The plan used to be – graduate, paper the job market with resumes, get a great offer and land a dream job. If you start your job search when you’re in final year of college, you’re too late – the great jobs are already taken. To improve prospects for a career, consistent with the future you see for yourself, plan and implement your job search early, like freshmen early. Here are three steps to get started now, there is not a semester to waste.

1.  Interview the Professionals: Colleges and Universities bring successful scholars and business people on campus giving students the unique opportunity to interact with people that may be doing what they’d like to do one day. One student came to see me after a recent career day the college hosted. She’d listened to the presentations, but what the speakers said didn’t help, “Every presenter said the same thing, ‘This is who I am, this is what I do, and if you work hard, you can do it too.’” I told my student that to get the most out of a career event she needs to ask anyone that has the career she wants to have, ‘What is the next step for me? What can I do now, aside from doing well in school?’” Take advantage of the experts visiting your campus, get inside advice from someone who is doing what you want to do.

2.  Don’t be afraid to ask the right questions: Even if they’re uncomfortable, students need to speak up. Anyone that currently has the career they would eventually like have holds the secret to their success – they know the answers. They know how to get that job, career, life – but they have to be asked the right questions. Here are examples of questions to ask:

• Did you have a plan for success after college?
• If you did, what was it?
• Did it work?
• If it did, why did it work?
• How much of what you did can I use today?
• What do you think I need to do in the current business environment?
• Will you help me make my plan as you did?

3. Use the answers to these questions to develop long- and short-range goals. Set goals on a yearly basis, while addressing shorter time frames — six months, three months, one month one week, etc. Some students resist developing a plan, saying, “This sounds really good, but I don’t have time to do it.” You’ll be surprised at how much time you have when you plan well.

Every student has the time, access and energy and, can gather the knowledge to direct their own career – but they have to start now! With confidence and the willingness to ask for advice and counsel from the right resources, they stand a better chance of graduating with great prospects and possibly the job they dreamed of. Success is never an accident – any successful person will tell you that, if you ask the right questions.