FINDING YOUR DREAM JOB

...in the 21st Century Marketplace

by TIM BAKER

CollegePlus

SM

TABLE of CONTENTS

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Grasp the New Reality

What Can You Really Do With Your Life?

Embrace Adventure
Contributing to the Hive

Choose a Mentor

Who Should Invest in You?

Land an Internship

Create a Dynamic Education

Leverage the Internet

Use Cyberspace to Communicate Effectively

Enter the Marketplace

Engage Opportunities to Frame Your Life

Start Today

Simple Steps to Get Yourself Ready

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Grasp the New Reality: What can you Really do with your life?
Youre standing with friends, talking about life, the future, and your college plans. Everyone
wants to knowwhat are you going to major in? And, more importantly, what in the world
are you going to do with your life?
Those questions never seem to stop, do they? And the advice that floods in during those
conversations never seems to end, does it? One friend says you need to get fantastic grades.
Another friends parents swear by the Its not what you know but who you know principle.
And your guidance counselor is convinced that traditional college is the only option for landing a job after college.
Is any of that really true?
Heres the reality.
The old days of getting a job meant that you needed to know the right words to drop, the
correct clothes to wear and have a college degree to wave above your head. Most often,
when people ask you the What are you going to do after you graduate high school question, theyre often relying on that old school way of evaluating your future plans. Truth is,
while your friends and parents might be thinking in that old matrix, employers arent. Your
parents entered a job market that was rigid, stale, and linear. They didnt think about entering
the professional workforce until they graduated from high school and college. A degree was
the key to getting a job. No one thought about putting a resume together in high school.
The market was ready to hire those people who had a degree.
That market doesnt exist anymore.
The world is smaller. Employers can get the same work done for cheaper from someone on
the other side of the world. Businesses move faster, and decisions that used to take a week
can now be made in minutes. Students skilled in technology, engineering and a host of other
fields can find employment before graduation. Education is more customized, and there are
more people looking for jobs that have specialized experience in nearly every field.
The people you need to impress, and those who are offering jobs in todays market arent living in the old system your parents lived in. Theyre living with a new set of realities, and if you
want a job, you need to know how potential employers think, what they value, how they will
evaluate you, and what they think is important.

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All of the advice you hear about getting a job in todays market is important. Listen to it, evaluate it, and decide if it fits who you are. And, while youre doing that, look through this book
and check out the new realities employers are working with in todays job market. Your life is
too important to waste operating with old ideas. And, while all of the advice you hear about
the 21st century market is important, there are several new realities about the job market
today you need to be aware of before you start filling out applications.
So, what are these new realities?

Work it Out

Before you begin plodding through this book, take some time to investigate some of the
changes that are happening in the workforce.
Interview your parents or friends about how they got their first job out of college. What
new systems did they have to learn? What did they struggle with? What interview skills did
they have to learn? Scour their knowledge and ask them for every tiny detail.
Take a friend out for coffee, and invite them to tell you what theyre doing to prepare for
life after school. Compare what theyre doing with what youre planning. What can you learn
from them? Glean their ideas and infuse them into your journey.
Google the words Job Market and Employment and the current year and read a few articles that the search returns. How is the working world different from the one your parents
entered?
Tape a huge sheet of paper on the wall of your bedroom. Write down all of the advice youve
heard about the world, graduating, getting a job, college, etc. Include the ideas youve heard
as you have interviewed your parents and friends and the stuff you learned from searching
the internet.
Let the list stay on your wall for a week. Once you feel you know the list well, begin thinking
logically about it, crossing off things you know are irrelevant, and circling the ones you know
are important. When youre done, rewrite the list including only the items you feel are essential for your future.
65% of business leaders say that young people applying for jobs at their companies
right out of college are only somewhat prepared for success in business.
47% of top-level executives believe that fewer than 21% of new grads have the skills theyll
need to advance past entry-level jobs.
- Fortune Magazine
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/01/executives-to-new-grads-shape-up/
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Times have changed. The job market your parents entered is completely different from the one
youre entering. Check out this article for a peek back in time to the 1950s.
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/07/20/fortune-1956-20-minutes-to-a-career-or-not/

