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except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
In memory of our best friend, Kendall A. Wernet.
You put your heart and soul into this book.
A boring life is a wasted life.
Who is This Book For?
Nothing greater is on the forefront of a graduating students mind than obtaining that perfect job. When it comes time to graduate from college, the majority of society will emphasize the importance of facing the real world.
Your mother and father probably cannot wait to see their baby bird depart from their nest. More than likely, you dont want to live there either because you have a world to explore! Perhaps the thought of being viewed as a failure by your peers due to your lack of employment has you worried. Not to mention that you may have thousands of dollars of debt piled up from your years of school. If you agree with any of these thoughts, then this book is for you.
It was at this very point of realization, panic, and desperation that this book was conceptualized. We wanted to provide a resource of hope and guidance to anyone striving to overcome the overwhelming job search. This book will take you on an explicit journey to help you master some very important steps to increase your chances of landing that job. In this book, we cover three vital stages you must master to succeed in your job search:
- We show you how to master a career fair and uncover a proven method that less than 1% of candidates have discovered.
- We give you an inside look into the different types of interview styles you might encounter and how to approach and conquer them.
- We give you guidance from a philosophical point of view when it comes to deciding what job is right for you.
This is a practical guide that simplifies the process, eliminates the unknowns, and explains how to master the essentials.
But first, let us introduce ourselves. Together we have formed a development business, Driven Vision, focused on the mission of helping you Elevate Your Future. The founders of Driven Vision, as well as the authors of this book, are: Alex Dalpiaz, Hunter Freeman, and Kendall Wernet. We all come from different backgrounds and experiences. We are Generation Y individuals and can relate to the struggles and obstacles facing our generation.
We have been professionally working together for over three years, coaching motivated college students in the field of self development. We decided to capitalize on our knowledge, expand our teachings, and fuel our passion of developing individuals by creating this book to give readers an edge in the career search. We are very passionate about helping people achieve success and measure our own success based on that of others. We devoted a lot of time, effort, and energy into this book, and we hope you find it valuable. Everything discussed in this book is based on personal experience. There is no fluff in anything we talk about. We give you specific and precise tips, methods, and actions that can positively affect you and your career search. Everything in this book is advice we have applied to our own lives and endeavors. We have coached individuals using these tips to test our methods and found them to be effective.
Before you read any further, you must decide for yourself that you are willing to be COACHABLE. We define being coachable as being able to take information and advice and apply it in an effective fashion as prescribed.
If you are willing to step out of your comfort zone and evolve your current mindset, you are going to benefit the most from this book. If you are closed off to the ideas presented, we fear a lack of success will be your destiny. We hope you truly appreciate this book, gain confidence, and yield success through the information provided. Enjoy!
What is Your Goal?
Not Becoming Part of a Jobless Generation
Before we dive into some helpful information, lets set the stage for you and build in some perspective. If youre reading this book, you have taken a very positive step forward in accomplishing your goal to land a job. Graduation is approaching very quickly, and you now have to put your attention and effort toward your future. If you are like the average college graduate these days, you are graduating with nearly $29,400 worth of debt (as of 2012) with no end in sight, according to Time Magazine . That amount will take an average college student (assuming you attain a fulltime job) anywhere from 10-20 years to pay off. In addition, Time Magazine also revealed that 11.5% of student loans were delinquent. Just imagine 10% of your income being instantaneously subtracted from your paycheck to pay back your student loans for the next 15 years of your life. Student loans are debts that you cannot run from and will haunt you forever.
Although student loans provide an otherwise impossible means for many people to attend college from a financial standpoint, they are not just going to disappear. Not to mention by the time you do pay them off, you have paid back nearly twice of what you originally borrowed.
Big numbers and mounting debt are scary to any graduating student, but what we want you to realize is how important it is to allow yourself freedom from these debts and relieve stress by landing a job. College graduates are now having a harder time gaining employment than ever before.
We have been deemed a jobless generation for good reason. Graduating students are underemployed, underpaid, and face a lifetime of financial burdens because of the lack of job market opportunities. It is competition at its finest. Getting a degree is not good enough to translate into a guaranteed job. You have to work for a job. Getting a job is a job all in itself. We want you to gain this perspective because we truly want you to fall in the category of the individuals who DO obtain a position upon graduation. We believe the toughest part is actually getting the opportunity to interview and exhibit yourself as a qualified candidate for that position .
Everything you have learned is of little value until you have an opportunity to showcase it to a potential employer. This is why the lessons and advice in this book give you that extra boost you need to put you in front of someone to share your story. As stressful as it may be, it is also a very exciting time for you. This is what all your hard work in school has led up to. You are at the doorstep of a whole new adventure.
CAREER FAIR
One of the most intimidating situations for a job hunter is the moment you walk into a Career Fair. A career fair is an amazing opportunity in which roles are reversed and the employers come to you. The advice and strategies we have collected are steps that less than 1% of people know about and increase your chances of landing that desired job. A career fair is usually your first time in front of an employer, and it can be a valuable opportunity that either makes you or breaks you.
The first thing to keep in mind when attempting to conquer a career fair is to know your audience. In this situation, your audience is the employers attending the event. This is the time when doing significant research on the event itself and the employers will surely pay off. Just about every career fair makes it known ahead of time who will be in attendance, and this can be used to your advantage