When you’re young, still in school, and lack work experience, how do you figure out what your dream career looks like?
As a computer science student, Yasmin knew of her interest in engineering and software development, but she was uncertain of what she was passionate about. Internships often serve as a proving ground to help students find their career fit, but it’s difficult for students to land offers in the first place without prior experience. Ironically, internship interviewers often look for ambitious students who “have it figured out.” Let’s not forget all the issues that Covid-19 brought for students either.
This conundrum led to Yasmin discovering Forage at a time when she was searching for ways to improve her resume.
As she began to look more into it, she realized she could complete these programs and put them on her resume as a way to build her skills. As Yasmin was trying to prove her skills, she saw this as an opportunity to show employers, “I completed this virtual program on Forage, I have some experience” to bring to the table. After completing both the Accenture Consulting and the JP Morgan Chase Software Engineering virtual experience programs, she learned a new programming language not taught at her university and the importance of debugging code.
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On top of building her skills, her experience with Forage opened her eyes to the possible internship and career pathways she could take as a computer science major. As she had the opportunity to learn about different positions, the experience allowed her to “look more into my career and what I’m looking for in a career”. With the help of Forage, Yasmin progressed in her career path to a place where she had multiple options where she could discover her true passion.
She utilized these programs to pitch herself to the companies she was interested in.
To her surprise, she ended up receiving summer internship offers from four companies: Carmax, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Expedia Group, and Capital One. This presented her with a variety of opportunities to choose from in her pursuit to figure out her dream career. Ultimately, Yasmin decided to accept the offer to work with Expedia Group which complemented her growing interest in the travel industry.
Yasmin’s Advice to Fellow Students
Yasmin recommends students to use Forage. “I showed employers that I put in the effort to improve myself.” She noted that it is all about putting in the effort as you get what you put into it.
Communication and networking was also a key skill in her successfully receiving multiple internship offers. Yasmin deeply advises students to always reach out to people and have conversations as they can lead to referrals or connections. By following her own key pieces of advice, Yasmin got one step closer to finding her true passion and dream career path.
Connect with Yasmin on Linkedin here.
