September 16^th in Aggieland was a very special day for thousands of Aggies as they waited outside the Clayton Williams, Jr. Building with one thing on their mind: the gold ring. Ring Day in Aggieland is very special. People dress up, travel from all over the world, take hundreds of pictures and videos, and eat out to enjoy their Aggie’s special day. Oh, I almost forgot the Ring Dunks that abound throughout the week. A great tradition that only brings smiles…ok, people do cry at these things, but hey, you just hit gold! For parents, relatives, and friends, it’s a time for celebration and congratulations for their Aggie on their achievement. For the gold ring bearers, it means two things: 1. I DID IT, I FINALLY DID IT!, and 2…Now what? That’s the golden question.

So, you’ve obtained your Aggie ring, which means you have at least 90-course hours logged and are either about to start your senior year, about to graduate, or about to take another avenue. Obviously, you should celebrate your achievement however you decide to. On the other hand, you should probably get your professional profile together (resume, vita, etc.) and start looking for a full-time job. Either way, you will be wrapping up your scholastic journey and preparing yourself for the real world that awaits you (muahahaha….oops, that’s was a bit premature). From personal experience (a tough one to add), these are the next steps you need to take now that you have earned your Aggie Ring.

Sit down and take a look at your resume

Guess what? On average, you will have about 7 seconds to impress employers on the initial resume review. Which means, you’re out of time after reading this sentence. Yes, that fast. You should take a good look at your resume and refine it to make it sound and look professional. Your work experience and skills are of prime importance. Your grades and leadership positions may or may not matter (grades mostly don’t) to the employer. If you are banking on your degree and grades to land you a job, you’re out of luck. Employers want to see ample experience and unique skills, things that pop when they read it. Your resume should NEVER be static, it should always be changing to help you land a good job.

Internships? Don’t have one, get one!

The work you do in school will not adequately prepare you for what’s to come. You will not be requiring to regurgitate information read from a textbook in order to do your job. You are expected to apply all that you’ve learned to help the business make money and drive interest in their brand. Internships, in all honesty, should be required of all degree programs, but sadly they are not. However, 9 out of 10 employers won’t even consider you if you don’t have at least one internship. Even if it is for a few weeks, find an internship somewhere! If you are in your senior year and have yet to get an internship, I highly suggest looking for one ASAP. Internships help you connect with people, sharpen your skills, and provide you with professional practice that translates into a full-time job.

Grow your network

Meet people, get their number or email address and stay in contact with them. Easy (at least in writing it is). A LinkedIn profile allows you to connect and communicate with potential employers across the world and is a useful tool in building your professional profile. Even your friends are important connections to stay in contact with. As you and your friends meet new professionals, you can share contact information and even recommend them to potential employers. It kind of works like a trade-off.

When I got my Aggie ring, it was a day of excitement to finally obtain what I had been working towards since I came to A&M. I just wish I had taken more action after the fact. After I graduated, I applied to over 30 jobs and only fielded one interview. I figured out that my resume needed polishing, but so did my work experience. I want to work in sports, and my resume did not have any experience related to sports, which made it difficult to even obtain an interview for a sports-related job. However, after this past summer, I had acquired an internship that helped me build my network and grow my professional profile, fine-tuned my resume to fit a sports-related job seeker, and found a part-time job continuing to do sports-related work. It only took me 4 years to realize I wasn’t doing the right thing, but hey, better late than never.

So once again, congratulations on obtaining your Aggie ring, but do NOT stop there. Go get your degree, build your professional profile, and guarantee yourself that when you leave, you will either have a job or have enough experience to easily obtain one. Furthermore, be patient with employers, but really make yourself stick out. Diversify yourself as much as possible, and you will be just fine. The Aggie ring is just an object, but it’s how you use it that will help you out later in life.