How Getting in TROUBLE Can Lead to Future Success

Today we wanted to do more than just shake a few hands, offer some advice, and share a few hearty well wishes. Today we wanted to give the attendees at the Student 2 Business career networking conference something a little more tangible to take home with them.

We wanted to teach them how getting in TROUBLE can lead to their future success.

It's all too easy to fall into complacency and expect jobs to come to you – especially when you're fresh out of college or university. It's a scary, heady time. You've completed one major milestone in your life and now you're facing your future head-on.

But it's a challenging job market out there. You are competing with people not just in your backyard; the other side of the world is now only a click away. So we've defined seven key tactics you can use to put yourself in the best possible position to succeed.

After all, TROUBLE-makers will always get noticed.

T – Talk

You have to get out and network. Ideally, you will be judged on your merits and talents alone. Realistically, who you know helps. Go to industry events (like the London Drupal Users Group), meet people in your field, network, volunteer – just get your face in front of people who work in and around the field that you want to.

If an employer is faced with two potential hires of equal skill: one with whom he or she has interacted and knows; and one with whom he or she has no knowledge, who do you think is going to get the job?

R – Read

Read everything. Read blogs, books, and trade publications. And I'm an advocate of reading outside of your field.

A great way to learn is to expand your horizons. You can find concepts, principals, and inspiration in the oddest of places, which you can then apply to your own skill set.

O – Open your eyes and ears

Opportunities are out there, but you have to be looking. Advice flows from all sorts of people, but you have to be listening.

The underground job market is there. By getting out in the community, you may hear about jobs that have yet to be posted. Or, if you're lucky, a potential employer may want you so much they create an opportunity for you.

U – Unplug

If you want to stand out from the crowd, you have to be a face, not just a name. Don't just e-mail, text, or Tweet prospective employers. Pick up the phone and ask for a face-to-face meeting.

Show them not just your initiative, but show them who you are. It's a small bit of initiative, but the long-term payoff can be immense.

B – Build something

It doesn't matter what your field is; just build something. Build a Web site, create an art portfolio, build a bookshelf, write a blog... Just build something that's relevant to what you want to do. And then show it off!

It's great to theoretically understand how to do something, but the experience you get actually doing it is invaluable. Growing up in journalism at The Gazette, we'd often see j-school students come in (often with attitude) and try to write articles. But they had challenges – dealing with real-life situations like hostile interviewees, people not calling you back, or stories falling through bring a lot of real-life pressure that you can't get in a book.

So don't just say you understand Drupal, for example. Build a Drupal site – practice and experiment with modules. It shows initiative and helps you grow and expand your skills.

L – Lead. And be led

If you're into the mentor thing, go for it. Find someone that can help guide you through the process and listen to his or her advice. And if you can teach what you know to someone (younger students, group events, etc.) do it.

The best way to learn a skill is to have to explain it to someone else. And showing you can both take your own initiative and work within a team dynamic is great.

E – Experience Life

Get outside of your bubble and see what life has to offer. A broad-spectrum perspective is far more valuable. The more you learn about new cultures, for example, the more you'll learn about new ideas and solutions to problems you may be facing.

The more you read, the more you do, the more you understand, the better you are. Coming out of university and finishing as editor-in-chief of a daily paper, I thought I knew it all. Years later, I came to understand how little I actually knew. But that growth has made be a better, more well-rounded, and flexible writer. As we get older, the greatest thing we learn is that we don't have all the answers. In our youth, we see things in black and white. As we get older, if we extend ourselves beyond our own bubble and actively search out new -- and often conflicting -- information, we learn that the world is filled with shades of grey. And it's understanding and adapting to that, which can improve your ability to bring value to any work environment. 

You can have knowledge a mile deep, but if its breadth is only an inch wide, you're not going to bring the same value to any organization.

No Guarantees

Now, we're not going to say that doing all of this is an absolute guarantee of success. It takes hard work, talent, and dedication to succeed. But if you have all the skills, the talent, and the work ethic, then being a TROUBLE-maker can help you get noticed.

We want to wish the best of luck to everyone who attended S2B. And if you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us at [email protected].