Advice for Recent College Graduates Archives

Category: Advice for Recent College Graduates

How to Get a Promotion by Leading from Behind

Posted on January 5, 2023January 17, 2023 by Emily Wong

“I’m just an individual contributor.”

Oh, how many times have I heard that, only to dig deeper to find that these unassuming clients were actually movers and shakers.

A sampling:

The senior tech manager who convinced C-suite leaders to invest in new software—and helped propel the company toward its goals.

The account manager who unified teams across marketing, operations, and finance to support a key sales initiative that sparked 10X millions of dollars in revenue—and established trust for future high-ROI projects.

The volunteer fundraiser who built and nurtured hundreds of donor relationships—while creating innovative revenue-generating community events—to guarantee a long-term competitive high school music program.

The engineering/client liaison who skillfully uncovered the true needs of the customer, articulated those needs to the engineering team, and then distilled the technical requirements back to the client.

These employees sound like leaders to me.

Even if you’ve never formally led a team, you may have more to say about your ability to lead than you realize.

I recently had a client who epitomized what it meant to lead from behind.

Getting Your Resume Past the Robots (ATS)

Posted on May 3, 2022May 3, 2022 by Emily Wong

Photo credit: Patrick Daxenbichler from Getty Images

Let’s talk about ATS. If you’re not familiar with ATS, it stands for applicant tracking system, and it basically serves as the gatekeeper for your resume when you apply online.

If you’re like a lot of job seekers, you have questions about whether or not your resume is ATS-friendly.

If you’re like some, you may even break into a sweat at the mention of the term and the thought of those scary little bots, rubbing their tiny bot hands, and thinking up evil ways to prevent your precious resume from reaching the hands of a hiring manager.

3 questions that rise to the top of my clients’ lists of concerns when it comes to ATS:

How can I present my skills to ensure they get read?
Do columns, tables, and other formatting affect readability?
Is it OK to use text boxes, graphs, and images?

Well, my friend, I hope the following answers will put your mind at ease and help you with your resume-writing strategy.

How to Leverage LinkedIn as a Recent College Grad

Posted on April 10, 2014March 8, 2020 by Emily Wong

Since the advent of social media, much has been discussed about managing young adults’ social media presence. Unfortunately, that conversation tends to focus more on damage control than what it should be: the proactive exercise of self-promotion in the job market.

With over 200 million registered users, LinkedIn is a critical social media tool for those who are in the job market. But just having a LinkedIn profile isn’t going to cut it for launching your career out of college.

Use it strategically, and you’ll find it to be the best networking tool you’ve got.

Assuming you already have basic information in your profile (university attended, degree and graduation date), the following are key steps to enhance your LinkedIn presence and help you stand out. Continue reading “How to Leverage LinkedIn as a Recent College Grad”