Jennifer Way, CEO of Way Solutions and career coaching expert presented at Belmont on Wednesday, October 18th. The title of her talk was Go Professional.  Join Your Industry Now!  

Jennifer offered several helpful take-aways for students who are developing their professional profile:

• Be choosy about internships– find multiple, quality internships and value them as learning experiences. Use them to make relationships and build your professional network.
• Being engaged on Linked-in is essential — especially if you’re in business, marketing, communications, public relations, etc.
• Find, follow, and comment on the “thought leaders” in your industry.
• Find the “thought leaders” in the cities you’d most want to work, and follow them on social media.
• Use your unique position as a student to learn more about your industry from seasoned professionals.
  • Don’t ask them to coffee– it takes too much time. Ask if you can bring them coffee and do a 20-minute informational interview with them.
  • Don’t ask if you can “pick their brains”– vultures pick brains.
  • When you do that interview, ask good questions. Don’t ask anything you can find on their website. Ask things like “What advice do you have for someone breaking into this industry?” “What are the most important skills for your job right now?” or ask about a current project you’ve read about on this person’s blog or the company’s website or an industry trend you’ve read about in one of your classes.