As the summer internship season ends and a new recruiting season begins, LinkedIn is full of student posts about their first step into the working world. It’s easy to feel defeated if your internship search doesn’t seem as successful, and it can be intimidating if you are just starting your college career and don’t know where to begin.
For many, especially students pursuing business majors, it feels like a constant competition against your classmates. There are always students that want to compare grades, just so that they can boast about theirs. There are always students who want to take the easy classes, just so they can excel with minimum effort. Then there’s the “I am proud to announce…” LinkedIn posts which seem to suggest that you aren’t doing enough. While these students seem to have it all figured out, they are missing one key aspect: they’re already at the top of their chosen community and there is nowhere left to go.
These individuals perpetually surround themselves with those who are by their definition “less successful”. Being at the top of their group lifts them up and strokes their ego. They are consistently the smartest in the room and the most accomplished person at the dinner table.
However, this is an unproductive façade. Their egos are superficially raised up, but inside, they are insecure. These individuals are too fearful of seeming unintelligent, so they are never encouraged to ask questions or learn a new concept. When you spend time with those who don’t challenge and motivate you, the only place to go is down. And when the inevitable day comes that one of your “less successful” comrades excels past you, it will feel like you’ve gone nowhere but backward.
Your other option is this: spend time with those that are more successful, more mature and smarter than you. These friends shouldn’t make you feel lesser, but they should challenge you to expand your vocabulary and adjust your thinking patterns in a way that improves your lifestyle because you are genuinely becoming a better person, not just because you seem “better” than everyone else. These intellectual conversations will expand your knowledge base and make you a better conversationalist. Instead of looking at these people as competition, view them as resources to diversify your life experiences and discover new passions.
Surrounding yourself with those a level up from you acts as a never-ending conveyor belt of people that can expand your world. As you create relationships with your chosen group, they will often bring in other people who align with their values. Success begets success, and the further you can expand this network, the better.
These individuals can act as mentors and catalysts for opportunities that you may be interested in. Not only can they hold engaging conversations that expand your knowledge, but they can also be instrumental in your job or internship search as nearly 85% of positions are filled via networking and 73% of hires come from a simple introduction. Even if your core connections with more advanced people are not directly aligned with your career interests, chances are they still know someone who would be helpful to you, and they would be more than willing to make the introduction.
In a competitive job and internship market, complacency is a disease. Employers are looking for people who are striving to get better every day and who are unafraid of making mistakes or admitting a struggle. Surround yourself with people who bring out this side of you. After all, Warren Buffett said it best, “It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.” Speaking as a finance major, if Warren Buffett said it,then it must be true.