I was asked recently by a senior in college, what is the best piece of advice I could share as he finishes his final year?

My response was to use the ‘feedback tactic’ to his advantage while he still can. 

I shared that he was in a unique spot where he could reach out to just about any senior leader in any company and simply ask for their feedback, as a college student who is interested in learning from them and interested in making a career decision. 

Most leaders like to help and also like to share their lessons learned of their career to someone they believe is truly interested. It’s amazing who you can connect with through a humble outreach and an ask for a coffee or short phone call. (plus, to be honest, people like to talk about themselves)

I told him this is a great way to build his network of business leaders, potentially get introduced to someone to land a job, and genuinely learn from very smart and successful people.  I suggested to make a list of the most interesting companies he could think of and start going through Linkedin to look up their CEO’s or other company leaders in his area of interest and then simply reach out to them for feedback.

He later emailed me and said this was the most practical piece of advice anyone has given him as a college senior, so I hope it can help others as well.