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.

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:

In 2005, the U.S. Labor Department predicted that 18 million graduates would be competing for 14 million college-level jobs and 80% of these jobs will require vocational training (Gault 45). It is no wonder that students are looking into internships as a means of gaining new skills and getting ahead in the job market.

In fact, these days, internships are almost as important as a college degree. Companies do not want to hire people who are “trying out” a job for the first time. They would rather have employees that have already interned or worked in the same career field and already know that they enjoy working there. And many companies prefer people who have tried out a variety of fields through interning.

One of the main reasons employers hire people with internship experience is that they have already spent the time learning the ropes, making mistakes (or watching others make and spend time correcting mistakes), and understanding the working world. Just remember, “The man who does things makes many mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all – doing nothing” (Benjamin Franklin). The more you do at an internship (whether you succeed or fail), the more you will learn and be able to apply that knowledge toward your next internship or career.

At an internship you may learn how to work 8-hour workdays five days a week (or maybe even overtime), how to handle workplace politics, and what the industry’s buzzwords are (every industry has its own “language”), along with a variety of other skills. However, internships are not only a learning experience, they can help you decide what career you would like to pursue and provide you with ways to get that career.

The best way to discover the right career for you is to do as many internships as possible during college – start your freshman year if you can. According to VAULT’s 2006 Internship Survey, “31% of students will have completed one internship by the summer after graduation, while 53% of the students will have completed 2 or more internships.” So you are not alone if you want to experiment in a few different fields by doing multiple internships.

Internships will help you discover what you are truly passionate about. By “passionate,” I mean that you want to find a job where ten or fifteen years from now you are excited to jump out of bed to go to that same job (or field). You will be spending the next forty years of your life working, so internships are an important step in helping you find something that you love doing while also making money.
If you think having an internship means working for free at a job where you have to run and get coffee, copy thousands of pages from a book, or answer phones all day long, you may be surprised to learn that not all internships are boring and full of trivial tasks. You may get to help out in the Emergency Room, learn how to train guide dogs, or give your advice on a new video game. And the good news is that internships have so many benefits that they will actually outweigh any tedious tasks you may end up doing as an intern.

The most important part of an internship is discovering what you like or dislike about working in that field. In an internship, you do not necessarily have to decide what your exact career title will be, but you can figure out what aspects of the internship you enjoy and would like in a future career and what aspects to avoid. The job market is huge and there seem to be more and more complex job titles popping up everywhere. Your internship won’t necessarily help you decide that you will be a Quality Assurance Specialist in a biotech company, but it will help you realize that you do not care to do experiments and research.

You have probably heard the saying, “it’s not about what you know…it’s about who you know.” Well, actually, it's about who you know and who knows you! The more connections you make, the more people who you can reach out to for advice, support, and internship/job opportunities.