You did it. You’re a college grad. You’ve walked across the stage in your cap and gown, heard someone wax on about how much you will do with your life, watched the swelling pride and beaming grins from your families as you were handed your diploma, and you can officially say “when I was in college…” Congratulations, you’re an alumni. 

Now what?

When I graduated, I had already been applying to jobs for months. Yes, months. I was an English and Criminology double major, had a great GPA, and naive hopes to go into publishing. I thought forever that I would end up in law school and possibly politics eventually, but after taking my LSATs, I just didn’t see myself happy chaining myself to a desk for 70+ hours a week. But that’s just me. 

Being that I had no real idea what I wanted to do, I was lost. I ended up spending close to 6 months searching for a job-ANY job. And for most college grads- 6 months was considered a short search. To me, it felt like years. I spent countless hours on Craigslist, Monster.com, Careerbuilder. One of the things that is so hard about finding a job is that nothing is done in person anymore. The Web 2.0 days have taken over and you are not getting face time with potential employers, so that dazzling personality of yours, I hate to break it to you, means crap. You apply online and these people look at your resume and see that you’re a recent college grad with no real work experience yet, and throws your humble little resume in the trash. It takes about 15 seconds for them to be your judge, jury and executioner. I felt completely worthless. 

If I could go back and give myself some advice, here’s what I would have done differently..

1. Get a LinkedIn profile
It’s easy and it gives you the chance to connect with people who are interested in networking and careers. You never know who you might meet. It’s all about who you know. What you know will get you even farther when you get your foot in the door. Anyone who tells you otherwise- is lying. Feel free to link with me! Just search for “Megan Hofmann” in Columbus, OH or click here. Let me know you found me on my blog and I’ll be happy to add you!

2. Have an outstanding cover letter
I was chatting with a Senior VP in my company and he happened to be on his laptop checking email. He turned it to me and said, “read this.” So I did and it was a rather boring cover letter from a kid wanting an internship/job. Senior VP turns back to me and said, “well this guy is giving me nothing to care about… delete.” That was that. Usually colleges offer services to help you write a cover letter- use this service! It will turn out to be invaluable. The littlest things can get you noticed. Your personality can shine in your cover letter where it might not shine in your professional resume. 

3.Use your spare time to brush up on some skills 
Learn some new social media. You never know where opportunities might pop up and the more people you talk to and the more people you connect with, the better chance you have that they might know someone who might know someone, etc. 

4. Don’t lose hope
It’s so easy to think- what the hell did I go to college for? Why don’t people like me? If my GPA were higher… if I took that internship… well- it wasn’t and you didn’t so thinking about what could have been will get you nowhere. Do something now instead of crying about it. 

5. Apply for everything and anything 
I ended up getting my job- that I love- by taking a chance at something I didn’t actually know I’d be any good at it. In fact, I’d never even thought about it as a possible career option. Just getting out of college- you don’t need your dream job. Work up to it. Try something you never thought about. It could seriously surprise you.

You don’t have to take my advice if you agree. This is just what I might to differently. I go so lucky that I ended up with a dream job that I love. Sure, I get frustrated and miss my college days, but when you are fortunate to eventually have a job you don’t mind getting up every day for- it’s totally worth it. 

So what do you think, agree or disagree? If you are in a higher up position- what would you want to see from potential employees applying to your company? Essential dos and dont’s? 

Being in advertising, I constantly come across the term, “Brand Management.” For awhile, people would say this to me and I would politely nod and act like I knew what they were talking about. But in reality, we’ve all seen it first hand.

Remember what happened to Britney Spears when her management team quit on her?! Her brand went straight down the toilet and now desperately needs some rehabilitation- pun intended. Does this strategy of brand management apply to professional people as well?

As an individual joe, are we all individual brands? It does make sense. We all come complete with  skill sets, and marketable  qualities. Outgoing? Positive? Accountable? You are marketable. Irresponsible? Dishonest? Unreliable? Your marketability begins to plummet. This “self-marketing,” as a young professional, has to be done with the utmost care. No one wants to be a Britney, or worse, start as a Britney. I never thought of myself as a brand, but now that I’m thinking about it, it makes me want to clean up my act a bit. My swearing could lessen, my timing could be better, and a lot of the time I could just shut up. It’s not as though my life is worthy of Page 6, but if I want to be seen as the person I hope to be- I better start the process of acting like it. 

