College education is not restricted to just what you learn in the classroom. As part of paving your career path and preparing for a successful future, you also need to take advantage of every opportunity to learn new things that go beyond textbooks and the classroom. Look around for any prospects that provide outstanding resources, involvement and hands-on experience, which can contribute to your personal growth. Opportunities abound, not just for learning but also earning. Now that you’re back in school, here are some opportunities you can look into:

• Get involved in the student government. This is a great way to hone your leadership skills and a lot more soft skills that you can definitely use when you start work out there in the competitive job market after graduation. You can also connect with people of diverse backgrounds and interests.

• Gain experience as an intern. In today’s tough job market, employers look for more than just good grades from a potential candidate. Internship is the perfect opportunity to make you much more marketable to employers in the near future. During internship, your communication and leadership skills are enhanced in addition to specific technical training that you obtain.

• Apply for on campus student employment. These are employment opportunities that offer part-time jobs in any of the campus departments, or where student assistants are needed on projects funded by scholarships, grants and fellowships where only registered students may qualify.

• Tutoring. Most colleges provide programs that match up tutors with students who need help in various academic areas. What you gain here is the value of team work and the satisfaction of knowing you are able to use your knowledge to help others. However, other students who need help may be willing to pay for your services; then you can make some money, too.

• Conduct undergraduate research. You can either develop a project then find a mentor that you can tap as a good resource in the area of your research; or find a mentor that’s already conducting a research on a subject you’re interested in and ask to be taken as part of the research team. Either way, you have to submit an application/proposal for undergraduate research scholarship; and if it is granted, you get funds for your research as well as get paid for conducting it.

• Join the school paper. There’s no doubt that writing skills are fully appreciated in almost any industry and can be very advantageous to any career you may choose. Joining the school paper is a good opportunity to hone your writing skills. You can also try your hand as a proofreader, a researcher or an editor.

Once you decide to take up the advantages that these opportunities offer, time management becomes essential to make it work. You need to be disciplined and determined to pursue whatever you start to the very end. It can be tough, sure. But think about all the things you can put on your resume; you’d be congratulating yourself for not missing those opportunities!

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 9:57 am and is filed under Applying for a Job, Career Changes, Free Advice, Job Search Tips, Resume, Resume Help. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.