Feeling anxious about life after graduation?

With all the talk of degrees, debt, and no internships or jobs, even freshman are worried. HR leaders say what matters most in a competitive job market is having experience and a visible, authentic personal brand. There's lots of free advice on this, yet concerned families are paying thousands for early career coaching because they know that students naturally procrastinate and that without a clear plan, easy steps, and accountability their freshman won't graduate with those advantages.

What they know is most likely true about most students, unfortunately most students can't afford a coach. That's why we created Gradplan.com.

Let Us Help You

Why It Matters

Employers Are Paying Attention

70% of recruiters engage with candidates on social media daily and 89% say social media helps them understand a candidate's values. WorldMetrics.org

73% of hiring managers use social media to evaluate applicants, mainly to confirm cultural fit and verify application details. Resume Builder Survey

82% of hiring managers are more likely to choose a candidate with volunteer experience.

85% of hiring managers are more inclined to look past resume flaws when the candidate includes volunteer work, yet only 30% list it on their resumes.

92% of employers agree that volunteering improves leadership and professional skills.

Deloitte, Impact Survey

41% of hiring managers consider volunteer experience equal to paid work experience. LinkedIn, Global Recruiting Trends

Volunteers have 27% higher odds of employment, and the employment boost is even stronger for individuals early in their careers. AmeriCorps

Not all degrees lead towards a competitive entry-level job market, but if yours does you need to seize every advantage you can get.

Introducing GradPlan.com

A Step by Step Plan

Building the Foundation for Your Authentic Personal Brand

Identify your values, interests, and story
Craft your LinkedIn Bio and Profile
Grow your online presence and network

Stengthening Your Brand Through Quality Volunteer Work

Align work with brand development
Turn class projects into work experience
Earn credentials that validate your skills

Telling Your Story and Increasing Your Visibilty the Right Way

Translate skills to your resume effectively
Build impact stories for your interviews
Keep your profiles current and visible

Quality Volunteer Work

PeerTakes

Leverage Your Personal Assets, Connections, and Social Credibility

Work with your old high school or a campus organization to create mentoring opportunities aimed at increasing student engagement and success. Inspire younger students by sharing stories about your own successes and failures.

Skills: empathy leadership, emotional intelligence, communication, motivation, networking, interpersonal skills

Impact Collabs

Use Your Firsthand Knowledge to Improve Student Services

Align class projects or form collaborations to improve organizations you are part of, support the work of education and workforce development leaders, or help any program better serve students.

Skills: leadership, problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, networking, teamwork, communication, work ethic

Teach It Back

Share Your Knowledge to Help Other Students Succeed

Create your own internship or learn how to use tools, data, workforce development initiatives, or resume and interview strategies to become a stronger job candidate. Then create opportunities to educate and lift others.

Skills: adaptability, empathy leadership, teamwork, motivation, problem solving, critical thinking, interpersonal skills

A Job Search Advantage

Soft and Essential Skills

Helping younger students avoid pitfalls and find success, especially those you share a connection with, is highly rewarding. The feeling of pride and success that comes with it will motivate you to continue working on projects that build evidence of soft and essential skills employers are seeking. It's an easy and strategic place to start.

Strong, Authentic Personal Brand

Increasing student engagement and success is one of our country's greatest challenges and likewise with employees and employers. Projects that reflect being engaged is one of your core values help build a strong base for your brand. And projects that produce metrics about your impact give your resume and interviews a boost.

Social Capital and Confidence

Gaining skills, experience, and social capital through volunteering helps you overcome the anxiety and self-doubt that comes with being a first-time job candidate. Creating your own volunteer work is also great practice for creating gig work. A degree matters, but experience, leadership, and initiative build confidence and set you apart.

What Makes Us Different

GradPlan.com delivers an affordable solution by operating like an enrichment program. You'll work towards building your advantage by attending Zoom meetings dedicated to discussing the particular step or project type you're currently focused on. Multiple time slots for each of the 9 steps and 3 project styles are available each month giving you flexibility to choose when to attend and what to work on. Open office hours and a library of insightful live session recordings are also available.

Helping you use free resources rather than creating our own is another way we make our solution affordable. The meetings are not passive lectures or presentations we put together. They are highly interactive and revolve around helping members stay on track. Students ask questions or share what they are working on and the trained facilitator and other students offer their advice and share tips.

A big advantage of our format is that it provides opportunities for students from different campuses, degree tracks, or backgrounds to collide and form connections. You can come early or stay late and jump into breakout rooms for small group conversations. In addition, there are countless ways to create meaningful volunteer work by serving the Gradplan.com community and other members. Participating is an easy way to build up your network or LinkedIn connections and gain experience.

Stop and Think Back

We know applying for jobs isn't what you want to think about as you start college, but neither was applying for college in 9^th grade.

If you were one of the students who started early and stayed on track, you likely earned scholarships and are at your dream school. If you started late and fell short on extracurriculars, you were likely stressed and missed some opportunities.

If the degree you are pursuing leads to a competitive entry-level job market and you want to increase your odds of an offer, you must eventually spend time building your personal brand and creating visibilty. Whether you pace yourself or cram is up to you, but we hope you'll join our community in time to seize every advantage it has to offer.