Everybody is unique, everybody has it's own dreams, goals and capacities. But what does make you unique and are you aware enough of your uniquenesses when you can still develop them? Where do you make the difference? #WDYMD
During my education, grades where one of the most important things to work for. Good grades guaranteed a good job after you graduated, which guaranteed a succesfull life and career.
Sounds good, doesn't it, but I had a problem, after primary school, where I was the first of the class, my interests in education dropped until only the most nescessary efforts to succeed. In college it went a bit better with my motivation. Points are very important in an academic environment, certainly when your ambition is to have a carrier there. I started thinking... What kind of life and job did I pursued, what kind of challenges would I like to encounter and would that give me a chance of living a successfull life and career?
But when you talk to directors, ministers, CEO's, professors... shortly: successful people, it is not there grades that binds them. No! They all stood out of the crowd at one point in there life, one way or another. Often they started early a company, where active in a student counsel and showed engagement not only for themselves but for a whole group of people.
When you finish college, you and most of your friends are looking for the same thing: a job. Your friends become from one day to another competitors for jobs. You have already a lot in common - that's why you are probably friends - you spend a lot of time together, so your CV is probably also alike.
But why would a company hire you instead of your friend? Why are you different and suitable to get a job instead of anyone else?
Every freshly graduate has nu workexperience whatsoever, is part of the same kind of "blob"with the same background, where the only difference is probably based on grades. But does grades guarantee a successful employee? Mankind exert in specialization. So does good grades mean intelligence, a cooperative employee or just a specialized learner?
Some companies are already screening for other competences than solely grades and are looking for competences outside the academic world (Dutch article based on Bloomberg: Gooi je CV maar in de vuilbak).
A freshly graduate needs to stand out of his blob which was his comfortable cocoon during his college years and show what he has got, what he learned and what he can become.
What I learned there are, as a student and now as a fresh graduate, a few ways to stand out of the crowd:
What people often forget is that getting a degree is what the "blob" is doing. The degree is the basic layer, saying that you are competent in learning and understanding your specialization.
You need to be unique by your grades or by your extra curricular experiences.
And mostly extra curricular experiences are most easy, but also most underestimated part of a CV. You achieved getting your degree, but when you were capable of getting that degree and parallel were able to achieve other goals, that is something that makes you special. It shows that your capacity to handle goals is higher than for those who just get the same grades by just studying.
I do not pretend completeness by this blog, I only want to ask to you the question: what does you make unique, special and stay out of the crowd? Where are you the non-conformist?
And most important: Are you aware in which way you can make the difference?
Where do you make the difference?
#WDYMD
During my education, grades where one of the most important things to work for. Good grades guaranteed a good job after you graduated, which guaranteed a succesfull life and career.
Sounds good, doesn't it, but I had a problem, after primary school, where I was the first of the class, my interests in education dropped until only the most nescessary efforts to succeed. In college it went a bit better with my motivation. Points are very important in an academic environment, certainly when your ambition is to have a carrier there. I started thinking... What kind of life and job did I pursued, what kind of challenges would I like to encounter and would that give me a chance of living a successfull life and career?
But when you talk to directors, ministers, CEO's, professors... shortly: successful people, it is not there grades that binds them. No! They all stood out of the crowd at one point in there life, one way or another. Often they started early a company, where active in a student counsel and showed engagement not only for themselves but for a whole group of people.
When you finish college, you and most of your friends are looking for the same thing: a job. Your friends become from one day to another competitors for jobs. You have already a lot in common - that's why you are probably friends - you spend a lot of time together, so your CV is probably also alike.
But why would a company hire you instead of your friend? Why are you different and suitable to get a job instead of anyone else?
Every freshly graduate has nu workexperience whatsoever, is part of the same kind of "blob"with the same background, where the only difference is probably based on grades. But does grades guarantee a successful employee? Mankind exert in specialization. So does good grades mean intelligence, a cooperative employee or just a specialized learner?
Some companies are already screening for other competences than solely grades and are looking for competences outside the academic world (Dutch article based on Bloomberg: Gooi je CV maar in de vuilbak).
A freshly graduate needs to stand out of his blob which was his comfortable cocoon during his college years and show what he has got, what he learned and what he can become.
What I learned there are, as a student and now as a fresh graduate, a few ways to stand out of the crowd:
- Degree: You learned for a specific job in a specific industry, based on your interests or career options.
- Grades: Your final degree is based on it and it reflect how well you were in capturing and reproducing and/or understood what the Professor learned you. But you could also be a specialized learner.
- Extra curricular experiences: What keeps you going? What motivates you? And what did you really accomplish or learned by doing so?
What people often forget is that getting a degree is what the "blob" is doing. The degree is the basic layer, saying that you are competent in learning and understanding your specialization.
You need to be unique by your grades or by your extra curricular experiences.
And mostly extra curricular experiences are most easy, but also most underestimated part of a CV. You achieved getting your degree, but when you were capable of getting that degree and parallel were able to achieve other goals, that is something that makes you special. It shows that your capacity to handle goals is higher than for those who just get the same grades by just studying.
I do not pretend completeness by this blog, I only want to ask to you the question: what does you make unique, special and stay out of the crowd? Where are you the non-conformist?
And most important: Are you aware in which way you can make the difference?
Where do you make the difference?
#WDYMD
