Introduction Why Success After College Is All About You There are all kinds of career resources out there, including books, blogs, websites, and seminars, as well as an ocean of tests designed to spit out job titles that are supposedly just right for you. Maybe you've seen them; they often talk about how to dream big, find your true calling, or write a winning resume . But even with all of this available information, millions of college students graduate each year into unemployment, underemployment, or, often, a job they hate. Instead of launching into careers after college that generate choruses of "Yes, this is why I went to college!" or "This makes all of my hard work and sacrifice worth it!," many students end up thinking: "Maybe I should go back to graduate school and get into even more debt," or "Maybe I will just take any job for now and figure it out later," or, in my opinion, the saddest thought of all: "I don't know where to look, so I'm not even going to try." Unfortunately, these last three choruses seem to be getting louder and louder each year. And it isn't just at the undergraduate level; graduate students are adrift in the same murky sea. It seems to be less about the economy flourishing or languishing and more about understanding how to systematically connect who you are to what you do based on the realities of any current job market. It's a sad professional reality for what I believe is an amazing and ambitious generation of talent (that's you!). As a professor at USC's Marshall School of Business, I've watched my own students struggle with this postgraduation dilemma for years. This is why I was motivated to create a new career class for undergraduates that was much more tangible and practical than simply dreaming big or finding your one true calling. I wanted to help them better figure out who they are, but in a way that each student could effectively use to level the playing field in what is ultimately a very new world of work (more on this later). I wanted to focus my class more on the discovery of each student's individual value and how that value actually plays into finding work you love than on resume writing or interviewing. As part of my research to develop and refine the information that would serve as the foundation of this class, I started talking to people about their jobs. On planes, in restaurants, or with guest speakers in the classroom, whenever I encountered someone who said they loved their job and couldn't imagine doing anything else, I asked this question: "Why do you love your job, and what do you bring to the table that makes you successful doing what you're doing?" Fortunately, people who love what they do also love talking about it, and so the "ingredients" of what goes into finding work you love in today's landscape started to get really clear. I also noticed that a very small group of college students--and maybe you know some of these people--do graduate with jobs they love. Perhaps it's not surprising, but as I followed the careers of these students after college, I saw that they also seemed to quickly get raises and promotions. But here's what was surprising, at least to me. The students I knew who had found that elusive right fit job aren't necessarily more driven or talented than the majority of students who didn't find it. While the happy students who graduated into jobs they love were definitely driven and talented, the positive force behind their right fit didn't appear to be about IQ, EQ, GPAs, or majors--and it definitely wasn't about writing a perfect resume. Grounded in all of the information I was gathering, I knew there had to be a way to create a system that all students could use based on what that small happy group of students had done, either knowingly or unknowingly, to find their super-satisfying job, because I could see how similar their positive outcomes were across very different fields. The career system I wanted for my students would be fueled by the positive force created when who they are and what they do come together in a specific and powerful way. This was unquestionably the key to why that small group of happy students was having a wildly different professional outcome than the majority of their classmates. And because that small happy group was composed of very different people with very different interests and backgrounds, I knew the system could be personalized for all students. After all, as I was learning, finding a right-fit job is about more than just having a job. It is personal, and it is all about you. What you're getting ready to read about, the Working You system, represents the specific ingredients that go into finding work you love. Over several years, they have been refined through on-the- ground practice that included trial, error, student feedback, and my own research studying the real-life career experiences of college graduates across the country, happy and unhappy, to figure out what was creating that positive force behind their right fit. What I found when all of the puzzle pieces were finally put together is a system that explains how you can be rewarded for the value that you alone bring to today's all-new job market. And it's not just about finding one job. I absolutely believe there are many right fits out there for everyone, including you, which you will soon discover for yourself. In varying degrees, every job will either reward or punish you for the collective value you bring to an employer. If you're "working you," you're being rewarded for the value you uniquely offer. This is a system that doesn't rely on luck or serendipity or fate--it just relies on you. It is also an open system and therefore adaptable to individual circumstances and flexible to change over time. The Working You system will provide you with your own custom step-by-step blueprint to go out and create the exact same type of powerful and rewarding right fit that small happy group of new graduates who love their jobs are experiencing. (And with this book, I believe that group is about to get bigger.) As I brought the Working You system to my own students, I began to see that it was making a real difference. Based on student demand, the decision was made to quickly expand this class and offer multiple sections, and then we doubled the number of seats per section. I was then asked to create a parallel class for MBA students, who were also struggling to find a right fit. Similar to the experience of the undergraduate class, word of mouth among the graduate students resulted in a waiting list long enough to fill another whole class, which we did. At that point, I knew I was breaking the code to at least one system that all students could personalize for themselves to find a right-fit job after college across both undergraduate and graduate programs. Excerpted from Finding Work You Love: 3 Steps to Getting the Perfect Job after College by Kirk Snyder All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
