By Kendall Weems, Creative Coordinator, Spring 2020
As college students on the verge of a nervous breakdown budding career, it can feel easy to be intimidated by everything and everyone. With everyone currently in the workforce having the one thing you don't -experience- you might wonder if you have any valuable skills at all. The field is expanding rapidly with new technologies and systems debuting almost as frequently as a presidential tweet. While it’s impossible to know everything, it sometimes seem like companies expect you to be an expert by the time you graduate. However, before you drop out and become a sheep herder in Iceland, remember that there is hope for you yet and I will tell you why.
You might have more of an advantage than you thought.
The world is scary for a college kid. It’s the training wheels of professional life and the closer we get to getting the training wheels off, the more daunting the real thing seems. You have to trust that the lessons you have learned from your classes, experience, internships, etc have prepared you for your debut into the professional world. While it is true that those in the workforce currently have more experience and possibly more knowledge about the field, you still have the advantage of having newer information being freshly taught to you.
You don’t have to be the world’s best communications expert right at graduation and nobody expects for you to be the best, either. If you go into a career with the mindset that you’re not worthy of being where you are and that your skills are not good enough, you’re never going to improve. The secret is that many current professionals are intimidated by you. You represent the newer information, newer advancements, and up to date technology that a lot of people lack. The only thing left to update is your mindset. You have to believe that you have gold in your back pocket. You have to believe that you were hired for a reason and that alone grants you a seat at the table because you know what you can bring to it. Once you have the right mindset, you can go anywhere and check your fear at the door. If you still feel like you for whatever reason are "less than" or inadequate, there is still room for you to improve. If you recognize that you have an area of weakness, take that as a positive! Here is your chance to work on it. There are so many resources available that allow you to pick up a new skill and the best part is that you don't even have to leave your couch. Online sources are so valuable to someone in the communications field, which is constantly being upgraded and digitized. You can give yourself an advantage all by getting on your computer! The world is your oyster (or pistachio, if you're vegan), so stop worrying, crack it open and take what's yours.