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One of the most difficult things for any college student to accomplish is to determine the career field they wish to enter. When you are not yet ready to enter the professional world, it can be extremely difficult to search for a career. There are a variety of different ways in which you can find not just a job, but a career that will suit you. The first thing that should be done when searching for a career is to put pen to paper and begin narrowing down the possibilities. You might begin by considering the types of working conditions in which you think you could work best. Would you prefer to work indoors in an office environment or outdoors? Do you like the idea of traveling or would you prefer to be based in one location? You should also give some thought to whether you prefer to work independently or with people. Also, think about whether you would prefer to dress-up to go to work or you like the idea of wearing casual clothing to work.

Once you have given thought to these areas, it is time to take your career search a step further. It can also be helpful to take an interest inventory. You can find these online as well as in your local college career center. An interest inventory will give you an idea of the areas in which you have the highest interest and guide you in the direction of possible careers that you may find to be suitable. This can be a great way to narrow down your options if you find that you are interested in a variety of different fields. You might also consider taking an aptitude test to determine specific career fields in which you may have the most aptitude.

Once you have a few possible ideas, it is time to harness the power of the Internet. Take the time to research various types of jobs and career through career search sites. You can discover a wealth of information about practically any type of career or job online. It is also a good idea to talk to a few people who are involved in the types of careers that you think might interest you. This is a great way to gain information and research those careers in order to determine if they might truly be right for you.

Another great career search tip is to volunteer in a variety of different capacities. If you have strong interest in many different fields then this can give you a personal one-on-one idea of exactly what that career involves. Volunteer positions also provide you with excellent work experience which you can later list on a resume for either an internship position or a career position once you have graduated college.

Unfortunately, many college graduates make the same critical mistake in their career search; they blast off as many resumes as they can to as many employers as they can find and hope that one of them hits a target. This might work in darts, but it is rarely successful when launching a search for your first job. The problem with this strategy when you are looking for a job is that one size really does not fit all.

What many job seekers fail to realize is the sheer number of resumes that are submitted for any single position. Employers and hiring managers are often inundated with piles of resumes and applications. Like everyone else, they also have other duties to which they must attend. This means that they spend as little time as possible going through those piles of resumes. As a result, if you want to stand out, you need to make sure that your resume stands out first. If you do not take the time to customize your resume to the particular job for which you are applying then you will usually find that you never hear anything at all about that job.

One of the reasons that many people take this approach is that they feel that basically any job will do after they have spent the last several years in college. The problem with this is that mangers are looking for someone who is really interested in the position, not just someone who is looking to take any job that comes their way. Put yourself in the manager’s shoes. Who would you rather hire? Someone who put the time and effort into writing a resume just to apply for that particular job or someone who is simply submitting the same resume they have also submitted for the last two dozen jobs for which they applied?

Keep in mind that it is really the details that are noticed in a resume. If you take the time to look at the job posting, you will see that there are plenty of clues regarding the skills, experience and educational background that the employer is seeking in the ideal candidate for the position. When you identify those characteristics and then highlight them on your resume, you will have a much better chance of standing out from the competition.

While customizing your resumes, and even your cover letters, will take more time than using the one size fits all approach, it is definitely worth it. Rather than having to send out tons of resumes during your career search, you will be able to immediately improve your chances of landing the right job far sooner than you might expect.

Many students make the same mistake when it comes to internships; they focus on getting the internship and fail to realize that once the internship has ended there are critical steps that need to be taken. Internships can be an excellent coup to include on your resume once you are embarking in the professional world and starting your career search. In order to make the most of your internship, there are steps that should be taken immediately after your internship has ended to maximize its potential for future use.

First, you need to spend a bit of time evaluating what you learned in the internship. The real goal of an internship is to give you some real world experience that can help you to determine whether you would like to do that type of job after you graduate. Did you find the duties to be dull and boring or did you find them interesting? What about that actual field? Do you think that you would even like to be in that field? Finally, consider the work environment. Were you pleased with it? By answering these questions, you can gain an idea of whether this is a career option that you would like to consider further or whether it is something you would like to completely rule out.

Beyond taking stock of what you learned during the internship, you also need to go ahead and take the time to update your resume. If you wait to do this you may find that you have forgotten critical pieces of information. Take the time to write down all of the duties that you performed during your internship. Even if they seem trivial, go ahead and write them down. It is also a good idea to make note of particular areas of expertise to which you were exposed during your internship.

You should also make sure that you go ahead and send thank you notes to your primary internship supervisor as well as any other individuals with whom you worked closely during your internship. Make sure you mention how they made your internship valuable and what you learned from the experience. Even if it turned out that you did not care for the internship, you should still follow-up with a thank you note.

If you find that you enjoyed the internship then you might think about contacting those persons you met during your internship periodically to make sure you remain fresh in their minds. This can prove to be an excellent networking resource in the future. Finally, go ahead and request letters of recommendation now as they can be critical when you start on your career search.