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Hello, I'm Lori Jo Vest. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Work Mom Says, Don't Be an Idiot. Today, we're going to talk about things you can do while you're still in college and immediately afterwards to really jumpstart your career. Most of us pick an industry. We try to get into it, but we pick the industry while we're in college. 


So while you're still in college, get some experience in your industry—a couple of things. If you're not a club joiner, start joining those clubs. Most industries do have student chapters of their major trade organizations. There are ad clubs, if that's your thing. There are manufacturing clubs, there are engineering clubs. 


Most of the universities and colleges will have organizations that are student chapters of national professional organizations. As soon as you get to campus, you should start looking into those specific organizations and get involved. It will have you meeting people that are in your field, your peers, as well as people that are leaders in the industry.


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 And it will help you maintain and get access to internships, student apprenticeships, opportunities that you may not hear about if all you're doing is going to class, taking your finals, writing your papers, doing your productions, whatever it is, and going home, you really want to use that extracurricular time, at least the last two years that you're there, to grow your reputation, grow your skills, add to your resume, and make connections. That's number one. 


Number two, start your LinkedIn account while you're still in college. Again, by your third year, you should be putting up a LinkedIn account, putting in volunteer things that you've done, jobs you've had, making sure your resume is there.


Make sure you use industry keywords. I mean, if you Google how to prepare and present a solid LinkedIn profile, you will find some great advice there. So I won't go too deep into it here. But there are experts you can follow. 


Get on LinkedIn, start using it, start connecting with people you know. And I'm going to tell you, it's not a bad idea to connect with your parents and your parents' friends, uncles, aunts, anybody that you know that's an adult in business will help you grow your network on LinkedIn. It's a great place to start looking for internships, micro internships, things like that. So make sure you are on LinkedIn.


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Now, when you are just getting out of college, stick with that approach of being involved in organizations and staying on the business social media. Because once you get out of college, you can actually join the professional organizations.


And I'll tell you a story. When I first got into the advertising business, which is what I do now, I had a boss that told me that I needed to join two or three of the local trade organizations. There were a couple of different ad clubs. There was a women's ad club. There was the Adcraft Club of Detroit. And then there were some marketing communication type organizations.


 And I joined three different ones and I went to their meetings and I got on their committees. I think I even served on the board. I think when I was twenty seven or twenty eight, I was president of the Detroit chapter of the Women's Advertising Club because I started right out of college. 


I did their newsletter. I did, I served on committees. I actually, you know, created events and worked as a volunteer. And I built up a lot of skills. I grew my writing skills. I grew my production skills. And then I could put together a newsletter, my interview skills because I'd interview people. I also learned how to network effectively. 


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And it gave me a group of people in the Women's Ad Club in particular, It gave me a group of women that when things were going sideways, I could go to them and say, what do you guys do when this happens? I mean, I was twenty-three, twenty-four years old and there were women that were in their fifties that had great answers for me.


I remember at one point, I was getting somewhat sexually harassed by a client, and I had no idea what to say. And back then it was a little it was something that you didn't want to even acknowledge had happened because as a woman, you felt like you may have somehow contributed to it. That's the way we were socialized. We were socialized that way, trust me. The eighties and nineties were not so good for women's growth and development. It was a really difficult time, but I didn't want to talk to my boss or much less the client.


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 So I had a group of women that were thirty years older than me that were able to give me advice on how to handle it with finesse in a way that wouldn't get me in trouble, that wouldn't alienate the client, that would put distance between me and the client. And that would allow me to continue to work in a professional fashion without being sidelined by somebody else's behavior. 


So those kinds of things are really, really important. So I cannot overestimate the power of going to events and volunteering for committees, getting involved in organizations as soon as you get out of college and stick with it. Join the committees, go to all the meetings, really get to know the people in that group.


And the other advantage I'll tell you about that I will never forget is when you're networking like that, if something bad happens, you have the ability to ask those people, something happens at your job. You, you know, you're going to get laid off. 


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You can call them and say, Hey, you know, our company's going down. Something really strange is happening. And, and we're, you know, they're, we hear they're cutting the payroll budget and, You know, that kind of thing. You can call your friends that you met in your networking groups and say, hey, I'm looking for a new position. 


I had to do that once. I took a new job. I was recruited by a headhunter, which kind of implies that the company has some money because headhunters are not cheap. And within six weeks on the job, we heard the major financial partner was coming in and cutting budget because we were in a massive sales slump and that he was going to start with payroll. 


Now, what that means is they're going to start cutting pay. And he went person to person to person all day one day and told us each how much less we were going to be worth when we came in the next morning. And it was between twenty and thirty percent. It was incredibly painful for everyone that was on that team. 


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However, I was able to when I got my pay cut, got home, picked up the phone, called a couple of my girlfriends. And one of them said, hey, Tom's looking for somebody just like you at this other facility in town. And I was able to go over there. I was employed within two weeks, moved right into that new job, never got laid off and was able to really recover from that bit of, you know, early career trauma. without a lot of muss and fuss because I knew people. 


Now, if you're an introvert, then you want to go back and listen to the, there's an earlier episode of Work Mom Says at workmomsays.com about networking. If you are an introvert and networking scares the hell out of you, get a partner, network with someone else, look for a friend that will go with you, plan out your networking, practice your networking.


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Do it regularly. Go to luncheons. Go to dinners. Go to breakfast. Go to coffee. Go to events. And learn how to network by actually networking. And what will happen is you'll figure out that there are things that you can say that light people up, things that you can say that people are immediately more interested in what you're saying if you drop the line or two, you know, that you'll figure out what it is that you say that has people perking up and paying attention. 


And networking is really not that hard. It might feel like it, but it really isn't, especially if you can partner network with someone. That makes it one hundred fifty thousand times easier. So, another suggestion is partner networking and other things that you can do after just getting out of college. 




Study business etiquette. Look into EQ, how you should perform while you're at work, how you should think about your work. Read career books and career advice because it will help you see things in a way that you may not just coming out of college.


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And there is a certain way that you should be looking at work. It's different than college. It's different than your McDonald's job or whatever job you did while you were in high school, babysitting, nannying, whatever it is. The business realm is much, much different. 


So you want to make sure that you spend some time studying and learning what that business etiquette is so that you are able to present as the best possible image for yourself and be the best possible person. 


So that's the last thing I'll tell you here is to be a continuous learner. And the first thing you should start with is basic business etiquette, behavior, and mindset. And those topics will get you really far. 


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And from there, just recycle, you know, what do they say? Lather, rinse, repeat, keep doing it over and over. You'll move more, you'll learn more, you'll meet more people. And and your career will continue to elevate. You'll elevate your skills, your abilities, and your emotional intelligence. 


So that's what I've got for you today. I hope you enjoyed it. Please visit my website at workmomsays.com. If you're interested in having me interview someone or you think you have a great topic that I should cover, I'd love to hear from you.


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I also have a YouTube channel, Work Mom Says, where I have daily videos that are the chapters of my book, Work Mom Says Don't Be an Idiot, Thirty-Eight Lessons You Don't Want to Learn the Hard Way. So go over to YouTube, hit the subscribe button. Have a look at what I've got going over there. And we'd love to see you there as well. 


Again, if you have any ideas for subjects or any questions, I'd love to hear from you in the comments there as well. So that's what I've got for you. Have a great day. Know that Work Mom is here for you. You can do this. Take care.