Video Transcription
Jim 0:09
Hi, welcome to Career Track coaching minute. My name is Jim Frisch, and I help young adults find meaningful careers through a coaching process. Once a month, I bring some past clients together with me to ask them a few questions to help everyone who’s looking for a career and seek their advice. And today, we’re lucky enough to have Josh Olson, who recently worked with me. Welcome Josh.
Josh 0:40:
Yep.
Jim 0:40
And so Josh graduated from the University of Illinois and majored in sociology with a minor in Spanish and he recently landed a position with C H Robinson. So, congratulations.
Josh 0:57
Thank you.
Jim 0:58
Yeah, and Josh, just real brief, if you don’t mind, can you tell us a little bit about C H Robinson and and what you might be doing?
Josh 1:06
Yeah, so C H Robinson is a third-party logistics company. And so, yeah, essentially, they work with truckers, and they work with different clients to ensure that things are getting shipped to where they need to be. And I will be working as a capacity portfolio representative, which essentially means I’ll be in constant communication with the truckers, making sure all the loads are getting booked and going to where they need to go.
Jim 1:32
Awesome. Yeah, congratulations again. When do you start?
Josh 1:36
July 23rd.
Jim 1:38
All right. Well, enjoy the next few weeks here.
Josh 1:42
Thank you.
Jim 1:42
Well earned. And so, you know, a couple of quick questions for you, I guess, do you have one piece of advice that you would give someone that’s, you know, right out of college or looking for for a job?
Josh 1:54
Yeah, absolutely. I would say the main thing, the most important thing is having a lot of patience and not getting discouraged when you’re looking for a job. So keep applying no matter what; you’ll get rejections, but that’s ok. You just have to gotta keep applying and consider all your opportunities even if you’re looking at different listings and job listings, and maybe they’re not necessarily what you were originally planning on looking for. If you’re like, I was, you might not even necessarily know exactly what you’re looking for. And that’s fine too. Just keep an open mind eventually. You will start to find the types of positions that you’re more interested in and you’ll start to get a better sense of what exactly it is you want to do don’t be afraid to use your connections too because networking is super important and using those connections that you have to expand your network or to help you find different positions that you might not have originally looked for. That’s one of the best things you can do and that’s actually what helped me to get my job.
Jim 2:57
Awesome. Yeah, that, that was good advice. You know, the, the one thing, you know, that you mentioned, you know, getting rejected.
Josh 3:05
Yep. So, you know, you have to just keep plugging away.
Jim 3:10
I’m just curious, how many jobs do you think you applied to if you had to guesstimate?
Josh 3:17
Yeah, it’s definitely in the hundreds for sure.
Jim 3:20
Yeah. And you kept going at it.
Josh 3:22
And then the, the other thing that we talked about, which was, I think the key is you not only have to apply but you have to network because ultimately, you know if you have a good, strong network and you’re doing it properly that you’re gonna get some, opportunities because of that network.
Jim 3:38
So, great job, good advice. And then how about, like, are there maybe one or two habits that helped you during the process of finding the job?
Josh 3:48
Yeah, I would say the most important habits that helped me in my job search were just getting into a routine of applying, like I was saying, applying for several jobs a day, and then what comes with that is you have to stay very organized. So it really is a numbers game a lot of the time and applying to multiple jobs. A day helped me to ensure that I would have a lot of different opportunities to explore, which is very reassuring in general in the job search process. And on top of that, it also gives you going through all those applications and all those interview processes for different companies, gives you the opportunity to build up your skills, your interviewing skills, build up your confidence and everything, and yeah, and like I said, if you’re gonna be applying to so many jobs like that, then you need to be, make sure that you’re staying very organized. So I’d say that’s key as well. And what I did to stay organized.
Jim 4:45
Yeah.
Josh 4:48
So what I did was well with your help. I had a color-coded spreadsheet that I kept to keep track of. Every application I submitted the date I submitted the applications, the dates the companies responded on which positions I was more interested in the connections I might have at that company and yeah, et cetera. And that was super helpful for me in staying organized. And yeah, I’d just say eventually, as long as you stay motivated and you keep applying, and you keep building up those skills and staying organized, you will find what you’re looking for.
Jim 5:21
Right.
Josh 5:21
Right. And it happened; it took me a while to get going, and then I got into the routine. And, you know what, I loved how you said about, you know, the interviewing process, which is totally true. It’s like in the beginning, you know, you might want to interview with some opportunities that you’re really not excited about because, ultimately, you wanna continue to get better and be able to sell yourself in an interview.
Jim 5:44
And so all those experiences eventually and, and I remember you telling me you were getting better and better at the interviewing process and I’m sure ultimately helped you land that job.
Josh 5:57
So, yeah, it’s all, all learning experiences.
Jim 6:00
Yeah, so great job and I really appreciate you coming on and enjoying yourself here again for the next two weeks. Definitely keep in touch. And so, until then, from career track coaching, I hope everyone has a great summer, and thank you very much.
