The pressure of the first job : tips & tricks from a trainee
We all know it – or almost: the pressure to take the “right” choice. At least, I’ve experienced it. Everything wasn’t always clear for me, and decisions were hard to make when I started looking for my path.
After spending years at university, it was time to start working! After I graduated, I began to look for my first job and there it was: the disillusion. What did I want to do? Which company did I want to go to? How could I manage the flood of information I was facing? I quickly realized that looking for a first job can easily become a real ordeal.
In this article, you’ll find some tips I wish I had received when I opened LinkedIn to start my first job search.
It’s okay to have no idea what to choose and to be scared
When I started looking for my first job, I had no idea where to go. I had successfully completed studies that I wasn’t passionate about and that I had started because “law leads to everything”. So here I was, with the degree “that leads to everything” in my pocket, completely lost and with no idea where to go. I quickly began to feel guilty: How is it possible that after years of education, I felt just as lost when I had to choose my education at 18?
And believe me,
It was a weird feeling! But I learned that the first step to a fulfilling job is accepting that you don’t know what to do and that it’s okay if you’re 100% lost. You’re not supposed to know everything at 23 (or at any age for that matter). Give yourself time to ask yourself the right questions and calmly think about where you want to go. And on that note, here is a fun and interesting fact: Ormit Talent’s business model is based on that issue. The aim of the traineeships is to help young people discover who they are and take informed decisions so that they can experience a career that fulfills them afterwards.
If you don’t know where you’re going, you might as well choose a job where you can test a lot of things
When I first entered the professional world, I was confronted with a huge amount of information that I didn’t know how to process. How was I supposed to know if I would like a job just by reading a one-page description? In my opinion, you learn by doing, so it was a no-brainer to choose Ormit Talent for a traineeship. At Ormit Talent, thanks to the management traineeship, I have the chance to try out jobs that I would not have had access to in conventional companies.
Need an example? Try applying for a marketing job with a law degree. Sounds complicated? You’re right, I’ve been there. Yet here I am, drafting an article for Ormit Talent while waiting for my next assignment (which may be a marketing assignment). As a management trainee at Ormit Talent, you can try your hand at anything. It doesn’t matter what is written on your CV, what matters is the person you are.
And let’s be honest, you won’t discover your passions and talents by scrolling on LinkedIn for months, so when it’s time to take the step and everything still seems vague, go wide. Marketing? Finance? Project management? Why not all three in one? If your only certainty is that you don’t know, keep as many doors as possible open.
Lost? The more you know about yourself, the better your choice will be
If there’s one thing I’ve come to realize in the last few years, it’s that our generation (Gen Z) sometimes gets lost. With the need to respond to our parents’ desires, society’s injunctions, and the constant flow of information we are faced with, it is sometimes difficult to connect to our true desires. Personally, I often feel it’s difficult to find what drives me and makes me vibrate, even though I consider it essential to remain aligned with that. I have realized over time that it is only by taking the time to really look within that one can find the answers to their questions. Only you know what you really want to do, and what your real talents are.
At Ormit Talent, we encourage you to ask yourself questions that are sometimes uncomfortable, but necessary for your evolution. Through the different trainings you will follow during your journey, but also thanks to the help of your coach, you will get to know yourself better and discover talents you didn’t know you had. But above all, you’ll find your path: the one in which you use your talents for the benefit of a project in which you believe and in which you will blossom while continuing to progress every day.
You are not a tree
And even if you are not happy with your job and you feel that you made the wrong choice, you are not a tree. You are not rooted, you can move. It takes courage to realize and admit that you made a wrong choice, but it is not a failure. You learn from every experience you go through.
The traineeship formula is also particularly suitable for those who do not want to settle too quickly. At Ormit Talent, a traineeship lasts between 24 and 26 months. If you choose the management traineeship as I did, once the program is over, you are free to go wherever you want (or to stay as a management consultant).
Finally, in my opinion, Ormit Talent is the perfect compromise. I have the chance to collaborate with great colleagues, to have a variety of experiences, to learn about myself every day and to challenge myself. The best part? Two years from now, I’ll be able to reread this article when I’m looking for my second job and make a choice that will simply fulfill me.
So, if I had to give you one piece of advice to remember: trust yourself, listen to yourself and dare to try! Every experience you live contributes to bring you to your right path, so enjoy the ride!
Ready to discover more on your own journey? Time to become one of my colleagues!