Ah, senior year. Those who swore senior year of high school marked the start to freedom are in for an even better surprise when the time comes to experience senior year of college. The accomplishment of completing a higher level of education is just around the corner, and the rush of beginning life in the professional world is at one’s fingertips. However, as TCU student and young entrepreneur Bryn Carden points out, the true taste of freedom that comes with senior year comes in full flavor when making the most out of this last academic year. She shares a few ways seniors can take full advantage during their final homestretch below:
Clean up social media
It’s no secret that college is filled with fun times, and students love to share their late-night thrills with the rest of the world on social media. The only downfall to doing that is that the rest of the world includes potential employers. In fact, social media is used by 84% of companies to locate quality candidates, as shown in a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey. Students who have not been monitoring what they post through social media should mark their senior year as the time to professionalize all social media platforms.
Connect with Advisors and Mentors
As the system goes, college leads to a career, and during the last academic year, fueling connections with advisors and mentors should be a priority from the semester’s start. Students face many unknowns as novices of the professional world, so advisors and mentors can help answer questions and prepare students for their new chapter following graduation.
Find an Internship Opportunity
Senior year is the perfect time to get a foot in the door to the professional world if a student still needs to do so. In many cases, a college senior might find an internship that aligns with a career choice and be hired right out of college due to already having the skillsets to fill the role of an employee because of the experience as an intern.
Build a Solid Resume
The majority of students who graduate will apply to their first jobs to start after college, which requires a killer resume to land a gig. While still having access to professors and alum with experience in a desired sector, senior year is the perfect time to take full advantage of all resources a college provides to spruce up a resume and prepare it for game day.
Thanks to today’s digital age, many students are finding success in creating personal websites that displays their resumes as online portfolios. The ability to pass along a website URL at any moment can aid in seizing all networking opportunities that unfold, even if it happens to be on a Wednesday afternoon while casually chatting with the person behind in line at the grocery store.
Maximize Skills
It is common for senior year to have less packed class schedules, which provides wiggle room in a college agenda to acquire a new skill with the extra time on hand. A great place to start is by thinking about skills that would help boost a resume, such as learning a second language.
About Bryn Carden
Bryn Carden is a versatile young entrepreneur with a deep sense of compassion and the desire to help make the world a better place. In 2017, she founded Styles for Smiles – a company selling bracelets to support the Smile Train Organization. The proceeds from selling Bryn’s designs have already helped fund cleft palate repairs for 16 children in developing countries.