Embrace Adventure: Contributing to the Hive

Have you ever watched bees working to create the perfect environment for their queen?
Bees work in concert with other bees. They connect with each other constantly as they build
the hive.
The workforce in the 21st century operates in the same way. Offices are gone; cubicles are on
their way out. People work in open spaces, interacting with each other constantly to build
the perfect business. They perform tasks related to their job descriptions, but also work in
tandem with others, contributing to projects outside their specific discipline. Teamwork is
essential in todays workforce, and employees are expected to leave their silos, and work
together and co-contribute.
If you want to get hired, you wont just understand this new reality, youll work into it. Youll
be ready for it, long before you start applying for jobs. How do you become a hive worker?

Cultivate a Passion for Insight

Knowledge about your field of experience is important. Insight is something completely different.
Insight is the ability to bring your entire knowledge base into every situation you encounter.
Do you have knowledge about how to assemble computers? Insight is the ability to bring
that understanding into arranging office spaces and organizing Excel spreadsheets. Skilled at
writing? Insight is the ability to bring that creativity into crafting PowerPoints or writing copy
for company web pages. Great with people? Insight leads you to use that to mediate company issues and train customer service.
Insight is also the desire to learn, both within your field of knowledge, and outside it. Employers want folks who are willing to learn more than just one or two different skills. They
want employees who desire to learn all aspects of the company.

Be Multi-Dimensional

You need to be bigger than your degree or your occupation. You need to be conversant in
art, understand the themes of great movies, know current television shows, and be able
to talk about all sides of a political issue. Employers arent looking for ideologues, theyre

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searching for ideological generosity.

Hobbies are important. Being well read is important. Knowing a foreign language is essential.
And most of all, the ability to bring this knowledge into every conversation, project, assignment and position is vital.

Become Adventurous

You could be the person who stays inside all day, who digs down to the depths of the knowledge of your profession, whos known for being an expert in your field. But employers are
looking for people who are bigger than that.
Want a job today? Be someone who scoops the marrow out of life. Live life outside your
apartment. Dont stay home on Saturday nights. Dont limit yourself to your small world. Cultivating adventure in your life is easier than you think. Take your camera out at dusk and start
taking pictures. Next week, travel to another city close by and take pictures there. Try the
new ice cream shop in town. Go hiking. Drive through the part of town that no one drives
through. Eat something youve never tried before.
Cultivate small adventures, use those to build bigger ones, and be prepared to talk up your
experiences with your friends. Post pictures of your adventures on your social media sites.
Let people see and experience where youve been and what youve done.

Serve

Believe it or not, employers are looking for servants. Does that sound counter-intuitive?
Maybe a little too spiritual?
Its true. Employers are looking for workers who will see what their co-workers need and
work to fulfill those needs. Theyre searching for employees who will uncover the needs of
the company, and seek to make the company better by serving those needs. But more than
that, serving other employees demonstrates people skills, and thats often one of the most
important qualities employers are looking for.
You know...all of this really isnt just about the change in the workforce. Its about being who
you are, finding your place within the hive, discovering your identity, and unleashing that
into the workforce. Ready to do that?

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Work it Out

Its one thing to talk about entering the hive, but its a completely other thing to be ready to
enter the hive. If youre not hive-like yet, jump on these ideas.
Cultivate insight by reading some classic stories. Choose one of these classics to begin your
journey:
The Odyssey, Homer
Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
Hamlet, Shakespeare
Paradise Lost, John Milton
Gullivers Travels, Jonathan Swift
Spend one hour a day for the next week watching the national news, and engage in conversations about what youre learning.
Choose a friend whos great at something youre terrible at, and ask them to teach you
about that thing. Invest a week making their hobby your hobby, and work to become an
expert.
Spend one day outside, away from all electronics, and go somewhere locally youve never
been. While youre in that space - listen, look, touch and smell. Keep a mental list of how this
experience feels.

The Top Four

What are companies looking for in new hires?

