There’s a significant difference between being good at something and enjoying what you do. When you are good at something, you are in a state of comfort – you know how everything works, you understand what is needed to be successful, and you are in a safe space. You may be a really good pianist that plays in concerts or a good lawyer that wins cases easily. However, if you do not love what you are doing, then work becomes just that…work.

• Intern
• Get Involved in Student Organizations
• Take Electives
• Network with Individuals in Your Field of Interest (and conduct informational interviews)
• Work on Campus (you never know, you may turn that part-time recreation job into a full-time one)
• Try free online courses

Student organizations are not the only way to get involved on campus. Having an on-campus job is a good way too. You do not necessarily have to find a job that relates to your future career, but it is always good to have spare cash on hand when you want to go on a weekend skiing trip or to the beach.

Most universities employ hundreds of students every year. You can sometimes find jobs with excellent benefits, including free meals (working in the dining halls), free housing (residence hall advisor), or even priority registration (depending on your school: campus tour operators, shuttle drivers, and office assistants). There are many opportunities available ranging from recreation instructors to orientation interns. Search the career services center, human resources website, or look at job posting boards at your school to see what is available.

You can try different jobs every quarter/semester or stay in the same job for the entire time you are at college. The nice part about working on campus is that your supervisors understand that you are students first and employees second. This means that they will try to setup a work schedule for you that revolves around your classes. Your supervisors will also understand why you need a day off before a huge final project is due. However, make sure to be ethical and not just say you have a test coming up so you can skip days of work!

Colleges prefer hiring students, so it is easier for you to get hired and also, the job is on campus, which saves you a lot of driving. In the end, on-campus jobs give you work experience, which is vital for your resume.

Working in a part-time job, while attending school, will teach you a lot about time management, responsibility, and working with others. Again, trust me when I say this: the more you have to do, the more productive you become. You will not spend an entire day watching television or playing video games if you know that you have to work from 6-10pm and you have a midterm the next day. Working and going to school can be very time consuming, but if you manage your time right, you will still have plenty of time to hangout with friends, watch your favorite televsion show, go to an organization meeting, and get enough sleep.

Having a job requires a certain amount of responsibility. Even if you do not have a supervisor directly watching over you, you are still expected to show up to work on time. Also, to be able to work, you will likely need to learn new skills (i.e. driving a shuttle, computer tech support, cooking). Mastering these new skills can be a good confidence builder. And keeping an on-campus job through college shows future employers or graduate schools that you are a dedicated, hard-working student willing to learn new things.

You may even be able to work your way up to a job where you get to train new employees. This will improve your leadership and mentoring skills. While I was an undergraduate student, I worked as a surf instructor for the Recreation Department. This was a great job because I only worked four hours per week and by my second year I helped create new surf classes, worked on lesson plans, and trained new instructors. I learned not only how to teach, but how to improve class lessons so that students would be safer in the water. By my fourth year, I was even the most experienced instructor, because the older students had graduated and found full-time jobs. You will not find moving up in the real world to be as easy. Working as a surf instructor helped develop my leadership and communication skills, while also being an incredibly fun job!

I also worked as a resident advisor my third and fourth year. This job prepared me to work in just about any career out there. For my residents, I was not just the person who enforced policies or hosted entertaining programs, I was also the one to go to for any problems (on campus, family, friends, or just in life) or to ask advice on what classes to take or what to major in. I was given a huge responsibility and I took my job very seriously.

At my first job interview, I was able to answer almost half of the questions (all about experiences) by just saying that I was a resident advisor and explaining some of the situations I had to handle. As a resident advisor, I was trained in many areas, including diversity, conflict management, problem solving, and listening skills. My leadership and communication skills vastly improved throughout my two years. I worked in the residential life office five hours, once every three weeks, as part of the job. This is where I learned administrative and customer service skills. Once I had finished my job as a resident advisor, I felt confident handling almost any situation. And, even though I was not completely qualified for an administrative job, the skills I had learned and the confidence I had developed as a resident advisor helped me succeed in getting an administrative job after graduation.

