It’s never too early to start building a solid career, so Work Mom is sharing a few key ways to jumpstart your career BEFORE you get into the workforce. From joining professional student organizations to being a continuous learner to finding a strong, intergenerational network of peers and mentors, there are tons of ways to start your career right now. Themes discussed in this episode Jumpstarting your career while still in college Professional student organizations get your foot in the door LinkedIn is your best friend Trade organizations expand your network The power of intergenerational networking Be a continuous learner Episode Highlights Timestamped inflection points from the show 1:00 – Getting involved = getting your foot in the door: Joining professional student organizations for your industry is a game-changer for finding internships, mentors, and opportunities. 1:45 – LinkedIn. LinkedIn. LinkedIn.: Start your LinkedIn account by your third year and connect with any adult you know. You never know who could connect you with your first opportunity. 4:00 – The power of intergenerational networking: When you form close connections with peers with decades of experience, you can ask them for advice or even a new opportunity when things go wrong. 6:30 – Reluctant networkers unite: If you’re introverted or just hate networking, check out our recent interview with the Reluctant Networker Greg Peters for his foolproof ways to get the most out of networking. 8:30 – Be a continuous learner: Learning about business etiquette, behavior, and mindset will get you far. From there, continue learning everything you can to elevate your skills, abilities, and emotional intelligence. Top Quotes 1:00 – When you get to campus, you should start looking into student trade organizations and get involved. It will have you meeting people who are in your field, your peers, and leaders in the industry. 2:00 – It’s not a bad idea to connect with your parents and your parents’ friends, uncles, or aunts. Anybody you know who’s an adult in business will help you grow your network on LinkedIn. 3:00 – “In the Women’s Ad Club, I found a group of women that, when things were going sideways, I could go to and say, “What do you guys do when this happens?” I mean, I was twenty-three, twenty-four years old, and some women in their fifties had great answers for me.” 6:00 – “When I got my pay cut, I got home, picked up the phone, and called a couple of my girlfriends…I was employed within two weeks, moved right into that new job, never got laid off, and recovered from that bit of early career trauma without a lot of muss and fuss because I knew people.” 8:30 – “When you’re a continuous learner, you’ll move more, you’ll learn more, you’ll meet more people. Your career will continue to elevate. You’ll elevate your skills, your abilities, and your emotional intelligence.“ Resources mentioned in this episode Connect with me on LinkedIn. Order my book! Transcript 00:00Hello, I’m Lori Jo Vest. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Work Mom Says, Don’t Be an Idiot. Today, we’re going to talk about things you can do while you’re still in college and immediately afterwards to really jumpstart your career. Most of us pick an industry. We try to get into it, but we pick the industry while we’re in college. So while you’re still in college, get some experience in your industry—a couple of things. If you’re not a club joiner, start joining those clubs. Most industries do have student chapters of their major trade organizations. There are ad clubs, if that’s your thing. There are manufacturing clubs, there are engineering clubs. Most of the universities and colleges will have organizations that are student chapters of nation