Coming from a student myself, it is very difficult to come up with ways to stick out to employers. As students with little to no experience, you have to find ways to create experience to make yourself employable. My goal in this first post is to help persuade other students to get involved and become employable!
From my personal experience in the finance world, college is just the first step towards the door. Getting your degree in finance, business management, marketing, and business computer science does not make you instantly employable. As of 2022, 375,420 college students graduated with a bachelor's business degree (Education Data). Thousands of students are competing for the same job. How will you stick out?
What are the factors that recruiters look at:
GPA/Education- 100% they look at it. Having a perfect GPA and no experience does little to nothing for your employability.
Job Experience- experience is by far the most analyzed section of your resume.
Leadership Roles/Volunteering- employers are looking for a well-rounded candidate, so showing you have experience helping others or leading others helps you stand out.
As a student it is hard to obtain any job experience and leadership roles, that is why organizations within the school are so important to those students looking to stand out.
Example: Registered Student Organizations (RSO's), Greek Life, Sports, and Non-profits
Know to talk about what I do to help myself stick out!
- I am a part of two different student-run organizations. In the Fall semester of 2025, I will be the Vice President of Financial Service Association at Western Michigan University (FSA) the role entitles me to help organize all functions of the club including finances, marketing, fundraising, and event planning. Financial Planning Association at Western Michigan University (FPA)is the other organization where I serve as the Vice President of Operations which entitles me to help inform members about meetings and events hosted by FPA.
- I am currently part of a mentorship program where I help guide other students to prepare themselves for professional externship programs. This program is associated with the Zhang Career Center at Western Michigan University which allows students to go on 1 to 3-day visits of different companies. I was initially a part of the program as a student during my freshman year and now I am a mentor and spokesperson for the program at Western.
The goal of me saying this is to help motivate people to get involved and be a go-getter. If you want that big salary job out of school or want to work for a certain company in a different state right out of school YOU HAVE TO GET INVOLVED!
I will gladly help guide you through this process to help find a program that would benefit you professionally after school just reach out to me at awbrendtke@gmail.com
"Wealth is obtainable, you just have to go a little Westward"
Cites
Hanson, Melanie, and Fact Checked. “College Graduation Statistics [2023]: Total Graduates per Year.” Education Data Initiative, 15 Mar. 2024, educationdata.org/number-of-college-graduates.
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