For Students: Finding Jobs in Unexpected Places

Most college students have a pretty simple set of priorities: going to class (most days), spending as little money as possible on frivolous commodities (such as food and cleaning supplies), letting off some steam every now and again to keep the stress levels low, and of course, the big kahuna, finding a job. As I'm sure my fellow collegians don't need advice pertaining to the first three topics, I'll offer my two cents on the latter.

The more well-known venues for job hunting in college are fairly obvious, mainly the career fair, information sessions and recruiting meetings held by potential employers on campus, and perhaps your school's online career opportunities search service (for the University of Georgia this was Dawglink). However, there is another equally important resource available to job-seeking students, one that is often overlooked. This resource is closer at hand than any of those previously mentioned, and it's available on a daily basis. This resource is your classmates!

Yes, the folks you sit with through mind-numbing lectures and far too frequent pop quizzes can be excellent facilitators in your job search. Talk to them. You never know what you might find. Maybe it's just the quirky nature of tech students, but many of my classmates were involved in a wide variety of endeavors and projects. One kid built and mounted a gasoline engine for his bicycle and putted around campus without having to pedal. Another guy often talked about opening his own computer repair store after graduating. A good friend of mine was part of a group of students building iPhone apps with financial backing from an investor, and I had no idea until I finally got around to talking to him about jobs in our fourth year. The point is you will never know what your peers are up to unless you talk with them and get to know them. Sure, some may have different interests and hobbies than you (like building gasoline-powered bicycles), but others may share similar interests and even similar career goals. 

In my major, I have done countless numbers of group programming projects with my classmates, which makes them more familiar with my skills and work ethic than any outside potential employer. A classmate with knowledge of your capabilities may be able to point you in the direction of an opportunity that you had no idea existed, or better yet, actually be involved in a project that they want to bring you along on. The latter is exactly the situation I encountered when I found my first industry job. One of my classmates had started a student Web development team, and I was able to work with them on a major project for a start-up company that needed an iPhone app and a mobile website. Although this was by no means a career, I gained invaluable industry experience in Web programming and was exposed to some new and exciting technologies (more on that in a tech talk soon!) that I may never have discovered otherwise. So whether you're in full-on career searching mode or just looking to get your foot in the door with that first internship, take a look around you. While you're on the verge of dozing off in class, your next job opportunity could be sitting just two seats away!