You’ve been eyeing the job boards lately, looking for that perfect internship to kick-start your professional career. Then, suddenly, it’s the end of March. The warmer weather is an ominous reminder that you might have to beg your old boss at that dreaded customer service job to take you back.
Searching for summer work as a student can be stressful. When else in life do you have to cycle through unemployment and full-time employment so frequently? The added stress of exams and the foreknowledge that that tuition payment isn’t so far away don’t help, either.
So what’s the best thing to do? Blow off studying for finals and use the time to hand out resumes? Hope that summer work will land in your lap? Give up on seeking opportunities that further your career and fall back on an old job that will pay the bills? The answer: none of the above.
Finals are overwhelming, and job hunting can be stressful, but the good news is that doing both is not unmanageable. We live in a world where, even if you walk into an office in a suit, resume in hand, you will be informed you that the application process begins online. Take advantage of this.
Take advantage of online applications.
Instead of making job-hunting a huge task that you put off until the last day of exams, budget time for it now. Wake up half an hour earlier every day, get the coffee on, and discipline yourself to apply for just one job a day. This will help you focus on applying with quality, instead of the exhaustive “I’ll just hand my resume to every single business in the neighborhood and hope for the best” approach.
Read the job description and the qualifications, and apply for positions that you would hire yourself for. It is great to stretch yourself, but you’re probably not a CEO, so don’t waste your time and the employer’s time. Take a few minutes to cater your resume to the qualifications that the employer is looking for (provided, of course, that you possess them), and take the extra 10 minutes to write a cover letter.
With the stress of final papers and exams, too often we leave summer job hunting to the bottom of the to-do list, and end up with work that isn’t furthering us in the long run. Set aside some extra time to look for positions that will build your resume and apply for them with integrity. Doing so will set yourself up for success, and save yourself a lot of stress at the end of April.