I was reading on Dave Mullen’s blog where Jennifer Laycock, a brilliant SEO writer and social media pro, commented on one of his post about how people do business with people. And her personality is why people want to work with her. You can still ultimately be yourself because people do want to see the real person, but you want to present an image that makes you look good at the same time. Reputation means a lot. And if you are doing things to garner a bad reputation… maybe you should re-evaluate your priorities. So if you’re entering the professional world… it might be time to untag those unflattering photos at the Pimp and Ho Theme Party or your brilliant idea to enter that wet t-shirt contest on Spring Break in Mexico. And if you have reservations about missing your college years… just remember poor old Brit Brit and the years it will take to get her reputation back… if ever. I think you’ll make the right decision. 

I’m sitting here on a Saturday night. My pug is snoring on the arm of the couch, boyfriend is passed out in the bedroom and I’m on my couch watching a watered down version of the newest in the American Pie saga that apparently no one got the memo- are no longer acceptably funny past the trilogy which ended about 5 years ago. 

Where did my life go?

I’ve always been the girl who’s up til 4 in the morning, sleeping till noon, or maybe just not sleep at all. I was always the first one to get up and do karaoke or dance on the bar. My friends are probably out having fishbowl drinking contests or getting a guy they just met to buy them a drink, or taking many many pictures of themselves to post on Facebook and MySpace the next day to prove how much better their night was than anyone else’s. I used to be part of that. Now it seems all my fun has to happen before 9 p.m. or else the yawning starts. My friends drunk dial my phone at 11:30 p.m. only to find this geriatric girl in bed! 

Does having an 8-5 job mean your Fun Pass is revoked? Do I just need to get used to a new kind of fun? I can’t seem to find the balance between my old spontaneous, bar dancing college self and my new salary making, health insurance holding, adult self. Now, my friends invite me out and I make the plans to go but 10:00 rolls around and I am ready to go but can’t bring myself to get in my car. I feel terrible because I end up bailing on them and slowly my invites are coming to a halt. I want to see my friends, I just don’t want to see them throwing up at the end of the night. I want to talk to them, I just don’t want to do that screaming over the bad music blaring in the background. I think I just answered my own question. 

I guess I’m having an almost quarter life crisis tonight. I miss my friends lately and I’m missing college life, but I love my new life too. I come home every night to an amazing man who cooks for me and loves me instead of a bitchy roommate who ruins my stuff and refuses to take out the trash. And upon that last reflection, my crisis has officially been averted. HA.

Suddenly those college years aren’t looking so shiny anymore… 

Your turn! Any good college experiences you’d like to reminisce about- please feel free to share. Thanks! 

I decided to start this blog as a way to put my thoughts into words. When I was a teenager I used to fill notebook upon notebook with every thought I could imagine. It was such a passion of mine. But with college and life overtaking all my time, it slowly became a memory of something I used to love.

Now, my overly articulated life isn’t always done in the most constructive of ways. Usually, I end up jumbling out a slew of cuss words in front of:
A. my coworkers
B. my dog or
C. any random stranger who happens to come across me on that particular day.
Often it ends up as
D. all of the above.

I am the Queen of Self Destruction. 

I should start a bit more basic. 

I am a young professional (very young-as many like to point out) working in the advertising world as an Account Coordinator in Columbus, OH. I’m always trying to balance my new corporate life with my ever dramatic personal life. I plan to blog more about my personal life than my professional one. Any professional anecdotes will be mostly based on my own struggle with trying to keep my head above water and the frustration I bring mostly on myself. But like I said… I’ll try to stay basic before I get going on some crazy tangent. 

I guess I’ll just see where this goes. Organically. I’m not exactly a planner.

My full story will be shared with time and trust me there’s a lot to tell and even more to explore as the doors begin to open. Though I’m sure many others will slam and therein lies my challenge. If you have anything at all you’d like to share with me… whether that be advice, rants, compliments, or any other random bout of verbal diarrhea then please leave a comment. Thanks for reading.