Heres a list gleaned from Forbes Magazine:
Problem solving (49% of executives ranked this #1)
Collaboration (43% said this)
Critical thinking (important for 36% of executives)
The ability to communicate clearly and
persuasively in writing (31% said this was a priority)

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Character Traits: Chemistry and Critical Thinking

Settling in to the hive demonstrates two essential character qualities employers are looking
for.

Chemistry.

It shows that youre able to interact with others in a dynamic team environment, and that
youre able to contribute to working relationships with civility and encouragement.

Critical Thinking.

It shows that youre able to participate with others ideas and projects, evaluate, offer your
opinion and work together to create something wonderful.

Choose a Mentor: Who Should Invest in You?

When we dream about college, we imagine our professors will carefully instruct us, taking
time to make sure we learn every detail about our subjects. We believe that theyll be available whenever we have a question. That theyll answer email promptly and theyll always be
helpful. Truth is, many college professors are overworked, view their jobs more as lecturers,
and are more interested in presenting information than encouraging learning.
Students preparing to enter todays job market arent relying solely on college professors to
teach or challenge them. Theyre bringing mentors into their lives who will invest deeply in
them. Theyre engaging with older adults who will walk with them through life and, more
importantly, their education.
Think about it. An instructor dispenses information, but a mentor ensures that you know
how to apply the information. An instructor teaches you the rules, a mentor teaches you
about the real world. Want to be prepared to get a job? Find a mentor and invite them to
help you craft who you are and perfect your skill.
What kind of person should you be on the lookout for?

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Someone Who Shares Your passion

Your mentor ought to do more than just understand your passion; they should live and
breathe the same passion you live and breathe. When you talk about your love for airplanes,
their eyes should light up, because they feel that same urge to watch them land. Co-passionate mentors live in the same passion space with you, seeking to better themselves as they invest in your passion. Imagine two people with arms linked, walking through a field together.
Who would you link arms with? Thats the mentor youre looking for.

Someone Who Wants to Invest in You

A mentor is someone who pours their life into yours, seeking to impart their knowledge
and experience to you. They should be passionate about seeing you succeed, willing to do
whatever it takes to train you for success. They should be available to you, willing to schedule
time with you, and able to critique and encourage you in your passion. Your times with them
should be an encouragement to you. Each session with them should move you closer to becoming a skilled craftsman.

Someone Whos Farther Along Than You

A mentor should have more life experience than you. But more than that, they ought to be
closer to perfecting their craft than you are. They should also have an ongoing passion for
learning, eager to discover more about their passion and willing to introduce you to the new
things theyre learning.

Someone Who Can Connect You to Others

Your mentor is one of your loudest cheerleaders. They can connect you to other leaders and
thinkers who are connected to other leaders who, in turn, are connected to other leaders.
With a mentor speaking to these people about your skills, you have a network of people who
are potential employers. They should also teach you how to use that network to get connected with a broader range of folks who share your passion.
Is that all? Certainly not. A mentor ought to build in you the value of balance as you pursue
your passion. They should understand the importance of creating to-do lists, putting deadlines on calendars, and help you integrate your larger world into what you do. A mentor is
your go-to person for teaching you the specifics of your passion.

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Work it Out

When it comes to selecting a mentor, youve got to be very careful about who you invite to
invest in you. Youre surrendering yourself into a life-on-life relationship.
Make a list of who you think would be a good mentor. Choose folks who are farther along
then you are, smarter than you too.
Sit down with each person and tell them what youre asking them to consider. Ask if theyre
willing and have the time to invest in you.
Create a meeting schedule with a list of things youd like to accomplish including deadlines
and benchmarks.
After one year, reevaluate the relationship, your progress and your mentors willingness to
continue.

Character Traits: Discovery and Teachability

Placing yourself in a mentoring environment demonstrates a few essential character traits for
potential employers.

Discovery.

It shows that youre willing to link

up with someone wiser than you are, and
interested in discovering together with them.

Teachability.

