{"id":330,"date":"2018-06-13T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/?p=330"},"modified":"2018-03-28T15:19:15","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T15:19:15","slug":"4-ways-your-summer-job-can-jumpstart-your-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/2018\/06\/13\/4-ways-your-summer-job-can-jumpstart-your-career\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways Your Summer Job Can Jumpstart Your Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are you making the most of your summer job? Perhaps you\u2019re \u201cjust waitressing\u201d or working at the mall or a grocery store. But, did you know that a temporary summer job can help boost your future career?<\/p>\n

In fact, did you know that New York City\u2019s Mayor Michael Bloomberg was once a parking lot attendant? Or that Howie Mandel started out as an amusement park attendant? There are lots of great stories about first jobs of many famous and successful people in this\u00a0MSN Money story<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 but my point is this: just because you\u2019re not in your dream job now, doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t be working like you\u2019re in your dream job.<\/p>\n

So, how can you make the most of your summer job?<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0Don\u2019t treat it like \u201cjust a summer job.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Whether you\u2019re working at a fast food restaurant, in retail or even babysitting, this is your chance to build a foundation of experience! Look closely at your job responsibilities. What skills do you use every day at work that can be applied to your future career?<\/p>\n

Likely, you\u2019re building organizational skills and you\u2019re learning to be accountable for yourself, and you\u2019re undoubtedly gaining customer service experience. All of these things are called\u00a0transferable skills<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a versatile set of skills that you can apply to more than one job.<\/p>\n

So, while you may not even be working in your major field this summer, you are gaining experience that can be applied to your future career. Take your job seriously this summer!<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0Be Proactive<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Use your summer job as an opportunity to try new things, experiment with your abilities and gain new skills. To do this, you need to set some realistic goals and establish clear communication with your supervisor.<\/p>\n

Perhaps you can request to work on a special project or shadow another employee who has greater responsibilities than you; or you can ask for some responsibilities beyond your day-to-day tasks.<\/p>\n

Want to gain some financial acumen? Ask to shadow someone in the accounting department. Want to improve your organizational skills? Ask to lead a project or take on responsibilities in the stock room. If you think about all of the departments that make the business run where you\u2019re working this summer, you\u2019ll likely see opportunities in many areas.<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0Assess Your Strengths and Weaknesses<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As you gain experience this summer, make a list of your accomplishments \u2013 and your failures. What were you good at? What didn\u2019t go so well? What did you love to do? What did you decide that you never want to do again?<\/p>\n

Once you have a list that summarizes your summer work experience, you can use this information to help build your resume and a list of skills that you want to either acquire or improve on in the coming months. This process can help you choose classes for the fall \u2013 for example, if you learn that speaking in front of others is a weakness, you can take a public speaking class. Creating this list can also help you in selecting internships and finding future jobs that will help advance your skill set as you prepare for your future career.<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0Find a Mentor<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Perhaps more important than any other aspect of your summer job, you are provided an opportunity to develop relationships with others who could become\u00a0a mentor<\/a>\u00a0to you. Having a mentor to guide you in your career development, to help you network with others and to provide honest feedback and suggestions about your work, your skills and your potential \u2026 is priceless.<\/p>\n

Some of the most successful people have sought a mentor at a various times in their career. In fact, many executives continue to seek mentors long into their well-established careers. Some even have more than one mentor at a time! Once established, though, these relationships will encourage you to stretch and reach for your potential, to truly build your legacy and your career.<\/p>\n

So, while you might think of your summer job as \u201cjust a summer job,\u201d think again. As Steve Martin once said, \u201cI just believe that the interesting time in a career is pre-success, what shaped things, how did you get to this point.\u201d Now is your time to write your story, to build your success, before you have a career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you making the most of your summer job? Perhaps you\u2019re \u201cjust waitressing\u201d or working at the mall or a grocery store. But, did you know that a temporary summer job can help boost your future career? In fact, did you know that New York City\u2019s Mayor Michael Bloomberg was once a parking lot attendant? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,14,10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-advice","8":"category-general-post","9":"category-tips"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/03\/1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions\/332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}