In Landing Internships and Your First Job, Jerome Wong offers valuable career preparation advice for college students about to enter the world of work. The subheading, Why Qualifications Aren’t Enough, reveals that hiring managers look for more than just academic success and so-called “hard skills” when evaluating candidates.
Wong has spent many years on both sides of the hiring process. He has a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University, has had a career in technology, received another degree from Columbia Business School, and then entered the banking world, eventually starting his own company, Real World ExpertsTM, to advise students throughout the career preparation process. In addition to interviewing many times for jobs, Wong frequently interviewed prospective employees, participated in campus recruiting teams, and worked with the human resources departments of the companies he worked for to recruit the best available college talent. Today, through his company, Wong advises students on the entire job search process, including interview techniques and proper business etiquette. He now shares all of his experiences, thoughtful insights and practical strategies in his new book.
Landing Internships and Your First Job goes far beyond the usual job search books on interviewing techniques and how to write a resume. This book is specifically for students and explains how they can use their academic background to translate it into the key components that employers want in their respective fields. As Wong says in the introduction:
“Unlike seasoned professionals who may point to their relevant work experience as qualifications for future success, students have the more challenging task of convincing prospective employers that their academic and extracurricular experiences can translate into career success. They also have the additional burden of convincing companies that they are truly interested and committed to the industry.”
Wong relieves students of much of that burden by showing them how to add value to their experiences. But this book is much more than how to improve your resume to look good with an employer or what to say in an interview. Wong talks about all the things students should be doing long before they start looking for a job. He instructs on how to determine which courses to take to establish a compelling academic profile, how to use your school’s career services office to help you, and most importantly, how to tell your authentic story to convince the company to hire you.
Equally important, Wong asks readers to think about what career is right for them. Students must determine what their values are and how they will translate to the workplace. It’s not enough to want to earn a six-figure salary, and you certainly can’t tell prospective employers why you want to work for them. You also don’t want to take a job just for the money if it will cause you more stress than you can handle or if it ethically doesn’t align with your values.
One of the most important chapters in the book is about building your personal brand. Success in the job market starts with being a personal success, and that doesn’t just mean academic achievement but also moral success and coming up with your own personal definition of success that will align with your goals, personality, and ethics. You have to brand yourself to reflect in every way who you are. Wong helps students not only determine what their brands are, but also how to communicate those brands effectively to employers so they “buy” the brand.
Wong also focuses on the importance of treating the career preparation process as a sales process. While you are in class, you are in a selling situation because you have to cultivate relationships in order to receive recommendations from the professors. Summer internships should also be treated like long and exhaustive job interviews. Plus, Wong gives tips on interviewing, adding this surprising nugget of truth: “Hiring managers are often more impressed by the questions candidates ask than the answers to their questions.”
There is much more valuable information in this book: tips on networking, attending career shows, how to have the right attitude, how to have self-confidence, and how to have a salesman’s mindset to sell yourself. But perhaps most important is what Wong has to say about when and how often to prepare to find a job. Wong states the harsh truth by saying:
“Students often tell me that they are too busy with their courses to spend time on career preparation. Unfortunately, attending job fairs or interviewing on campus isn’t necessarily enough to find a job; you’ll have to work that much harder if you want to get a job.” you want to maximize your chances of landing a great first job or internship… People often say that looking for a job is a full-time job Consistently set aside time each week for career preparation Ideally, you should start thinking about efforts As a freshman, though at this stage, your focus should only be to familiarize yourself with the career services available on campus, explore your academic interests, and think about establishing attractive academic credentials for potential employers.”
Hopefully you’re one of the smart ones ahead of the game and will be reading this book early in your college career, but if not, there’s still plenty to help you set yourself apart from all the other job seekers. I wish someone had given me this book when I was in college. It will make the perfect gift for high school or college students, anyone about to enter the job market, or even someone who wants to prepare for a better job.