Get good grades, participate in as many activities as possible and land a great internship.  We all know the blueprint of college success.  And this certainly won’t be an article telling you that blueprint is wrong.  There is absolutely no doubt that getting good grades and landing internships will put you in a great position for finding a good career after graduation.  But what happens if by the time you buy into that plan it’s too late?  What if you finish your college career with average grades, no internships and the closest thing you have to campus involvement is joining a fraternity?  Are you forced to accept a life of mediocrity and dead end careers?  If my experience is any indication, the answer is absolutey not.

For as long as I can remember, I have not been good at school.  Despite scoring in the top ten percent nationally on my ACT and every other standardized test taken in school, I received average grades from Kindergarten through college.  I wish I could give you some great reason why I severely underachieved grade wise in school (my parents sure wanted me to give them one!), but I can’t.  School just simply wasn’t for me.  If it was a class I enjoyed, like my accounting classes, I did very well.  Nearly every other class ended up falling into the C or B range.

In August of 2007, as I approached my final year of college, I went to see an academic advisor about my upcoming graduation and subsequent job search.  Given the fact that recruiting in my field, accounting, typically relied heavily on both good grades and experience, of which I had neither, it should have come as no surprise when the advisor looked my transcripts, shook his head, and suggested I start thinking about options outside of accounting.  He explained to me how most of the people I would be competing with had 3.5 GPA’s or higher and at least one accounting internship.  A meeting I thought would simply verify I was on track to graduate the following spring had turned my universe upside down.  Suddenly my entire future was in doubt.  I walked away with two choices, either do as my advisor had suggested and start thinking of other career options, or figure out a way to overcome my self inflicted handicaps and land an accounting job over much more qualified candidates.  After giving serious thought to the former, I decided on the latter.

After a few days of sulking, I became more commited than ever and formulated a plan for overcoming my shortcomings.  I researched networking, interviewing, resumes and everything else that would be relevant in my upcoming job hunt.  As a result of this hard work and research, I graduated college with two excellent job offers at great companies, including the one I eventually took as an accountant at a Fortune 500 company.

Here are my tips on how you can do the same:

Learn to turn your weaknesses into strengths

When you have sub par grades, especially in a field that emphasises getting good grades, potential employers are going to want an explanation.  You need to answer these questions in a way that takes the conversation from your weaknesses back to your strengths.

In my case, when potential employers asked about my grades, I would always talk about how my overall GPA was heavily weighed down by my first two years of college.  I explained how I worked my butt off to recover from my early years and that it was amazing my GPA ended up as high as it did.  I took full responsibility for those bad years, blaming it on immaturity and irresponsibility, but I also made sure to point out I had overcome these traits.  By the end of the conversation I was explaining how my mediocre GPA actually showed my ability to overcome adversity.

Be willing to take responsibility for your lackluster grades, but find positives in them to take the conversation back to your strengths.

Get creative

Most employers are going to want you to have some kind of relevant experience.  If, like me, you did not have a field specific internship, you are going to have to get creative.

In my case, I took my summers of working for my dads real estate company and turned it into accounting experience.  The times I had to go to peoples houses to collect rent turned into experience in accounts receivable.  Going to the city to pay the water bills turned into experience in accounts payable.  The spreadsheets I had to make assessing the rental units occupied vs. the units available became experience creating financial statements.

This is not an excuse to lie.  It is simply getting creative to turn your experiences into experiences that sound more appealing to employers.

Another great example of creativity is Jamie Varons website created for the sole purpose of landing her a job at Twitter.

Be relentless

If the credentials on your resume are less than stellar, you are going to receive a lot of rejections or just be flat out ignored.  This simply means you will have to increase the number of places you apply to.  I had a rule with myself that for every rejection I received I sent out three more applications.  By the time I finally landed a job offer, I had sent out my resume to 127 different employers!

You are going to experience a lot of “failures”.  You need to learn to get over them quickly and move on to the next opportunity.  You are also going to have to be very proactive and apply for jobs that aren’t being advertised.  Email every potential employer in the area you want to work, whether they say they are hiring or not.

Become a flawless interviewer

When you have average grades and no experience, the applications you send out that result in interviews will be few and far between.  As a result, you have to be able to nail the interviews you do get.

Out of the 127 applications I sent out, I received two interviews!  I knew if I blew these interviews there was no guarantee other opportunities would come.  I had no choice but to knock both interviews out of the park.  By googling every interview tip available, making a list of likely questions I would be asked during interviews and then practicing interviewing countless times, I was able to make the most out of the few opportunities I got.  I walked out of both interviews with job offers.

Make your interviews count.  Get on Penelope Trunk’s website and read all 29 posts in her interviewing category.  Then google more interviewing tips.  Then look up common questions asked at interviews in your field.  Then practice interviewing, over and over and over again.  If you take one tip from this article, let this be it, you cannot afford to screw up your interviews.

Network, network, network

I’m sure you have heard the importance of networking countless times already, so I won’t go into too much detail here.  But I will say the less “qualified” for a job you are the more important networking is.  The easiest way to make a potential employer forget about your average grades or lack of experience is to have someone they trust recommend you for the job.

This is something I wish I would have done more of in my job search.  I was not a good “networker” in college.  But both of the interviews I did get came from networking.

When you go in with a recommendation from a trusted source, you greatly increase the odds your shortcomings will be overlooked.  Turn every situation into a networking opportunity.  I met one of the guys who eventually landed me an interview on a sports message board!

Summing up

This article is not meant to diminish the importance of good grades and quality job experiences in college.  There is no doubt you will have more opportunities and things will be much easier for you if you follow that path.  Instead, this article is meant to give hope to those who, for whatever reason, followed a different path in college.

If you are just starting college, make good grades and relevant work experience your top priority and combine it with the tips above to make yourself a can’t miss job candidate.  If it’s too late for you to get good grades and land a great internship, implement these strategies to overcome those obstacles.

I was willing to be held accountable for my lackluster college career and accept the fact certain doors were closed to me because of it.  I was not willing to let it hold me back from achieving my dreams.  You shouldn’t be either.

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