- Hey everyone, me, Hallease,
endeavoring to persevere as always.
We have Tramelle back for this next installment
of the "Trying To Be Somebody" series.
She is gonna come at us with
the top three things you should be considering
if you are graduating from high school and college.
(jazz music)
- So, I actually work a lot with a lot of graduates,
and, although there is, of course, a lot of pressure
for them to figure out what's next for them,
not everybody knows as soon as they graduate
what they're going to do,
and so what I suggest is these three things, they should be:
Talking, searching, and working
towards finding out what's next for them.
So with talking, what that means is,
you should be telling everybody
exactly what it is you want to do.
I have a lot of my college grads who come out
with a very specific degree, and they've taken time
and they're passionate about it,
but you know how you go to these graduation parties
and you've got that old aunt who's like
"Baby, what did you do?!"
- (laughs) Yes.
- You have to counter that, but in everybody, right?
And so you should be telling everybody
exactly what it is that you have finished with,
and what doors you expect to be open with that degree.
- It's almost like a manifestation.
- You have to man! You can't be shy about it.
You worked your butt off, you deserve this.
- Mhm.
- So let's now open some doors.
And the way that I suggest that people do that is,
to craft an email, and that should go to your family,
even that old aunt who doesn't know anything
about the internets.
- [Hallease] Mhm, mhm.
- Craft an email that says,
"I just completed my degree in such and such,
I'm really excited to start working
in this, this, or this position.
I just wanted to let you know
just in case any of these positions come across your lap.
Here is my resume just in case."
What happens with that is,
if you tell somebody, "Oh, I'm looking for work.",
they're gonna be like, "Oh, okay, good luck!".
- (laughs)
- But when you tell somebody specifically
what you're looking for,
and they're out in the world,
and they hear that, they're gonna be like,
"Oh yeah, I remember, such and such is looking for that.
I'm gonna tell them about this."
Or, what's best, is when they already have your resume
on hand, and they move forward
because you've already told them what you want.
- Yeah, and it hits all those boxes, so what--
- [Tramelle] Exactly.
- I don't need to check in with you--
- [Tramelle] I already know.
- You already checked in with me.
- So that's the best thing to do.
For you to actually send in a well crafted email.
Please don't let it be crap,
because that's just gonna kill all your chances.
- Yeah.
- So a well crafted email that has everything
that you're interested in, everything you're looking for,
and you send that out to colleagues,
you send that out to old professors,
you send that out to your friends,
and make sure that you're also sending that out
to the people who you consider
to be professional or personal mentors.
I think that's the best way to go.
So that's talking.
Okay, so the second thing you should be doing is searching,
and I guess that's obvious, right?
- [Hallease] Mhm.
- Of course you're gonna be looking for jobs online,
or you're going to be looking for jobs in person,
but the thing that we don't think about is the fact that
with our college grads, there are college career centers.
Their total purpose in life
is to make sure that all of their graduates get jobs.
This is how they keep a ranking
and how they stay in business.
If they can say that so many of their graduates
have now gone on to work,
they are at a higher standing.
- [Hallease] Mhm.
- So they are very much vested
in you wanting to work, right?
- Mhm.
- The other thing is, they do a really god job
of bringing companies in to do hiring on the spot,
to do interviewing on the spot,
And I'm talking about nationally known organizations.
If you you've got a really good career center,
they'll send out some stuff and say,
"Hey, we've got Halliburton coming."
Or, "Hey, we've got this person coming."
So, they're really good at kind of bringing everybody
from around the world to you, to your doorstep, right?
- [Hallease] Yeah.
- So you want to make sure that you're searching
at your career center.
- Mhm.
So, if you are a high school grad
and you don't have a college career center,
you want to seek out some of the job programs in your city.
So usually, any city, and I mean that as in like,
here, we're in San Antonio, so, The City of San Antonio,
- Right--
- will usually have a job program that's all about
either getting people ready, or actually placing them.
- Mhm.
- And so you want to reach out, now here in San Antonio,
we have some really good resources,
and of course I am one, so contact me,
I will help you look for work.
- (laughs)
- But, a lot of our high school grads,
sometimes they're in this middle place
where they're not sure what they wanna do,
and I always suggest to them AmeriCore,
I was AmeriCore alumn, I loved it.
But AmeriCore is really great for your gap
between you finishing high school and going to college.
For some people who aren't sure what college to go to,
or even if they're going to go to college,
which was my experience,
this is a really great place for them.
When I was in AmeriCore, I had no idea
what I was going to do,
and it ended up that I got to do so many exciting things
that kind of pushed me in the right direction.
So that's great for our high school grads.
So the third thing, we talked about talking,
we talked about searching, let's talk about working.
And I know what you're thinking,
"Well I'm tryna find work!"
I get it, I have a lot of my college grads
who had a college job all through college,
and the day that they walk that stage they're like,
"I am out of here!"
- [Hallease] Deuces!
- And it's like okay, calm down, slow down.
You don't wanna leave that job,
you wanna stay at that job for as long as you can
until it basically backs right up to your next position.
And the reason why is because, number one,
you're still flexing all of those muscles
of things you're doing professionally.
So, you're still interacting with professionals,
you're still using your professional skills,
and you have access to references who can talk
about your skills at this moment.
- Right
- You never know how long you would be unemployed
until you got your dream job, so you want to wait, right?
And for our high school, same thing, right?
If you have had that high school job
that you used to go back to every summer,
go back there until you get the job you really want.
- Yup.
- Now, if you are a person
who did not have any of those things,
and now you find yourself not employed,
but looking for the job that you really want,
the best way to fill that time is to volunteer.
Now, same thing happens.
You have access to people who can be references for you,
you are flexing your professional muscles.
Sometimes I tell clients to go and freelance.
So, if you are someone
who just came out with a degree in communications,
go to a small non-profit and say,
"I'll offer you some consulting in communications
one or two days a month."
Some people need help with their social media,
and as young people I think even our high school grads
could go in and say,
"I'd love to create some social media posts.
I'll do that for you two, three days a month."
Now, volunteering still has the same impact as a job.
Because what happens is,
there's learning and there's experience,
and those are two things you cannot take away from a person.
Right, so you wanna makes sure that you're listing
all those things on your resume.
And I think those,
if you do those three things,
you're gonna get there quickly.
People get hired who are already working,
and volunteering counts, right?
- Mhm.
- People get hired because everybody is looking for them,
and that's that searching, right?
- Mhm.
- And then people get hired when they know what, you know,
people already know what to look for for them.
- Right.
- So those three things will take you right
in to a place where you're set up
to get your career quickly.
- Yeah.
Alright, so there you go guys,
three things for graduating seniors to keep in mind
with actions that you can follow through on.
Tangible actions that you can follow through on
to get it done, to get to the next step,
wherever your next step is.
In the comments below,
let us know how you are going to implement these actions
that Tramelle has let us,
that Tramelle has told us about.
If your interested, again, in her services,
you don't have to live in San Antonio to get her services,
you can be anywhere in the world.
- That's right.
- And she can help you out.
I'm Hallease, this is Tramelle of TDJ consulting.
See you when we see you.
(jazz music)