How to Get Your First Job: What Steve Jobs Would Tell You…

No matter what age you are, finding your first job can be a daunting task and seem like an impossible mission. After all, how many companies are willing to trust in someone with no experience, to represent and work for them? And the catch of that mindset is how do you get your foot in the door if no company will ever give you a chance?

There is a method to this that some people simply don’t know. And that is, find out what you want in life and go after it. It’s as simple as that. The problem is, most people are too fearful of going after what they want, worried about the rejection that may come with it. Others are busy listening to the experiences of others and think that it is applicable to their own situation.

All of the most successful people, from Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to Warren Buffet and Donald Trump, have all pushed themselves in ways that others won’t. So with that in mind, here is some advice on how to get your first job; and what we imagine Steve Jobs would tell you when searching for what you want in life.

As mentioned above, the first step of getting your first job is to know what you want in life. Does this mean that the passion you have for your first job will remain a passion that you eventually turn into a career, not necessarily. But if you enjoy doing something and want to know more about it, than its vital that you do whatever you have to, to get into that industry. After all, imagine Steve Jobs getting a job flipping burgers instead of working with computers, the world as we know it would be completely different to say the least.

The point is, it doesn’t matter what you want to do in life, what’s important is how you go about attaining that goal. If you want to flip burgers or be a chef, find the best chef in your area, tell them your dreams and ask them for their tutelage. The same goes for business, real estate, technology, athletics, education, or any other profession you can imagine.

A story that may help ingrain the importance of this information can be seen with Steve Jobs. When Jobs was 12-years-old, he was looking for some computer parts to build a frequency counter for a school project.

After scanning the phonebook (a huge, giant yellow-book that was used in ancient times before Google was available), Jobs came across a listing for Bill Hewlett of Hewlett-Packard. Without a care in the world, Jobs called and asked Hewlett for some spare parts. This led Hewlett to ask Jobs exactly what it was that he was doing, to which he was surprised to find out that Jobs was only 12-years-old and had such an interest in computers and technology. This ended up landing Jobs a summer position at HP and was one of the first steps towards the creation of Apple.

The Pareto principle assumes that everything in life can be broken down by the 80/20-rule. There are 80% of the people in this world are going to simply take a job that they never wanted in the first place, simply because they were too afraid to ask for a job they were passionate about or enjoyed. For every 10 people you pass in the streets, 8 of them are just going through the motions in life, afraid to step out and be different, be special, or be extraordinary. But, of those 10 people you pass, you also need to assume that two of them have all of these characteristics and is chasing his or her dreams.

That top 20% of people that don’t let others tell them what they should do, but instead they go after what they want. Just like Jobs did when he picked up the phone and called Bill Hewlett that day.

Some people will say that Steve Jobs made that phone call to Bill Hewlett that day because he was young enough to not know any better. But others will argue that he was passionate enough to simply not care what other people thought about it. When you are looking for your first job, you have to simply not care. Don’t let others tell you no or that you can’t do something.

It’s unfortunate, but chances are that they have never done anything special themselves and don’t want you to surpass them. Instead, surround yourself with those you want to be like, network with those whose advice you appreciate, and listen to those who can give you advice about the career path that you want to be in. When you are looking to find your first job, the best advice you can follow is that which Steve Jobs would give you; and as he said in his speech to Stanford Graduates in June 2005, “stay hungry, stay foolish.” When you approach your first job with this mindset, you’ll realize you have nothing to lose and the world to gain.