One of the most important tips I can give those of you intent on getting good grades is to step away from so much studying and start doing! This may sound ridiculous, because you are going to college for an education. However, there is much more to education than “book learning.” Experiences outside of the classroom can provide you with essential skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, and leadership, which are very important to have for any job. Studies have even shown that college students consider their learning experiences outside the classroom more valuable than their experiences inside the classroom (Seidman, 2006).

Studying seems to be the number one excuse that students use when it comes to missing out on many of the life building opportunities available in college. College classes can be hard; there’s no doubt about it. But spending every waking hour studying for midterms, stressing over finals, and working on projects is not what your total college experience should be about. While graduating with high honors from a prestigious college will look good on a resume, it is not the only thing you need to get a job these days. You need experience, a variety of skills, references, letters of recommendation, and a multitude of other things just to get a job.

Of course I am not saying that you should stop studying altogether. Instead, you need to find a balance between classes and everything else available for you to do. It is possible to be a full-time student, work, intern, compete on a sports team, be involved with student organizations, and still have time to relax everyday. I enjoyed all of these experiences at UC San Diego, while still earning Provost’s Honors every quarter, and I ended up graduating Cum Laude. It is all about time management. And believe me when I say this: the more you have to do, the more productive you will be with your time.

One of my mottos during college was to never miss an event because of studying or losing a little bit of sleep. If I knew I had an all-day track competition coming up, I would start studying a few days earlier than normal. If one of my friends was having trouble dealing with relationship problems and we spent three hours talking (when I should have been studying for a midterm), I would not stress out because I had a few hours free in my schedule the next day to prepare for the midterm.

Planning and time management are key things to help you make the most of your college years. So when you are deciding about whether or not to join a student club or take a weekend ski trip, do not let studying be a factor in that decision. Take advantage of every activity and event that comes your way and study later (or earlier if you can plan ahead). And don’t waste your time procrastinating and “relaxing.”

However, just as it is not good to spend all of your time in college studying, don’t spend all of your free time playing video games or partying. Your time in college should be valued, because throughout college you will have the chance to learn more about yourself and find a direction for your life. You should use your years as a college student to your advantage so that you do not end up graduating and wondering where to go next.

If you balance your time in college appropriately, you can have many wonderful experiences and graduate with new skills, work experience, professional job contacts, and the confidence that you are on the right track to pursuing the career of your dreams. So how do you make the college experience worthwhile? Do internships in jobs you are interested in to see whether you are majoring in the right field. Take advantage of the multitude of programs that offer free food. Get involved on campus and make connections with students, staff, and faculty that can help you out. Take time for yourself and relax or travel to contemplate what you are really interested in.

Most importantly, make your college experience something to remember. Regardless of what college you attend, you should be able to have fun and enjoy your time at any college. Your college memories will be based on the friends you meet, the opportunities you take advantage of, and the fun times you have. So even if you are attending a college that other students have deemed “unsocial” or an “Academic-only’ school, you will be surprised how much is really going on at that school if you get involved.

Academic Mentors
When you enter college, you should start looking for an academic mentor. An academic mentor is someone that will help you with advice about classes to take or how to get into graduate school. These types of mentors can be Academic Advisors or they can be older students in your clubs, classes, or residence halls. Some colleges offer to set freshmen up with junior or senior mentors (if this is offered at your college you should take advantage of this amazing program). Older, more experienced students are beneficial people to ask for advice in academics. If you think you may be in the wrong major, find a mentor in another major you may be interested in. They can tell you what they enjoy about the classes they are taking, what they plan on doing after graduation, or why they recommend the major. This will help give you a sense of whether you would enjoy that field of study.

Academic advisors are very useful resources as well. There may be academic advisors for your entire college or advisors for every department. Academic advisors are very knowledgeable about the classes offered and can help recommend courses that will be beneficial to you. These are also good people to ask about transferring college credits (from high school or community college) or which classes you should take if you are an undecided major. The best part is that you can get their help and advice free of charge. So, why not spend 30 minutes of your time checking in with an advisor at least once a year to make sure you are on track to graduate when you want to.