Being mentored means that youre engaging in

one-on-one instruction, that youre being
critiqued, asked to change. Employers will
likely call on you not only to be mentored,
but to mentor others.

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Land an Internship: Create a Dynamic Education

Have a college degree? On your way to getting one? Great. A college degree is a strong accomplishment, but employers want new hires to have experience in their fields. They need
graduates who have thought ahead, spent time in their profession, and invested themselves
into their future before they received the degree.
Imagine this. You graduate from an amazing school, at the top of your class. You work hard
the whole four years, devoting yourself to studying every weekend. You volunteer some, join
a club or two, even play a few sports. Despite your amazing success in school, employers see
that as a static degree. Youve received a piece of paper that demonstrates that youre able to
complete coursework. It shows that youre a hard worker. But it doesnt demonstrate applied
learning, collaborative experience, or even experience in your field.
Imagine you, same scenario, but youve spent a couple summers interning (or working) in
places that will give you experience in the field youre studying. Imagine having been invested in by a supervisor, someone whos taught you valuable industry experience. Imagine
having spent time in meetings with co-workers, thinking forward about product releases,
marketing plans and technology upgrades.
Now, lets say you were going to hire you. Which person would you hire?
Multiply that scenario a thousand times, and youve got the decision employers are faced
with every day. You need experience, and to get that, you need to create a dynamic education, one that understands the value of applied learning, of taking on the challenges of problem solving in real time.
Think internship, and if you want to land a job in todays competitive job market, you need to
have a few of them. Internships help you understand the field youre passionate about. They
help you understand what it takes to work in that environment. The good news is, nearly every company is looking for interns. The bad news is, many students are looking for an internship. Its not just a competitive job market out thereinterning is a competitive field too.

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How Do You Land an Internship?

Start With a Search

There are many websites that act as clearing houses for internship opportunities (hint, weve
listed a few of them in the box on the next page). Or, if you have targeted a few companies
you want to work for, search their websites directly. If theres an upcoming job fair near you,
go seek information on companies looking for interns. Many corporations use job fairs to
find interns. And if youre looking for something closer to home, consider starting with a local search.

Sharpen Your Resum and Interview Skills

Imagine your search for an internship much like a job search. Youll need all the same tools.
The ability to present yourself and your passion with excellence. The ability to define what
youre looking for and why youd be a valuable asset for the company. A resum that speaks
of your character and ability. References that can talk you up. Interviewing for an internship
is a great opportunity to sharpen your job search skills.

Be Clear About What You Need

As you pursue your first internship, you need to know what youre looking for. Do you want
a large corporate environment? Want a hands-on boss? Are you ok with menial tasks, or are
you looking for deep responsibilities? Make a list right now about what you need from your
internship experience.
Remember, the competition for internships is fierce, with students from all over the world
seeking them. And not all internships pay you money. Some companies consider the experience youre getting to be your payment, and you might need to secure a job in addition to
your internship.

Ten Reasons You Should Get an Internship

Get connected to other passionate folks your age

Receive experience in your field that you cant learn in a classroom
Connect to leaders in the industry
Have the opportunity to learn from experts in your field
Learn how to conduct yourself in meetings and with a supervisor
Get references you can use when starting your job search
Gain confidence in your job skills
Discover aspects of your job that youre not skilled at
Learn how the real world operates
Get ahead of peers who are vacationing all summer
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What Does it Take to be a Good Intern?

Before you land an internship, consider what you need to do to become a world class intern.
Be teachable
Contribute to conversations and meetings
Be willing to do any task
Meet needs before anyone knows they exist
Always be on time
Make it your goal to singlehandedly advance the company
Demonstrate leadership in everything you do

Stumped about where to find an internship?

Here are a couple websites to get you started:
http://www.internships.com/
http://www.internshipprograms.com/
http://www.summerinternships.com/

If youre unsuccessful at finding an internship, you can still put something together thats
close to one. Try...

Working a Normal Summer or Holiday Job

There might be intern-like opportunities available in your hometown. Talk to potential summer employers and ask them to give you as much experience as they can. Offer to do tasks
outside your assigned duties and volunteer for anything your schedule will allow. Also, ask
your employers to serve as references for you. While the normal summer jobs arent officially
internships, they can serve to teach and prepare you for the emerging job market.

Creating Your Own Service Company

With so many people looking for internships, you may not be able to find a company that
can hire you. If youre convinced that you need an internship immediately, consider starting
your own company, and work hard to gain clients and credibility. In the future, potential employers will see your ingenuity and resolve as a plus as they evaluate you.
Creating a dynamic education is about getting an internship and gaining valuable real life
on-the-job experience. But its more than that. Its about thinking about your future job (and
preparing for it) before you graduate. Its about thinking yourself forward, and getting yourself ready for the real world - for life after school. This new reality is essential, regardless of
where you intern.

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Work it Out

You dont just land an internship by accident. This takes work, and you have to be prepared.
Here are a few ideas for getting ready to land the dream internship.
Ask your parents or close friends to interview you. Ask them to toss you the questions they
think potential employers will ask you. Encourage them to be brutally honest and help you
hone your interviewing skills.
Ask your mentor to help you create a resum that youll be able to shop around to potential
employers. Ask them to help you include the best information in the clearest way, and encourage them to critique it.
This week, take the time to share your passion and abilities with family or friends. Tell them
what you love doing and what you hope to do with your life. Invite them to ask questions
and give you input.

Character Traits: Initiative and Leadership

Getting an internship helps potential employers understand a few essential character traits
in you. Specifically

Initiative.

They want to know that you can enter the workforce and take initiative on whatever they assign you. In order for them to trust your ability to do that, they want to see that youve participated in that environment in the past.

Leadership.

It shows them that youre not afraid to leap out on your own, take chances, and put yourself
on the line. It demonstrates a willingness to be in that place, whether youve been successful
or not.

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Leverage the Internet: Use Cyberspace to Communicate Effectively

It used to be that getting a job meant carrying around a world-class resum. Eager job seekers would stress over the color of their resum paper, over the font they used and over the
order of the information.
That was way back, old school, and before the market changed.
Do employers still look at a resum? Sure, but its not the only thing they review. In fact, potential employers can discover more about who you are in ten minutes of surfing the internet than they can by studying your resum and calling your references.
Were talking reputational currency here, which is simply the ability to communicate who
you are and what youre able to do by showing what youve already created. If you want a job
in the 21st century, youll need reputational currency. Heres how to build it.

Social Media

How did your parents connect with friends when they were your age? On their front porch?
By using telephones with wires? Today, we connect via text message, through Twitter, and
just about everyone uses Facebook to keep up with their grandparents vacation pictures.
Thats a huge difference, isnt it?
Social media is more than just a way to connect with friends. Its an excellent way to show off
who you are and what youre about. How do you use social media to your advantage? Post
pictures of you serving others, of your latest project, of you and your friends hanging out.
Tweet about different articles or books youve been reading, or about someone elses tweet.
Re-tweet important thoughts youve seen on Twitter.
Dont use social media to work out your relationship problems. Dont use it to complain,
emote, or attack. The Library of Congress holds on to all tweets, and employers can easily go
back and see all of your Facebook posts, so be wise (and proactive) about the what you put
out there.

Blog

Blogging offers a glimpse into your soul and helps people see what youre thinking about.
Your future employers are looking for people who blog their thoughts and interact with
commenters. No matter what your field, start a blog and keep it active and fresh. Write about
your areas of expertise, but also use that space to post ideas youre learning about that are
outside that domain.

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Having a blog tells potential employers a few things about you. It demonstrates that you
have a command of the English language (and thats extremely important). It shows that you
have computer skills. It shows employers that youre able to set a schedule and keep it.

