My friend Lindsey Pollak has a new book out called Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World.  I interviewed Lindsey over the weekend and thought I’d share some of her thoughts with you!

Alex:  How do you think college students today different from previous generations?

Lindsey:  A few major differences come to mind—of course these are generalizations, but here are some trends I’ve found with the students I meet:

1. Technology has changed the college and job search experience.  Most job searches today start on the Internet and most first impressions are now made by email instead of in person or by phone.  There are advantages—today’s students are very good researchers and have a ton of information at their fingertips—but there are also drawbacks.  Most jobs are found through networking, so you can’t hide behind a computer all day long. You have to get out and meet people face to face!

2. Today’s graduating students want “real work” right now.  They are often not interested in entry-level “grunt” work, which most previous generations saw as the ticket to admission in the real world.

3. College students are thinking much more about the short-term rather than the long-term.  The average student today stays in a first job about two years.  In previous generations, young people looked for a company where they would work for life. 

4. Today’s college students are aware of work/life balance issues.  It hadn’t occurred to me to talk about this issue in my book (and I hadn’t been aware of it when I was graduating 11 years ago), but students across the country often asked me how they could choose a career where they would have balance.  Now it’s a big theme in the book and in my college workshops—how to have a career and a life.

Alex: How does your new book help them?

Lindsey: I believe that continuous action is the key to job hunting success.  That’s why I wrote the book in the form of 90 action-oriented tips, with “make this work for you” exercises to help each student apply the advice to his or her individual situation. I also wrote the book specifically for Gen Y—addressing such issues as Facebook, globalization, student loan debt and other really current issues.

Alex: What inspired you to write it?

Lindsey: I wrote the book I wish I’d had when I graduated from college.  I wrote the book I wish my younger sister and brother had had.  I wanted to answer all of the common questions, address the weird dilemmas and de-mystify the job hunting process for a new generation of graduates.

Alex: Sounds great.  What is your next project?

Lindsey: Right now I’m traveling around the country speaking on college campuses and to students in corporate intern programs.  I’m also working on my next idea, a “pre-quel” to the current book—it will be a career advice guide (action-oriented, of course!) for underclassmen wanting to get a head start on their careers.  I would also love to write an advice column for college students.

Feel free to write in your questions for Lindsey, and I’ll ask her to answer them on here!