Professional Mentors
Professional mentors are very valuable. Professional mentors can be a work supervisor, college professor, alumni, or anyone else that can help you in the job market. Look for someone where you are interning or working to be your mentor. Let’s say that you befriend a person who has worked for three years as an administrative assistant to the Executive Vice President of the company. This person will be able to help you out with finding your way around the workplace, meeting new people, giving you tips on how to survive your new boss, or even presenting you with information about problems between workers.

Having a mentor in the workplace is very important and beneficial, but you do not need to go looking for one or asking everyone in your office. If you present yourself in a professional manner, with a smile and enthusiastic willingness to learn, one of your co-workers or your supervisor may offer to help you out. They will not necessarily say, “I will be your mentor,” but they may give you important insider tips and advice or they could introduce you to people and help you expand your network of connections.


To learn more about the value of mentors, read Marshall Brown's Having a Mentor Can Help

Pre-professional organizations are good to join whether you have a specific career goal in mind or you want to learn more about certain professions. You will usually find pre-professional organizations for engineering, technical & medical fields, advertising & journalism, and political science (law). These groups help you meet other students that are also interested in working in the same career. The main goals of pre-professional organizations are fostering professional growth, building leadership and communication skills, and providing opportunities to connect with people currently working in that profession.

Whether you go on a tour or setup your entire trip on your own with friends, you will still strengthen many important life skills. Flexibility is one of the most common skills you can build when traveling. During your trip, you may miss an important bus or train that was supposed to get you to your next destination at a certain time. You may end up booking a hotel online and getting to the country only to find out that the hotel no longer exists (These things do happen. I’ve had personal experience in all of these situations). This is when you take a deep breath, find the next bus or a new hotel, and spend your free time exploring the city. It is generally hard for people to learn to be adaptable and flexible when they are set on certain time schedules, have agendas to follow, and are in a foreign country where everything is completely different. However, learning to turn the mishaps into positive situations can be a very beneficial skill.

Most companies like to have employees who can adapt and improvise when something goes wrong. Just imagine: a co-worker, who was supposed to put on an extremely important presentation to the Board of Directors, calls in sick and you are the only one at work to cover for him or her. This is a stressful situation, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Especially if you can think back on the time you missed the last train to Madrid for the entire week and your flight from Madrid back home was in two days. You found another train heading towards a city two hours north of Madrid and booked a ticket. When you arrived, you used your little knowledge of Spanish to find your way around the new city and get a bus to Madrid that arrived two hours before your flight the next day. If you have experiences like this to look back on, you can realize that those situations were far more stressful than this work challenge. So you can have far more confidence handling this challenge at work. Being able to adapt to the new situation, take initiative instead of giving up, using all of the resources available, and keeping a cool head during the whole event will definitely prepare you to deal with any circumstances at work.

One of the most valuable skills that you should learn during college is networking. If your college offers a networking seminar or presentations on professional development, make sure to save time in your schedule to attend a few of these workshops. Networking means creating a connection between yourself and the other people around you. These people can be participants at an event, members in your organization, or staff and faculty at your college.

Networking plays a key role at campus and community mixers, and professional events. Networking means that when you attend an event, you do not go straight to the food or stand in the corner, instead, you mingle among the other participants. If you are shy, this may be hard for you at first, but it will get easier. And it is a wonderful way to reduce your shyness. A good rule for mingling at events is that it is easier to approach one person or a group, compared to two or three in deep conversation. If you need help starting conversations, try finding a common ground.

Finding a common ground can be a lot easier than you think if you ask the right questions and pay attention to important details, such as shirt or backpack logos or what type of food the person is eating. For example, if you see someone across the room wearing a “Pike Athletics” shirt you already know he was in a fraternity and also might enjoy playing sports. Regardless of your interest in sports or Greek Life, you can still approach this person and ask him what he enjoyed most about being in a Fraternity or what sports he played. He may end up talking about doing a philanthropy event with his fraternity, which you were also involved with in college, and now you have something to chat about.

There are many other questions you can ask to start a conversation, including: