franchise business. Since there are more Solar Stores constantly being added to the co-op, outside suppliers will continue to give us the best prices for our product purchases. Skilled training and continuing education are provided to the store owners for all products.

While best business practices are suggested, each solar store is independently owned and operated and individuality is welcomed. We named our branch Grenergy Solar Store (pronounced green-er-gee), which was started with savings and investments from our families, without whose support and knowledge Grenergy (grenergysolarstore.com) would not be where it is today. 

Grand Opening

The store has now been open for two months, with strong support from the community, many interested visitors, and some successful sales. We spend much of our time educating customers on solar products and options; because there are so many options everyone faces the same lack of information we had experienced while trying to do our own research.

The Internet is everyone’s first source for research, but we all know it doesn’t come close to replacing the kind of knowledge and help that only an educated sales person can provide. Looking back, we may have underestimated the role of education in our sales process-and we have adjusted our sales forecasts to account for the learning curve each consumer goes through before they purchase our products. In fact, I run the day-to-day operations of Grenergy, while Allison builds an environmental consulting business that will eventually run in conjunction with Grenergy. 

We’re thrilled to share the knowledge about how people can save money and help preserve our planet. As our business grows, we will only learn more about how to bring environmental stewardship and specifically green energy to the masses. That’s the beauty of pursuing what we’re both most passionate about. We can change our lives and the lives of others just by doing our jobs.

MacHaffie and Torrico are both young entrepreneurs, finding their way through greener and more efficient living and sharing the path with other like-minded people.

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