The Truth About Recent College Grads

Just how will today's college students face a tough job market and deal with potential job cuts? Author Marcus Buckingham, who wrote The Truth About You has an idea.

Here are his five top tips to career success:

1. Performance is always the point. What your organization cares most about is performance. It cares about getting a job done. ... Your organization was not built to help you identify your strengths.

2. Your strengths aren't what you're good at and your weaknesses aren't what you're bad at — so you'd better find out what your real strengths are. A strength is any activity that makes you feel strong. A weakness is an activity that leaves you feeling weaker after you do it. It doesn't matter how good you are at it or how much money you make doing it, if doing it drains you of energy, you'd be crazy to build your career around it.

3. When it comes to your job, the "what" always trumps the "why" and the "who," so always ask: "What will I be paid to do?" The bottom line is that most job descriptions don't describe the actual job very well, this means it's up to you to make it clear.

4. You'll never find the perfect job, so every week for the rest of your life write your "Strong Week Plan," which includes pinpointing your interests and writing three strength statements drawn from your life. Every time you go to an interview, you'll be able to talk about your strengths persuasively.

5. You'll never turn your weaknesses into strengths, so fess up to your weaknesses and then neutralize them. If before you do something you find yourself wishing someone else would do it, write it down. If, while you're doing something, you struggle to concentrate and your mind wanders, write it down. Then understand those weaknesses so clearly that they never trip you up.


(Excerpted from the Dayton Daily News.)