4 Things To Do Before Entering “The Real World”

If there is a time of pure unknown in what I was doing in the world, it was the sweet spot between finishing up my school and moving into my professional life. Talk about a slew of emotions (ones that actually led me to move to Italy for a few months to help figure it out) and embracing the “fake it ‘til you make it” mentality. This is for you if you are in your early twenties and feel so far away from being an adult. These four things are simple tasks that could easily set you apart from your peers!

1) Order business cards with name, email, and phone #

Chances are, if you’re entering the corporate world, you’ll be provided with business cards. But let’s think to before that happens… you may be headed to career fairs, or maybe you’re on a plane and realize that the person sitting next to you works for your DREAM company. It looks (and feels!) so profession to be able to pull out a business card and hand it over to your future boss. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy – a simple card with your name, email, and phone number should suffice.

2) Set up your voicemail

Okay, raise your hand if you’ve ever called someone and it went to a voicemail that sounded like “You’ve reached the voicemail box of 294-555-9017.” Chances are you probably panicked for a hot second hoping you actually had the number written down correctly or that you dialed the wrong number. It’s time to eliminate the confusion once and for all! Spend 2 minutes to record a personalized voicemail to everyone knows they reached the right person. Here’s my suggestion…”Hi, you’ve reached *state your first and last name*. Sorry I wasn’t able to take your call, but please leave your name, number, and a brief message so I can return your call as soon as possible. Thanks, and have a great day!”

3) Set your social media to PRIVATE

Please, for the love of GOODNESS, set your dang social media to private unless it plays a very crucial role to you landing a job or you have an online business where social media is a must. But not joking – part of my job in college was to find applicants on social media and make a judgement about whether they’d be a good culture fit. Just set it to private. Please. Or be really freaking mindful of what you post – especially to stories.

4) Perfect your elevator pitch

OH man. Elevator pitches. Imagine you get into the elevator with your dream employer and they say the dreaded line… “So, tell me about yourself.” You need to have a 30 second speech prepped and ready to go. Someone is going to ask you some version of this as some point. Be prepared. Practice it in the mirror frequently. Know yourself and what you’re going to say. Here’s some of my favorite tips of perfecting an elevator pitch.

For those of you who have gone through this transition too, what else would you add to this list?