Young professionals are in demand with employers. They have the necessary qualifications, ambition, and some work experience, which is why they generally have very good job opportunities. In order for you to set the right course when you start your career in order to make a successful career, you should take the following tips.
Young Professionals: What Is It Anyway?
There is always talk of young professionals, and many employers are looking for them explicitly. This usually means graduates or young people with completed vocational training who have excellent qualifications. They do not come directly from the university or training, but have already worked in their profession for a few years. From the employer’s point of view, this first professional experience also speaks for young professionals.
At the same time, young professionals are considered motivated, committed, and flexible. Most of them have graduated well above average. During their studies, young professionals used the time to do internships or work student jobs. They were often abroad for a while, for example as part of an internship, a semester abroad, or studied there.
Also, they personally bring the skills they need to enrich their employer. They are often ambitious, eager to learn, and willing to do more than the bare minimum to do their job well. Their social skills are also right so that they can be integrated well into a team and enrich it with their ideas.
How To Become A Young Professional
Acquire the right qualifications at an early stage: Young professionals have a very good starting position on the job market. Because of their diverse skills and qualifications, they are sought-after workers who can choose their jobs frequently. However, you lay the foundation for becoming a young professional before you start your career. Ideally, you have been working on getting into a certain field since your school days and carefully consider which steps are necessary for a successful start.
During your studies, you should acquire suitable qualifications and gain practical experience. Anyone who uses the semester break to do a relevant internship will have a better chance of finding an attractive position later. Big names look good on your resume, but they’re not the only option. You must get an insight into the area in which you want to work later. Not only DAX companies are suitable for this, but often also smaller companies. Often you can get more involved with smaller companies and take on more responsibility than with large groups, where everything is a little more standardized.
Young professionals usually didn’t just do one internship, but several. It is not the quantity that counts, but the quality of the experience. Experience abroad is also typical for this sought-after target group. There are various ways of doing this. It makes sense if you can do an internship in another country that fits your planned path. However, the specific experience is often a bit of a secondary factor, because experiences abroad combine character traits and greater personal maturity that depend less on the job than on the new experience in another country itself. Nevertheless, the better a foreign experience fits your goals, the more useful it is.
Acquire Useful Soft Skills
Working as a student is also a very good basis for becoming a young professional. You already gain professional experience during your studies, which adorns your CV. You also make contacts that you may find useful. If your employer is happy with you, there may even be a chance to join the company after you graduate. Such an opportunity can make it easier for you to start your career after your studies.
When making decisions that affect your resume and therefore your career, make sure that it fits what you are aiming for. The clearer you know your goals, the better you can work to achieve them. Apart from internships and first jobs, it is worthwhile to specifically improve those skills that are presumably in particularly high demand in the job – such as communication skills, rhetorical skills, or assertiveness. Courses are suitable for this, but it is often enough to face up to certain challenges and grow with them.
Getting Off To A Successful Start
As a young professional, you generally have a very good chance of getting off to a successful start. With previous experience and formal qualifications, you are unlikely to have any problems getting exciting job offers. However, you shouldn’t just take on any job, but think about which experiences would make the most sense in advance.
Here again, your goals are asked. Analyze your initial situation and possible next steps: What is necessary to achieve your goals? What experiences are there? What would bring you further and what would not? The clearer you know what can really help you, the sooner you will make the right decisions at the start of your career.
Before you graduate or finish your apprenticeship, think about how to proceed afterward. Do you have a student job that has opened the door to a specific employer? Is an activity there for you and does it fit your plans? Just because you could have a job doesn’t mean that you should be quick to accept if it’s not really what you want.
Get Into Work Through A Trainee Program
A trainee program is a promising opportunity for future young professionals to start their careers. Appropriate offers aim to prepare young professionals for later management positions. The opportunities are often excellent and many employers invest a lot in their junior staff. The goal is usually to employ the trainee in the company for the long term. The demands placed on the selection of trainee candidates are correspondingly high. The path to the trainee position is often via an assessment center. The right preparation pays off here.