Portfolio

Ever see someone walking around with a large, flat, black case? Thats an artist, on their way
to show off their work. Artists used to be the only folks who needed a portfolio. Today, if you
want to be ready for the emerging job market, youll take a lesson from artists.
Everyone needs a portfolio, but portfolios arent created equal. If you write, take the best
of what youve written, zip it up into a PDF file or post it on your blog in a separate section
labeled, Portfolio. If you write computer programs, buy web space and host your programs
there. If you take pictures, paint, or draw, put the best of your work on an online portfolio
site.
The idea is simple: create space to show off your work, no matter what that work is. Employers will likely ask for it. And, if they dont, youll be able to say, Wait, before this interview is
over, can I show you some of my work?

Connections

We used to call them references, but in todays job market, were well beyond simply making
sure you have a good reputation in all the places you used to work.
This new reality means being evaluated by who you know, who youre connected with. Think
about this as relational currency. Its not what you know, its who you know. Its also your
ability to leverage those relationships for the company you work for and for getting your job
done.
Communicating who you are is more than just about creating a fantastic resum or having
stellar references. Its about being prepared to show who you really are and what youre really
about in real time, making that available to everyone who views your profile or visits your
website.

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Work it Out

Reputational currency doesnt just happen. This is something you need to think about, plan
for and intentionally create. Here are some ideas you can use to get started.
Ask yourself a few simple questions. What breaks your heart? What motivates you? What do
you love reading, watching, listening to? Who do you respect? Take that passion and blog out
your thoughts. Your blog is your space to say what you want, so use it to show that you can
think broadly and deeply about the things youre passionate about.
Spend a few minutes each day contemplating the skills and abilities you have. Then consider those who you look up to, who are good at what youre passionate about. Invite one
of them out for lunch, buy their food, and engage them in a conversation about your shared
passion. Add their name and phone number to your phone contacts. Ask permission to connect with them via social media. Do this again next week with a different person.
Connect with industry leaders via social media. Follow their posts, and repost the thoughts
that resonate the most with you. Do this at least one time each day.

Create a Stellar Resum

Even with everything weve just said, employers will still ask you for your resum. But, when
we say resum, were not talking about the kind of resum your parents created.
Your resum should have your Twitter handle, your blog address, and the domain name
where your portfolio or online work is hosted. It should be available electronically, in both
Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF. And, as an electronic file, you ought to have active hyperlinks in it that link to companies youve worked for.
If you have a friend whos gifted with design, consider asking them to help you with layout
and colors. And, if youve got the time to kick your resum up a few notches, consider using
an online space like VisualCV.com to create a dynamic resum.

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Character Traits: Experience, Competence, and Entrepreneurial Spirit

Working toward reputational currency demonstrates three character traits essential for
todays workforce.

Experience.

Its not enough to say that you have done something, you need to be able to show that
youve done it. Its not enough to hand over one or two examples of your work. If you want to
be trusted with large projects, flex this character trait.

Competence.

Potential employers can hand anything off to you with the confidence that youll be able to
tackle it with excellence.

Entrepreneurial Spirit.

Creating a hefty amount of reputational currency demonstrates that youve got an entrepreneur in you. Youre someone who doesnt mind putting themself out on the edge. Youre
willing to take risks and surrender your resources to make something wonderful happen.

Enter the Marketplace: Engage Opportunities to Frame Your Life

The final key to landing a job in todays market is simply this: Be able to present who you are
and what youre about simply and with razor sharp clarity.
The old job market allowed you to use your resum and your references to speak for you. You
simply put those in front of your potential employer, allowed them to ask questions about
your skill level and ability to show up on time. And then, if youd gathered together a list of
people who could speak well of your previous employment, you likely got hired.
That doesnt work anymore. You have to be able to talk about yourselfabout who you are,
what you believe. This isnt just about selling yourself. This is you talking up all of your knowledge, your passion, your ability, your calling, your giftedness all at once. When someone asks
you why youre pursuing art, you have to be able to tell them your thought process, your passion and your skill level. If they ask you why youre going into computer design, you have to
be ready to share the moment you fell in love with circuit boards, and where you see yourself
in ten years.

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How do you engage opportunities to frame who you are?

