Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World

by Lindsey Pollak

How do you get a job without experience and get experience without a job? It's the question virtually every college student or recent graduate faces. In Getting from College to Career, Lindsey Pollak offers the first definitive guide to building the experience, skills, and confidence you need before starting your first major job search. Her 90 action-oriented tips include strategies ranging from the simple to the expert, including: Avoid the biggest mistake in career prep and job huntingSubscribe to a daily newspaperE-mail like a professionalMake every event a networking successPractice the eight essentials of internship achievementPerform five minutes of stand-upOverprepare for interviewsPersist

Getting from College to Career gives you the essential information and guidance you need to get your foot in the door of the real world. Don't start your first job search without it!

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Business, Productivity, Education, College, Personal Development

287 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

About the author

Lindsey Pollak is a New York Times bestselling author and one of the world’s leading career and workplace experts, with a special focus on early career success.

She was named to the 2020 Thinkers50 Radar List, which honors 30 global management thinkers whose work is shaping the future of how organizations are managed and led.

Lindsey’s next book, a response to the Covid crisis, "Recalculating: Navigate Your Career Through the Changing World of Work," will be published in March 2021.

Her other books include "The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace," "Becoming the Boss" and "Getting from College to Career."

Lindsey’s speaking audiences and consulting clients have included more than 250 corporations, law firms, conferences and universities.

She has been featured in such media outlets as The TODAY Show, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN and NPR.

Reviews

[Rosie Nguyễn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very practical and useful book for new graduates trying to build a career.

[Vui Lên · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

Sách được dịch qua tiếng Việt với tên Từ trường học đến trường đời.

Rất nhiều lời khuyên hữu ích và thực tế trong quá trình chuẩn bị, khám phá, trải nghiệm mà chúng ta nên có ở 4 năm đại học.

Những tips về phỏng vấn, viết mail, viết thư cảm xúc, xây dựng mối quan hệ, tham gia vào các tổ chức sinh viên, tình nguyện, phi chính phủ đều rất hữu ích. Mình nghĩ nếu mấy em sinh viên đọc cuốn này từ thời điểm năm 1 năm 02 sẽ tạo ra nhiều sự khác biệt cho mấy em ấy.

Bên cạnh là vài điểm trừ nho nhỏ. Các bạn có thể xem thêm ở youtube nếu hứng thú. Cuốn này mình review siêu chi tiết luôn rồi.

[Linh Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is truly a helpful and eye-opening book, and came at a perfect timing to me. It provides great insight on career prep with tips and recommendations from employers and headhunters themselves. If you’re not completely clueless about the real world then you may find some tips common sense, but still they are important nonetheless. The rest are new, and overwhelming, as I hastily took notes of them and felt extra-stressed and under-prepared. It’s good to have a guidance like this to know what you’ve done correctly and what can be improved, also to clarify some of the recruitment’s “myths” so as to be more confident going into the real world. The tips and recommendations are surprisingly doable - you don’t have to go out of your way to accomplish them.

I would recommend the best way to make use of this book: first, read the table of contents, and mark what you think you should improve. Then, read through the whole book quickly, and mark anything you find that you didn’t know, or you should read more carefully. Finally, go back, find what you’ve marked, then read with your heart and take extensive notes on it. Personally, the most informative chapter for me was chapter 4, on networking, because I believe it is one of my weakest points.

If there’s any downside to this book, it’s very American based. Many tips can’t be used unless you’re in America, or in a developed country with a similar recruitment system as the U.S. It’s hard out here for a girl in a developing world, but I guess I have to fight my way through 😂

Recommend for all university students - it’s never too late to start, and never too early to begin.

[Alex]

I only read this for my dad's benefit. He has given me dozens of self-help/advice/life-planning books over the years, and I figured I could indulge him at least once.

Echoing a previous reviewer, I am not the target audience for this book. It was written for people who are really into themselves and the idea of (mostly corporate) ~success.~ At one point the writer refers to a career as "doing what you were put on this earth to do," which sounds pretty fucking grandiose to me.

But I guess that's how my generation thinks? I met a lot of serial interns, neurotic thesis candidates, and multiple-club presidents while in college. I'm glad they're all excited about the future. They would probably like this book / have read it already.

