“Why do you look so nice?”
This is the question I get four days a week. In my internship that I work Tuesday through Friday, I have to dress professionally. And even though this has been happening all semester, it never fails. I can even have on a name tag, and people are still surprised and confused when I am dressed professionally.
This is just one look into the lack of professional presence on Azusa Pacific’s campus. It seems far too often, students lack the skills or preparedness for employability.
Is your resume up-to-date right now? Do you know what goes in a cover letter? Does anyone really know? The answer to this last question is yes. There is a professional – and correct – way to go about creating a resume and cover letter.
According to an annual study by the Center for Professional Excellence at York College of Pennsylvania, it is not just those at APU who struggle with this lack of appropriate mindset, but many recent college grads.
“The researchers surveyed about 400 human-resources professionals about their experiences recruiting and hiring recent college graduates in a variety of industries and roles,” said a Wall Street Journal article about the study. “More than a third report that the level of professionalism among new hires has decreased in the last five years. Nearly 45 percent said that employees’ work ethic has worsened.”
We are part of the Millennials, the generation born between 1980 and 2000. According to “The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest Generation,” a book by Thom and Jess Rainer, Millennials see the importance of education and a successful career. Additionally, “Three out of four millennials believe it is their role in life to serve others,” according to the book’s study.
This seems to be conflicting information. On one hand, we have a source telling us that we are unprofessional – and let’s face it, we are sometimes. Whenever I leave my apartment in anything that would be considered less than work-appropriate, I am unprofessional. If I am not ready and prepared for an interview with my resume and prepped for questions, I am unprofessional.
On the other hand, I am here pursuing my education and looking for a career that will make me “successful.” So, why does what we believe about education and careers not line up with our level of professionalism?
According to Julia Russell Toothacre, interim director of the Office of Career Services, it is because students do not explore their options for their career paths sooner. They might have some idea of what they want to do, but do not ask themselves what they can be doing to prepare themselves earlier enough in the game.
Russell Toothacre said students often wait until their senior year to make any career decisions.
“I think that a lot of students don’t know what they want to do, so the idea of career exploration is not happening early enough or not at all,” Russell Toothacre said.
If students explored career options or steps to pursue their career options earlier, like freshman year, then by the time that they need to be searching for internships and jobs, they would be ready. However, overwhelmingly, that is not the case.
“I think the biggest area for professional improvement for students is figuring out what they want to be and where they want to go after graduation sooner,” Russell Toothacre said. “We see a lot of students senior year in their last semester who come into our office and have absolutely no idea what they want to do or where they are headed. At that point, it’s really late and they have to do a lot of catchup, which becomes overwhelming.”
The key is asking those tough life questions earlier, like, “What do I want to be?” Or, if that is too hard or too specific, “Where do I want to be heading?”
“If students can take control of their future earlier in their freshman and sophomore year and start those exploration pieces, then as they move through their time at APU, they will have better internship opportunities because they’ll know what to look for,” Russell Toothacre said. “Then once they graduate, they are not surprised because they know who they are and they know what they want, and then they will have a higher level of professionalism as they move out of APU.”
This is a call to action, fellow Cougars. This is a call to recognize dressing professionally as a normal, everyday occurrence. This is a call to stop guessing what is the correct way to format a resume, and find out for sure. This is a call to stop assuming you know how to interview because just your No. 1 strength is relator.