Know Who You Are

You have been knit together for a specific purpose to live out on the planet. Youve been
placed in a family, gifted with different abilities and had certain experiences all of which
make you the person you are. Stop and think about your favorite food, your favorite genre of
literature or music, your favorite movie. Those things make you who you are too.
All of that has to roll out of your mouth with ease. Employers will expect you to share those
things freely and with a high level of confidence. If you arent able to do that now, work on it.
Invite family to sit and listen to you frame yourself. Ask them to critique the way you present
that information. And, if youre clueless right now and dont have any idea what you love, or
what youre good at, invite a mentor to help you understand all of that.

Know How to Speak About Your Passion

Ever stop to think about why you prefer playing the guitar over the drums? Wonder why
youd rather hike than go ice skating? Ever notice the music posters on your wall and wonder
why none of your friends have those posters on their wall? Those unique preferences demonstrate your passion.
What are you passionate about? What would you give your life to do, if you werent limited
by time or money? What excites you, gives you energy, and gets your heart pumping? Thats
passion. And it should motivate as many of your occupational decisions as possible. If you
love it, and would love spending all day doing it, then you should do whatever you can to
get paid for doing it.
Be prepared to talk about your passion at the drop of a hat, and work on presenting that passion in a compelling and infectious way.

Know Why Youre Focusing on Your Major

Ever been a part of those Hey, what are you planning to do with your life conversations?
How did you do? What did you say?
When people ask you about your major or your course of study, truth is, theyre not really
asking you for factual information. Theyre really interested in the why. They want to know
why that field of study is important. They want to know why youre heading in that direction.
They want to know what youre planning on giving your life to. Be prepared to talk all of that
up, without hesitation or apology.

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Know Who You Will Be in Five Years

No, you probably cant really know, but you can project. You can envision the person you
want to become.
The best way to frame who you are to others is to use futurespeak. When people ask you who
you are, what youre majoring in, why youre attending the school you are, dont describe
just the process for getting where you are now, tell them the person youre going to become.
Describe the person you see yourself being one-year out of college. Include your occupation,
where you think youll serve and what passions youll be pursuing.
Using futurespeak is attractive, and it tells friends and relatives that you know your destiny
and youre ready to embrace it. Moreover, speaking this way to employers tells them that
youre going somewhere, and that youre taking every opportunity you can to get there.
Framing is important in the 21st century job market. Companies want their employees to be
able to talk effectively about who they are, where theyre going and most importantly, how
all of that will impact their company. Be prepared, not to just sell yourself, but to speak out
about who you are, so that employers can see your true self, and see the value of having you
on their team.

Work it Out

Futurespeak is a great idea, but if you dont know what your future us, you dont have anything to talk about. Use these simple ideas to get yourself thinking about where youll be in
five years.
Set one huge goal for your life thats five years away. The goal should be bigger than graduating from college. Ideas include first year of employment finished or 10,000 blog visitors a
month. Buy a journal and write this goal on the last page of it.
Draft smaller, more measurable goals. If your goal is to have your pilots license, set a smaller
goal like enroll in flight school early on. If you want to be in graduate school, smaller goals
like maintaining honors level grades and getting MCAT tutoring should be on your calendar.
Start at the beginning of your journal and begin writing out daily entries about your process of getting to your big goal.
Invite someone close to you to walk you through the process of discovering your passion,
skills and calling. Write this process and your discoveries in the journal.

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 Review your journal every few months. Evaluate your progress. Set new smaller goals and
make plans to meet them.
Practice how you might share the contents of your journal with friends, mentors, and potential employers. Practice explaining why you started this process, how youre working
through it, and what you hope to accomplish. Share your big goal, some of your smaller
ones, and help others see the ultimate goal youre reaching for.

Character Traits: Character and Passion

Perfecting the art of framing your life reveals essential aspects of who you are. It shows employers

Character.

It helps them see who you are when no one is looking. It helps them understand what
makes you tick. More than almost anything, employers want to know the people they hire,
and before you say it, no, chatting up your accomplishments and passions isnt self-centered,
prideful or bad character. Its simply taking the opportunity to unleash what you love about
yourself into an environment so that you can be used in the way you were made to serve.

Passion.