[Gabriela Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got interested in this book while trying to find ways to get an internship and prepare myself beyond the courses I was taking in college. After finishing it, I can 1000% recommend it to any college or grad student who is trying to take their professional career to the next level. Most of the advice in the book is targeted to students in the United States but almost any college student from all parts of the world can apply these principles successfully. The book from College to Career gives a total of 90 rules for every student to succeed after finishing college. I could learn many concepts that can make a student stand out. Also, the author understands pretty well the common concerns of students. The book not only provides examples in each piece of advice but also motivates any student with clear arguments on why those should be followed. In my experience, this book definitely helped me to be more professional as I approach my senior year in college. This is a must-read!

Phrase: “In the end, achieving your greatest career dreams boils down to fear and overcoming it.”

Este libro lo recomiendo a todo estudiante universitario incluso si ya termino la universidad. El libro no esta traducido al español pero si sabes ingles y deseas practicarlo seria muy provechoso leer un libro de este tipo.

Frase: “Al final, lograr tus mayores sueños profesionales se reduce al miedo y a superarlo.”

[Ziad Shoeib · Rating 5 out of 5]

Getting from college to Career

كتاب مفيد، عملي، متنوع و اعتقد ناس كثير ممكن تستفاد منه.

الكتاب ببساطة من عنوانه، هو تجميع لنصائح كثيرة، في مجال العمل، تساعدك لبدء مسار مهني، بخطوات محددة و بأسلوب بسيط.

الكتاب شامل أجزاء كثير جدا، و من البداية الكاتبة حذرت بانه اكيد بعض من الكتاب من نصائح او غيره قد تراها غير مفيدة لك، لأسباب متنوعة و علمي بالجزء ده كان دائما ببالي، لأن الكاتبة بتتكلم في مجال واسع جدا، و فيه كثير من النصائح كانت محلية أكثر في أمريكا، و بعض من المصادر او الاماكن و غيرها من الأمور.

لكن بالنهاية استمتعت و حسيت ان الكتاب ظهر في وقت كنت محتاجه جدا، خصوصا أني اقترب من التخرج، و أكثر ما يرعبني في ما هو قادم هو غموضه، هل هلاقي شغل او لا، هل هشتغل ايه اساسا، هل انا كفؤ لأي شئ من الأساس، هل هلحق اتعلم و اتخصص في مجال معين. و غيرها من الأفكار المظلمه بعض الشئ و اعتقد طبيعي جدا في وقت زي ده.

و الكتاب اعتقد على الأقل أظهر لي جوانب مختلفة و نصائح لتطبيقها، بداية من بعض المهارات المطلوبة، و الأساليب للبحث عن عمل و المساعدة و تكوين علاقات و غيرها الكثير و الكثير.

أفضل ما في الكتاب هو أسلوب الكاتبه، كان ودود جدا، و هادئ، و ما بيحسسك أبدا بأي ذنب او انك مشكلة او غيرها، اعتقد هي تعلم مدى حساسية الموضوع عند قارئين هذا الكتاب، خصوصا ان شرحها مفصل جدا في كل شي فهو موجه كدليل بدء في تفكيرك للعمل.

كان فيه بعض من الملل في بعض من المواضع، لأمور كثيرة كنت عارفها مسبقا بس طريقتها ما كانت مزعجة كثير، و كذلك الأمور المحلية تخطيتها.

في النهاية حبيت الكتاب جدا، و برشحه لأي شخص ممكن يكون في هذه الرحلة.


فيه كثير من الملاحظات كتبتها خلال قراءتي للكتاب
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T...

[Kerrington Hood · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5
I found this book to be full of common sense points. These said points may not be very "duh, of course" like for everyone so in the right hands it could be very eye opening. For someone on my career path (high school English) it feels a bit useless. Lots of the points and suggestions don't feel aimed or applicable in my field. More open ended career paths where having a name and a foot in the door make a huge difference. Not saying that it doesn't make a difference for me it just doesn't feel like the most important thing in my line.

So I'm giving it a 2.5/5 for the relatable and (albeit commonly known) good points. Maybe helpful for some, just not me.

[Matthias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful!

[CTEP]

For January (yep, I'm late) book club I read Getting from College to Career. It is meant for soon to be graduates/recent grads, so I figure I could still relate. The book provides tips about how to make yourself stand out in the masses of unemployed and (potentially) unqualified. My friend who let me borrow it said she is hesitant to share it with many people because she felt like it gave her a huge advantage in the job market.

The book goes through 90 steps of how to succeed in a post-grad world, and I feel like I would have been at an even greater advantage had I read this during my senior year, but most of the tips still come in handy. They mostly relate to job hunting, which is even more relevant as I am currently teaching a Job Search class and I have used many of the tips in the classroom setting. My students are often blown away by my knowledge, little do they know how...little? I knew before this book. I have interviewed all over the place and written resumes with the help of experts, but I still felt this book was insightful.

