Congratulations Class of 2012: Remember your internships!
We at the Chamber want to send our congratulations to the Greater Boston-Area Classes of 2012! With hard work and perseverance, you are now entering a new time in your life. As you know, you have important decisions to make and potentially wonderful things ahead of you! Many of you now will be looking for full-time jobs, and so we would like to offer you a few words of advice as you go out into this dynamic world:
Remember your strengths. You have learned a lot about yourself in the last few years of your life. You have learned more about what you like, what you don't like, what you want to do, and who you want to be. Use those strengths and that knowledge to decide where to go from here. You have completed coursework, worked at internships, had summer jobs, worked with professors on projects, volunteered, participated in fundraising events, been an active part of student clubs, tutored, babysat, any combination therein, and more- make sure all of that is reflected in your resume and in the skills you bring to the table as you job search. Call upon old networks, don’t be afraid of finding new networks and using every engine available to you to catalyze the next stage in your career.
Many of you completed internships during your time in college- excellent choice! Now you must apply that knowledge, that experience, and those skills, to your new endeavors. No matter what your internship was, what you did, where you were, who your boss was, or what field your internship was in- there was something to be learned. Experience is experience- whether you learned something about your field, a field you have decided isn't for you, what to do in meetings, or what NOT to do in meetings, you can now go forward with new and important knowledge about the working world. You might have learned what qualifies as “business casual,” what to talk about at lunch with a boss, how to organize your thoughts in a communicative way, how to meet with clients, how to utilize the knowledge you have learned in school, and so much more. Use all of that new knowledge to your advantage, and always continue learning.
Good luck, Class of 2012! Whatever you choose to do, and however you choose to do it, make choices that reflect all you have learned, and help the world be ever-improving.