Use Your First Job Out Of College To Create Future Opportunities

You're fresh out of college and you haven't landed the job you really wanted.  Not yet you haven't.  You're knee deep in debt and your grace loan deferment period is about to end.  Should you start applying for work anywhere?  Should you take the first offering that comes your way?

Here's what I would do.  Just like when you applied for college you had your top choices and your back-up choices, you should do the same with jobs, select places to work as your best bets and others that follow below these.

Here are my top places to work at (in no particular order of importance) if I could not land my desired job off the bat:

1) Fry's Electronics, Best Buy, or an Apple store.
2) A coffee shop in an affluent area or near a financial district
3) A bar at a country club or at a high end restaurant
4) A BMW, Mercedes, or Tesla dealership/show room.
5) A high end designer (tailored) clothes, shoes, or purse store





What do all of these places have in common?  They involve sales, customer service, and most importantly, an ability to communicate with money and social placement players.

Places like Fry's Electronics and Best Buy are frequented by engineers, nerds, tech company managers, and regular people wanting a great deal on a TV, laptop, etc.  You may also have co-workers who have free-lance tech businesses.  All in all, not only will you get paid working at Fry's, but you'll also create your first network of contacts both in-house and from quality visitors to the store.  Still, if you just go about your day, sticking to the rules, following sales scripts, not reeling in as much info as you can about your customer to see if they would make a good contact, your first job will be a wasted opportunity.

Your first job is for you to break out of your shell.  College was fun and you had a blast partying with your friends, but let's face it, it is nothing like the real world.  In the real world what matters the most are relationships.  You can't forge relationships that improve your social capital without conversational abilities.  Showing an interest, being friendly, asking probing (not prying) questions, garnering trust, are skills you weren't taught in college but what actually make the (money) world go round.  In, Napolean Dynamite was Right! I made the case that companies are interested in graduates with actual skills.  Well, in addition to learning sales and "talkmanship" (a word I just invented), working for a great retail company will also help you learn business.  Running a business is something you may one day end up doing, especially if you aspire to join the management core of a company someday.  Again, it boils down to how you frame the opportunities you are given, working your first job out of college.  So be strategic!


If you're already working at your first job and want to see how you can improve your status, I have a great read recommendation for you: Why-your-first-job-is-the-most-important

I am also going to embark on something new, but only for my blog subscribers.  I'm going to be writing a newsletter twice a month where I will share the secret to my success: Being bold and knowing how to stand out in America.  We live in a highly competitive society and getting what you want has become increasingly more difficult with social media taking everyone's time.  Let me help you become a conversational genius!

Thanks for reading!  Follow me on Twitter: @COsvaGomez.