It does not necessarily have to be a trainee program if you want to start your career successfully. Of course, you can also search for a regular job that suits you and your ideas. Factors that play a role in the selection are, for example, how suitable the job is in terms of content, whether it opens up perspectives for areas in which you want to work later, what prestige is associated with the job, whether the job offers you the right working conditions and whether the working atmosphere is right.
Make Sensible Decisions
In the first years after starting your career, it is important to continue to make the right decisions for your career. With your first jobs, you lay the foundation for what is possible later and what you can achieve. Be critical of job offers and see an interview not only as an appointment to be tested but also as an opportunity to see for yourself whether the employer might suit you.
When it comes to salary negotiations, especially with your first professional experience as a young professional, you often have good cards. Find out in advance what salary you can expect. When it comes to salary negotiations, it is important to be sensitive – you do not want to set an amount that is too low so that you do not sell yourself undervalue, nor an amount that is too high to get you out of the race.
Make And Maintain Valuable Contacts
Young professionals are often expected to be very flexible and ready to work. Many young professionals are not only open to being temporarily employed abroad or at different locations but also strive to do so themselves. If you really hang in the first few years after completing your studies or your apprenticeship, it often pays off with a relatively quick ascent.
Another important aspect is the contacts that you make in the course of your education and through your professional experience. So that these contacts can actually be useful to you later, you should maintain them. Network with important employees and superiors, but also other contacts such as professors or trainers via a career network such as LinkedIn. The better you are remembered and the more often you recall yourself with small gifts, the more you can use appropriate contacts when the opportunity arises.
Why A Good Work-life Balance Is So Important
Full throttle today, burnout tomorrow? In many ways, young professionals are high-flyers in their respective areas. They distinguished themselves early on in being willing to do more than the rest. They often go far beyond what is required in their work, they actively contribute innovative ideas and usually have no problem with regularly working overtime do.
These factors, together with relevant experience, often enable them to move up quickly in the job. However, they also harbor dangers, because with all the willingness to work there is often not much time left for private life. Over a period of time, it may be fine if you sacrifice yourself for the job and your career. It is important, however, that you learn how to balance work – and not only in a few years or even decades when you have already achieved something but always.
To be attractive to young professionals, many employers offer certain benefits and flexible working conditions. This often includes the option to work temporarily in the home office. Many workers appreciate this possibility, but it can also have disadvantages.
When you work from home, the boundaries between work and leisure become blurred. If your eyes fall on your full desk at dinner, you are probably mentally back to work. A job in the home office also doesn’t suit everyone. There are many possible distractions and disruptive factors within your own four walls, which is why a lot of discipline is often required to be able to work in a focused manner. Sometimes your work-life balance is even worse if you often work from home.
Recommended Readings: How To Find One Job That Really Suits You
Consciously Create A Balance For Your Job
A good basis for your career is not only the right experience and full commitment to the job. You can only be satisfied with your life in the long term if you learn early on how to consciously balance yourself out of work. If you do not make time for your hobbies, friends, or a partner, you may find yourself in a few years in a situation in which you can show a lot professionally, but where it is no longer true in the private sphere.
It is entirely up to you which compensation is sensible. Depending on your priorities in life, you can consciously create time for meetings with friends, evenings with your partner, or sporting activities. Sport is ideal for relieving stress and clearing your head. Find a sport that you enjoy – after all, your sporting activities should not themselves be an annoying item on your to-do list. And if you simply don’t like sports, you can of course read a good book, go for walks in the forest or solve crossword puzzles. It is important that you have fun and can switch off.
Bottom Line:
In order to build a successful career, you need time, effort, patience, and most importantly willpower. The simple formula is, If you’re willing to sacrifice your free time and learn new skills or enhance the existing one, you will succeed. It may seem hard but honestly, it’s not! It’s all about courage and commitment to follow everything you have targetted. In the end, it’s your own journey and only you know how you want your career to look like in the long run. So you should be the one asking a question to yourself – are you taking the right steps and taking risks in order to find what you desire?