How Graduates can spend their time…

Seth Godin wrote an excellent post. It focuses on the graduating class of 2009 … those without a job but are looking.

Let’s face it. Times are tough. The competition for entry level jobs reaches globally across the ages. Yes, those with years of experience are competing for the same jobs at the same wages. 

You have a choice on what you can do with your time…you can invest it in yourself (without paying a dime) or you can waste it and become even less marketable!

Here is Seth’s list:

• Spend twenty hours a week running a project for a non-profit.
• Teach yourself Java, HTML, Flash, PHP and SQL. Not a little, but mastery.
• Volunteer to coach or assistant coach a kids sports team.
• Start, run and grow an online community.
• Give a speech a week to local organizations.
• Write a regular newsletter or blog about an industry you care about.
• Learn a foreign language fluently.
• Write three detailed business plans for projects in the industry you care about.
• Self-publish a book.
• Run a marathon.

The list will build on your skill set. You may not master them to the level that others have studied (such as HTML, Java, and other geek skills) but they will help you to understand those that you will need to lead. Learning the technical skills will help you to communicate with geeks!

I would add to this:

• Read a sales book (Jeffrey Gitomer offers many)
• Read a marketing book (Seth Godin offers many)
• Read You, Inc by Harry Beckwith
• Join Toastmasters (it will teach you about public speaking, leadership, organization, and networking)
• Develop a marketing strategy for yourself using twitter, facebook, linkedin, blogs, website

If you have already read these books, do not fall in the trap of thining “You Know This Already.” I read and reread these classics over and over again. Each time I read it, I absorb or trigger a different profit making thought. That is why I still listen to Earl Nightingales The Strangest Secret at least once a month.

You can do this! Just turn off the TV, read business-type books, be internet-social in a business sense!

Oh…this advice isn’t just for graduates…it’s for EVERYONE!