First year
- Set up a parallel online presence - You need to keep your social life and your business life separate. I suggest using an alias for tweets, checkins and tags that might come back to haunt you when you start looking for a job. Companies can and will search out your name online for stuff that you've posted, so let's try to maintain a presence we'll call "the employable you". Now this is a bit controversial. Some of my friends feel that recruiters should cut students some slack and understand that college is a wild time and as long as they don't find anything illegal or appalling, they should let it go. When you're a freshman you might feel you're never going to be a lawyer or work for a bank or be a consultant. But people change and mature and that picture of you throwing up or wearing the "A buckeye is a hairless nut" t-shirt is online forever. It also depends on the kind of place you think you'll be working. A photo of you wearing nothing but body paint won't get you a job at PricewaterhouseCoopers, but it might be overlooked at a graphics design shop (it might even help). I say keep an employable online presence to be safe.
- Broaden your horizons - Yeah, you hear this all the time, but it's true. You are going to have 5-8 different jobs in your life and some may be in totally different careers. The more you can build a base for lifelong learning and collect different experiences, the better off you will be. Take some weird classes, join some weird clubs. It's a good time to experiment. And don't dismiss options prematurely.
- Start an 'achievements' file - Either online or in a physical folder, keep a place where you can put stuff that you've accomplished. It's so much easier to review this file in four years rather than try to remember what activities you engaged in that showed signs of leadership, or any of the other things you'll want to include in your resume and cover letters in the future.
- Don't obsess over it - C'mon, it's freshman year.