The danger in this book is thinking it will solve all of your job search problems. It gives ideas and steps to be successful, but the idea is to follow all of the steps, not just a few of them. You also still have to be creative and keep your options open.

Ultimately, I definitely recommend this book, even if you can just read a bit before bed occasionally. It is good advice not only for yourself but those around you.

[Chaim Shapiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

The great Lindsey Pollak has done it again.

The 3rd edition of her essential work, "Getting from College to Career" is chock full of cutting-edge, current, and relevant advice for job seeking in 2024 and beyond!

Pollak provides practical, actionable advice that I WISH I had known when I made EVERY mistake conceivable as an undergraduate (although truthfully I DID "Fail" a lot: Tip #52).

Keeping with my professional brand of "brutal honesty" I don't agree with all of her advice, but I found myself nodding in agreement 99% of the time (the brutal truth is, I probably don't even agree with myself that often!)

Thanks to her book, I no longer feel guilty about my Lindsey "Hero Worship" (Tip #25). People who know Lindsey (With an "I" and an 'E") Pollak (without a "C"-remember to anticipate common misspellings of your name-in Tip $14) know that she is the REAL deal.

She TRULY cares about helping others. I experienced that in person when I had my "eat-a-bowlful-of-cockroaches" moment (yes, that IS in the book, but not as a proactive strategy) when a speaking gig of mine went off the rails.

I was devastated. It was one of the rare times that my "Schmooze Gene (In Tip #37)" completely failed me, but Lindsey spent more than 45 minutes helping me cope.

She turned a disaster into a REAL learning experience for me that made me better as a person AND a better speaker.

Her book will make you better as well!

So do what I did. Add "Getting from College to Career" to your "Really Big List" (Tip #17) and make sure to mark it as "DONE" as SOON as possible"

I guarantee that you will be richer for it-and if you read it soon, you may even be able to catch me when I finally build up the courage to do my "5 Minutes of Stand Up!" (Tip #59)

[Basanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

“People offer advice based on their personal experiences—which may be good or bad, representative or out of the ordinary”, written by Lindsey. She listed 90 idea tips for college / recently graduate students who are trying to getting a job both for 500 Fortune Companies or other creative industries. So you can approach one some of them which could fit you closing your first career. She was a believer that success comes from 70%-80% networking and leave graceful impression by writing thank-you note, then don't waste any opportunities to get noticed. It will provide you wide career-related skill vocabularies, so you can have better acumen of long-term career planning and goals. Lastly, it left impression, "follow your rainbow, meaning approach your hard-work on job searching as the process exploring your true self, then relax after failures since eventually you are no longer the same person as yesterdays." Good luck.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very simple and to the point! Usually when I read these types of books, the author's tone is annoying, the tips are basic, or the passages are too long. This was the opposite!

This book was enjoyable and I did pick up quite a few tips from it. Each segment expanded on the topic just enough not to be too lengthy, but still covered what was necessary to know. As a first-gen Asian-American student, I need another book to supplement this one because the author wrote from a white perspective (not a bad thing; it's what she knows) and some of it wasn't applicable to my specific needs. But overall, it was a decent read and did what it set out to do. Of course, I skipped over the steps that didn't apply to me (like asking my parents for help), but that happens with all advice books. You take what you need and in this case, Lindsey Pollak gave us a lot to take. I'll be coming back to reference this book in the future. :)

[Akaki Jandieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for people who are in college or just finished college, basically late teens-mid 20s, who may need some advices to prepare for work life. It's especially for people who have no idea where/how to start, people who are in the very beginning of career search. Wish I found this book, 6 years ago, in 2017, when I was about to go in university...

It has lots of common sense advices, sometimes annoyingly too common sense, but, put together, this book really is nice guide/preparation to transition from student to more career oriented person.

Also most of the advices are very practical, in fact they are practical to the point of being actionable as soon as you read them, which is another plus of this book, you can implement most of the advices within a month.

[Kartik Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good reference book to read before embarking on the corporate journey. Early years of college is the best time to read this book. It could be read by a working professional as well but a significant portion of the book becomes obvious or redundant in many cases.

A note to readers around the globe - this book is targeted towards American college student but there are a lot of generic advice which translates directly and will be useful in your country as well.

