Step Your Game Up!

The whole point of interning is to eventually get a "real" job.  And in my case, a real job that ends once a week with a nice paycheck.  But interning alone doesn't get you that job, and I'm finding I have to work even harder just to be considered for a job as I did when I was interning.  I've really had to step my game up.

Last week I went to a career services counselor on campus at my school.  Not because I thought they would tell me something I didn't know, but just so no one could tell me I didn't get a job because I never went to these people.  The counselor was really nice, very encouraging, and told me a bunch of stuff I already knew.  She did, however, reinforce to me that I am on the right track in all my preparatory work.
So what prep work have I been doing you ask?
Step 1?  I've been a Facebook lurker lately.  Checking people's statuses, checking their work info, and looking for any small reason to send them a message or write on their wall.  Just to remind them that I'm still here, and will continue to be here, looking for a job.  Some of them I get to ask things like "How did you get to where you're at in the industry now?" They eat that up with a spoon because who doesn't love to talk about themselves?  Sometimes all I can get out of them is a "how's school?" and I turn that into a "Well, I'm graduating in a few months and I'm just really eager to get back to NY once I find a job."  I'm sending e-mails and reconnecting with old bosses wherever I can contact them for the same reasons.
Step 2?  I've stepped my Linkedin profile game up, making sure all the information on there is current and that I add all my contacts.  I can't say I believe whole heartedly that this will work but like the career services counselor, I don't want anyone telling me what I should have done when its 6 months from now and I'm still jobless.
Step 3?  I'm a big time nerd, but I've even stepped my nerd game up.  I'm constantly reading industry news, Hip-Hop news, trade magazines; anything I can get my hands on that will make me more knowledgeable than the next person.  Once a week I buy the newest issue of Billboard magazine and read it cover to cover, even jotting down some of the chart positions so that I'll remember them.  You have to be well rounded, so not only that, but I've been watching CNN whenever I can think to do so.  I do this just in case some type of current event topic comes up with a prospective employer, I can offer something to the conversation.
Step 4?  I'm becoming a better me.  I'm eating better, I'm exercising more (ever since my break-up with the gym, its been tough!), and I'm trying to be open to new ideas and people.   So I'm still not so good with the whole "I love sleep" thing, but I'm trying!  I've accepted the fact that I am, and always will be, a work in progress.
Step 5?  I haven't gotten to step 5 yet, but I've gathered a list of, what I hope will be great, websites for creative jobs and ones of jobs in the entertainment field.  Its a little too early to start applying to jobs just yet, but when I do start using them, I'll be sure to post the good ones here.  
And there you have it, 5 ways I've been stepping my game up so that I can become a member of somebody's team and not be waiting on the sidelines the rest of my life.

Hov said it best:  "Game. Tight."

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