It helps them understand what makes you tick. Employers dont want people who are always
questioning their own giftedness and calling. They want employees who understand the way
they were created, and know how to use that to intersect with others.

Start Today: Simple Steps to Get Yourself Ready

All of this talk about how different the job market is today is interesting, huh? Were living in
the middle of fantastic changes, and its certainly fun to watch how technology and market
demands are reshaping the world.
But really, all of this is just talk unless you take advantage of these new realities. This journey
begins with a starting point. Whats yours?
Here are a few simple steps you can take right now to participate in these new realities. Tackle them one at a time. Theres no need to set a to-do list in stone, and militantly adhere to
that list. Read these steps over, commit to accomplish them, and allow yourself to tackle the
ones that are most important to you first.

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Research the Market

Its important to know how these new realities affect the job youd like to have one day. Will
you really need to use social media? How important is an entrepreneurial mind? While these
are great ideas for the general job market, you need to research how each of these new realities affect your specific discipline.
So, research your future job market. Take time to discover where its heading, and use these
principles to position yourself in the best possible way. How do you do that? Fire up your
web browser, type in The Future Of X (replace X with your future job) and read the top few
articles that the search returns. Then, think back over the contents of this book. What new
realities are shaping the profession you want to enter?

Shake Yourself Up

You cant live in a boring cocoon. You cant afford to be that person who doesnt dance at the
party. A stale life begets a stale employee. Starting this journey likely means that you need a
bit of a shake up, a new perspective on yourself, your environment, your skills and passion.
Spend time this week doing things youd never do. Stay up an hour later. Eat food that grosses you out a little. Do something alone, in silence. As youre seeking adventure, keep track of
how it feels to step out in this way. And remember, the more adventurous you are, the better
stories youll have to share in job interviews.

Seek a Mentor

Chances are, until you invite someone to invest in you, youll never move off the square
youre on right now. If youre like most people, you need someone to link arms with, walk
forward with you, and challenge you to become better.
You dont have to create a long process for selecting a mentor. Simply invite someone to
invest into your life for at least one year. After youve created a list youd like to accomplish
together, schedule regular bi-weekly meetings. Then, commit to that schedule. Be brutally
honest with each other, and allow yourself to be taught by this person.

Flex Your Connectivity

The world doesnt know what you think until you tell it. Employers dont know how connected you are until you show them. The burden is on you to tell them what you think. You need
to start blogging.
Blogs are free and easy to start. Begin one and emote about your favorite dessert, draft a
poem or write a review of a favorite book. And remember, the best blog posts arent super
long, and they arent heavily referenced or in depth intellectual critiques. Simply unpack
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what you think about something youre passionate about. Post a link to those thoughts on
Twitter and Facebook, and be ready to field comments.

Talk About Yourself

You wont be ready to interview until youre able to talk about how great you are. Seek out a
trusted friend, offer to buy them lunch, and ask them to listen to you talk about yourself and
your accomplishments. Embrace how good it feels to talk about the stuff youve done. Invite
your friend to critique your presentation and your content. Ask them to help you strike a
healthy balance between confidence and humility.
You have been created to do something amazing, but you have to step out there, take advantage of how you were made and use that in the world. The world needs you to invest
yourself and everything that you are into it, to shape it and make it amazing.
If you dont have your Bachelors degree yet, wed love for you to check out CollegePlus. We
offer you the opportunity to earn your Bachelors degree in a way that gives you the freedom
to get work and life experience at the same time. Our program doesnt just enable you to
earn your degree in the way you were created, we give you the space and tools to take advantage of the way you were made and gain life experience, so you can make your mark on
the world.
For more information go to www.collegeplus.org.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tim Baker is a youth worker, writer and editor from

Longview, Texas. Hes an award winning author of
eighteen books including Jesus is for Liars and Leave
a Footprint, Change the Whole World. Hes the Senior
Editor for Immerse Journal, a ministry journal for youth
workers. Hes been an adjunct professor for LeTourneau
University since 1999. Hes married to Jacqui and they
have three kids.

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