Overall the book could be classified as a self-help reference manual because it touches a wide range of topics through examples right from networking to even table etiquettes.

[Duchess_Nimue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pollak has great tips for recent graduates.
The book was well organized and contains a number of sound advice for starting your career on the right foot. Some of the suggestions are fairly common, some good, but some are so simple and genius. Personally, Your Really Big List is an amazing tip. And so is a table with all your correspondence (including the dates) with all the companies you had.
It is definitely more aimed at corporate jobs, and people with that career at mind. But a fair amount of advice is universal.

[Abby]

It's a bit outdated, but I still bookmarked a handful of sections with the intention of using them as guides in the future.

Some of this book's advice is rather old (do people still use business cards?), and other tips seem incredibly overkill, like keeping a portable binder of your achievements to show people, but it overall acts as a comprehensive guide to the world of employment. The formatting is clear, and it also provides exercises to follow to further one's career search. A great read for college kids about to enter the workforce.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is a solid book for a college student. Pollak's approach is to list a bunch of stuff it would be good to do in order to find a job by graduation but she also assures the reader that this isn't a "do-in-order" checklist. Dip in and dip out as needed.

However, as someone who thinks about job searching day in and day out it didn't offer too many new insights.

I wish that I had read the newest edition. The edition I read referenced some information and tools that are out of date.

[Bruno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lindsey's book outlines an array of useful tips that I have applied into my life and has helped me get into a much better mind set about job hunting and thinking about my career. From when I started reading this I have managed to get a job I am happy with. Clear and wide ranging in its content I would recommend this book for university students, the only way it could be better if it was based on UK not USA, the tips nevertheless are applicable.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has good information for college students who are entering the work force for the first time. I would honestly suggest this book for high school students with no career experience. It is very descriptive for people who have no information about networking and working. I wish I had read this earlier in my college career. I read it after having some work experience, so it wasn't as helpful for me.

[Ltorrealba · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book teaches college students or very recent grads how to find their first real world job. I’ve had it on my reading list for about 7 years, making it about 7 years (or more) too late to be helpful to me. Also, it’s pretty outdated at this point because of how much the internet and smart phones are changing the world. That being said, if you are the target audience, it may be helpful.

[Sarah Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was required in sections for a class I am taking to prepare going into the Entertainment Industry. I ended up reading it cover to cover the day I got it! There were a lot of great insights that inspired me without feeling too overwhelmed. It's a great book for any time frame, but it certainly would have helped to have read it earlier in my college career!

[Maria Isabel Chang · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is essentially a practical-advice-oriented book, with many steps to actually get going with job hunting. It is easy and fun to read and it was encouraging and useful to read it while I was looking for a job, some resources provided in the book are sometimes either outdated or do not exist anymore.

[WitchyFires · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent read with a bunch of handy tips. Some of the tips felt a little outdated since it’s from 2007 but a lot of them were pretty actionable. I plan to incorporate many of them and some were common but still nice reminders. Since they were a lot of points, it was a slow read for me. I read it in my senior year but I’d recommend it to university juniors to get the optimal benefit.

[Heidi R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good tips, some are a little dated because it was written in 2007, but overall it has some very applicable tips. Be sure to read it before you graduate, and not after; it is still valuable knowledge but I wish I'd have known about it before graduating.

[Rushmee Thapa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The peculiar thing that I had not given any emphasis has been viewed in such a way, that could give 100% benefit. Getting from college to career is must read for graduates or post graduates student who want to be indulged into professional career.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably should have read this book before I was already offered a job. However, this book still had some valuable information in it and I would definitely recommend it to college students, particularly sophomores and juniors.

[Germán · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un muy buen libro, conciso, muy amigable en el lenguaje, y lleno de consejos e ideas puntuales para conseguir el objetivo. Igualmente, algunos parecieran ser poco útiles o sumamente laboriosos, pero en general tiene indicaciones precisas y buenos conceptos. Lo recomiendo.

[Thilina Yapa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very easy to read and digest. Of course it's giving lot's of perspective to a student who is in the verge of moving to the real world. More than what to expect in the real world, the book prepares the student to face the realities. Highly recommend for any college student, high school student

[Joel Halstuch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book. Some tips where highly focused for students in the US, but still very useful. I enjoyed that every tip was concrete and attainable. The author expresses clear ideas why and how every suggestion helps the reader to get its job, while having a nice sense of humor.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was recommended by my former professor, and now I have it as a required text in my class. An essential tool for anyone looking to transition from the world of academia into the world of work.