Student life offers this unique balance; you’re preparing yourself for your future endeavors when it comes to a career, you’re in this phase where you’re not a kid but not a full-blown adult either, you’re developing, finding yourself, while at the same time balancing academics, extracurricular activities, hobbies, and social life. College is known for being chaotic, but it’s like chaotic good. It’s good that you know you’re going to look back on fondly those nap times, those study cram sessions, dressing in jogging pants and sandals for morning classes; it’s all just a part of student life.

But with that said, even as a student, your time in college does impact your career- your student career. This is a time that you want to ensure counts, so when you get your degree, you can actually feel like you’re ready to take on the profession and industry of your choice. So, with that said, here is how you can enhance your student career!

It All Starts with Setting Up Clear Academic Goals

This isn’t just about getting straight A’s or even getting onto the Dean’s list. Sure, you’re going to 100% need to have good grades, but this is actually just a small fraction of the goals themselves. So, why even make goals? These goals can help you stay focused and motivated throughout your student career. Break them down into smaller, manageable milestones, and create a study plan to track your progress. But it should go beyond this; you should network, and look into good internships like that from Beyond Academy, a job, and so on. Just understand that academic goals don’t just start and end with good grades, just like your student career doesn’t only focus on that; there’s so much more that needs to go into this.

Build Relationships

Not just friendships that should be the tip of the iceberg, but a network. When it comes to networking, this shouldn’t only be for special events. Networking is a crucial skill that can benefit you throughout your career. Attend career fairs, join professional organizations, and connect with professors and professionals in your field of interest.

You’re going to want to network in classes, especially classes pertaining to your major, at internships, clubs, and so on. This isn’t so much about getting connections on LinkedIn; it helps, but this goes into more than just that. It’s important to have connections because this could be exactly what you need to get your career where you want.

Seek a Mentorship

It’s somewhat hard to get, but it’s easier to get one as a student. This is something that a lot of people don’t know about until it’s too late, but try and get a mentor. Sometimes, this can be an academic advisor or a professor who will gladly take you under your wing. Sometimes, you can even find someone online like a mentorship, but if you can take up something like this, it can honestly be seen as a game changer.