Los Angeles and Orange County HAPPO II: The College Years
TweetThis Friday morning, I will be supporting the latest HAPPO – Help a PR Pro Out – search on Twitter by helping connect Los Angeles and Orange County area PR students with agencies and companies that have openings.
If you have any openings that you would like me to share, ping me at ron-at-rantonette-dot-com and I’ll circulate them Friday. Or, simply please join with us on Friday by including the hashtags #HAPPOLA or #HAPPOOC in your tweets this and I will retweet.
One line of questioning that I always ask graduates in job interviews is about their “off the resume” jobs. Not the internships or entry-level opportunities they list, but the summer jobs that helped them learn about what they don’t teach you in college: customer service, working to deadline pressure. Or, “waitressing,” as an old boss used to call it. It also helped tell me if you got along with your bosses and colleagues – were hired you back summer after summer?
I’ve had five “career” positions in 20-plus years, in part because clients always change so the opportunities evolve. But two of the best “jobs” I’ve had involved delivering pizzas – once for the neighborhood sandwich shop that my pal, Nick (congrats on the new baby!), and I loved; another summer where another best friend was the manager and we’d sample the new draft beers after closing time.
I know we push college students to get lots of internships by spending their summers padding those resumes to land that perfect, first job. At some firms, multiple internships are a requirement just to get your resume past the screener and into the inbox of the office internship coordinator.
But summers are for making memories. You only get four, maybe five, summers before the career roller coaster begins in earnest. Make them count.
