Using Career Capital to Land Internships or Jobs
Learn to use the career capital process to thrive in college
4 min read
Let's talk about career capital. Not many people are familiar with the idea of career capital—but it is the difference between an average and a great college career. To start, career capital is a rare and valuable skill you possess that defines your career. As a college student, you have the ultimate advantage to start developing career capital now.
In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell mentions that Bill Gates' success was no accident.
Now, I'm not saying that you'll be Bill Gates, but I want to emphasize that there is a process to all of this.
Many students don't know about this process and are left in scrambles by the time Spring rolls around in their Senior year. What they don’t realize is that college is the BEST place to define your career capital. You have access to alumni, Professors, and can play the LinkedIn card (asking others for help on Linkedin by saying you're a college student).
Everything you want to do—there's someone within your reach who has done it. Your goal is to find them and figure-out their methods. This will save you a tremendous amount of time. And once you start talking to these individuals, make a list of skills they possess or things they did and add them to a roadmap of where you want to be by the time you graduate.
After you have this roadmap, start taking it head-on. Work on independent projects or develop something that'll get you those skills. I was recently talking to recruiters at my company and they told me that they prefer candidates who take learning into their own hands. In other words, if you want those skills, find a way to get it. Because this shows initiative and drive—and the very best companies in the world want people like that.
Once you have developed these independent projects—start working on getting valuable internship experiences at companies known to give these learnings. Generally, these tend to be top companies or organizations in their respective fields but in a few rare cases, smaller organizations/startups also do it well.
What now?
There's a wheel to the process and your next step is to continue rolling it down the hill. Keep reaching out to the people that have skills you want through tools like LinkedIn, alumni networks, and even Slack groups (there's a Slack group for every career). Keep working on those independent projects—even after you get that internship. Keep getting more internship experiences—don’t just settle for one or two.
The top-performing students in their fields know this process by heart. In fact, every top-student we've talked to have consciously (or unconsciously) followed this on their way to develop career capital. I hope that I've at least shed some light on this process and would love it if you can do the same. Share the Seed Newsletter to one friend who would benefit from it.
Resources of the Week
So Good They Can't Ignore You - Cal Newport
Summary of the Book