So you just graduated from a top-tier school. Congratulations. Now the real work begins. Even when you’re among the best of the best you still have to stand out from the crowd. To do so it’s important to showcase:

1. Transferable Skills: Take stock of the lessons learned and skills developed during your college years that would readily apply to the job sought. These may have been accumulated in school, but don’t forget those obtained through volunteering or while working.
2. Measurable Achievements: Let the hiring manager know all about your CAR. No not the jalopy that got you to class, the Challenging situation you faced at work, the Action you took, and the measurable Result you achieved. Being able to provide metric-based proof points that illustrate the ROI of your actions can go a long way toward separating your from the pack.
3. Mistakes Made: Sure you might have the perfect pedigree, but no one is perfect. During the interview don’t be afraid to share an understandable blunder and demonstrate how you recovered and what you learned. Hiring managers realize recent grads don’t come ready made for world domination. You’ll requiring coaching. You just need to indicate that you are coachable and able to learn outside the classroom.

A top-tier education may help you get in the door, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll stay. The path to prosperity is littered with potholes. You have to demonstrate you belong through actual productivity.

In an effort to differentiate themselves some early career job-seekers will hyper focus on the competition, zoning in on those who went to the same school, had the same major, and graduated at the same time. While these individuals may be the most obvious potential competitors for that dream job, you’d be wise to widen the lens. Given the transient nature of todays’ workforce and the innovative ways non-ivy league students are approaching the market, the field is more crowded than ever before.

So leverage your contacts, but realize that the winds are shifting. Who you know still key, but if what you know is limited, so to will be your prospects. In the end we all work for Company Me. Demonstrate the ability to produce for others and your career trajectory will heighten…regardless of which alma mater you call home.

Need a career coach? Contact me via www.PlotlineLeadership.com.

Be sure to check out my latest book The Introvert’s Guide to Job Hunting and follow me on Twitter at @timtoterhi