The Boston Bruins & You
So I was cruising along I-93 the other day admiring the fantastic Boston skyline when a billboard caught my eye: it was a Boston Bruins billboard featuring the slogan “We want it as bad as you do.”
Not being a hockey fan, I really wasn’t sure what “it” was. Is “it” the Stanley Cup? Is “it” a playoff spot? What is “it”?
But as my eyes turned back to the expressway traffic, I thought, “Does it matter?”
For someone who is not a hockey fan, it doesn’t really matter what “it” is. The fact of the matter is that whatever “it” is, the Bruins want it so bad they are willing to pay thousands of dollars for a bulletin board to advertise how badly they want it. Here they are on Interstate 93 telling the world, “Look… this elusive it, we want it!”
To quote the guys from the Guinness commercials, “Brilliant!”
So as you start the countdown to commencement (113 days left) and think about what you want to do after graduation, I ask the question, “How bad do you want it?”
Do you really want to be a _____(insert name of profession here)_______? How bad do you want it? Have you read industry articles? Have you browsed industry job boards? Have you talked to your friends about it? Does your mom know? Does your dad know? Have you told professors? Have you spoken to alumni in the field?
If your answer to any of these questions is, “no” then, how bad do you want it? But if you know that this _____(insert name of profession here)______ gig is something that you really want do, get after it. Be like the Bruins. Let the world know how bad you want it. You don’t have to get a 15 foot billboard that says “I want to be a ________(insert name of profession here)_____. Hire me!” But you can start talking to everyone you know about it. Start researching it. Start focusing your job search on it. Don’t believe me?
Let me tell you a little story…
Back in the day, (circa ’04- ‘05) when I was a college recruiter, I interviewed a girl for an internship with my organization. She was feisty and smart and had what it takes, but she was a sophomore, and our internship was really more heavily geared towards juniors. At any rate, I REALLY liked this girl, so rather than sending her a generic “thanks for applying/you didn’t get the offer” letter that I sent to everyone else, I wrote her a very nice email, highlighting her strengths, regretting that I couldn’t hire this year, and encouraging her to apply when she was a junior. One year later the girl reapplied for the internship. She interviewed with another senior exec on my team, and in her interview she told them about the email I sent her last year and how badly she had wanted the internship. She took my email, printed it out, stuck in on her bulletin board, and stared at it every day as she did her schoolwork. She geared her classes around getting this internship. She researched the industry. She used her extracurricular activities to bolster her application. She wanted it… And guess what? Not only did she get the internship the next year, she subsequently got the full time offer.
Lesson Learned: Things can happen when you really want it.
So how bad do you want it?
Monique