Hi, I’m sure you’ve all figured
out by now that a lot of my blog posts come from my experiences, and there's
one experience I haven’t yet explained.
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| The business cards I designed for the event |
To be plain, today I went to a
job fair thinking that I was going to pick up some internship flyers, shake
some hands, smile nicely and go home proud of myself.
Unfortunately for me, this was
not the reality.
Normally I’d deny any awkwardness
about turningup to an event that was entirely unintended for my age group. But
I’ll admit, when I realized that I wasn’t doing what I’d expected I was going
to do I wanted to turn around, walk out and deny I was ever there.
Because it was horrible. I
thought I’d doomed myself to the awkward admittance of, ‘nope; I’m not
qualified in the slightest. But yes, I did just waste your time on me.’
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| Nothing gets rid of bad thoughts like a good cup of coffee! |
1. Change your mindset
I talk a lot about positive
thoughts and headspace on this blog. But with lawyers quickly becoming
synonymous with depressed people in suits I can’t stop reiterating this message
‘your thoughts change what you see.’
When I first entered the show
room, I panicked. Everything I thought was negative, ‘I’m not qualified.’ ‘I’m
wasting their time’ ‘I should go.’
The reality was, I wasn’t wasting
their time. Yes, I have most definitely learned to read properly the
information flyer before deciding to rock up to things. But one of the greatest
things about being in a situation where you can 100% not compare to the rest of
the people surrounding you is that you get approach what they’re for in an
entirely unexpected fashion.
2. Think out of the box
Staying on the concept of
changing your thoughts, one of the companies I was interested in actually had a
requirement to have at least seven years work experience. The fun thing you
might not have
picked up on if you hadn’t been desperately grasping at straws
to make your pitch sound half decent is that it doesn’t matter if this
experience occurred concurrently.
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| A bit of color can get those creative thought processes going! |
A few minutes of counting and
scrolling through my linked in later and I was armed with seven years and four
months’ worth of experience.
You’d be surprised how much you
are qualified. I’ve worked in various capacities on government boards, youth
groups, retail agencies, charities and law firms, but I’d never thought to
count the time I spent doing them. Once I did it was clear I could compete with
the post grads – at least on some level.
3. Focus on making your
weakness your strength
If you do as I often do and jump
into a situation without really thinking about you’ll be familiar with the
gut-wrenching realization that your biggest flaw is staring you down. In
today’s experience, my biggest weakness was that I don’t have a degree.
I’ve studied courses but never
actually graduated. This made me the most unqualified person in the room. Again
it’s almost like you have to flip your brain into reverse. Look at what you can
offer from a different angle.
Rather than hiding the fact that
I didn’t have a degree it was celebrated. I went from looking for
internships
to work experience – a minor detail, but it gave me a chance to work with the
representatives there and get to know the companies better.
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| It's a shame drinking coffee can't be listed as a strength! |
4. Figure out what your
original objective was
A lot of networking events are
entirely focused on gathering contacts and putting them in your address book.
That’s not what I mean about your objective.
If you’re going to a networking
event, then you’re going for a reason. For example, you might be attempting to
gather information about the individuals within the industry you intend to work
in. Or you might be attending the event to discover your potential in a new
pathway.
Your objective is vital to making
a success of the day. Because at the end of all this the last thing you want to
do is leave. It’s important to young people that we understand ever opportunity
has a cost. This cost can be beneficial or detrimental. And let me say it
straight out, meeting people in the industry you’re interested in is never
detrimental.
You might never see them again,
but still you will have had a conversation and gathered more information about
what your future career might be like. The only loss you could make by walking
into a room where you feel out of your depth is by walking in and then walking
straight out.
Having a clear understanding of
what your objective is will help you to navigate your way through the event and
pitch conversations away from whatever it is that’s making you feel
uncomfortable and towards a more productive result.
5. Identify and analyze
When you realize that there’s
something in the room that wasn’t what you expected you need to identify and
analyze.
First of all identify the issue.
Is it something that is going to prevent you from achieving your original
objective? For example, if you’re under qualified – is that going to stop you
from making contact with potential future employers?
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| And look! It was successful day after all. |
The answer, whatever you may
think is no, if you are on track to getting that qualification, then in all
seriousness it’s just as important for you to be meeting these groups now then
later.
Secondly, you need to analyze
what the rest of the room is doing. Do they look prepared or casual? When
you’re already feeling ostracized by something, it’s best to try and find a
common factor between you and the rest of the room’s population.
Those are my five simple actions
that you can do to take control of a situation that feels out of control. I
know it’s hard to cope with being under qualified or having some other factor
that makes the entire event seem daunting. But the reality is that no
professional can ever have all the qualifications and all the preferred
characteristics.
The modern professional knows
three things to get over those first little hurdles on the way to getting an
internship; innovate, adapt and when in doubt – redirect!
