Four years may seem like a long time when you first start your college education. However, graduation will be here before you realize it. If you're graduating this year, are you prepared for life in the "real world" or entering grad school? Have you lined up a job? Here are a few things you can do to ease the transition between the academic world and the business world.

There are many ways to update skills or learn new skills. If you are unsure how to proceed, ask yourself: What do I need, or want, to learn; how much time am I able to invest; and how much money will I need to spend? If you have multiple needs or interests, determine which are most pressing and which are long-term educational goals. Then, consider how you can effectively meet your needs, in terms of educational requirements, and the time and money you can afford to invest. You might sharpen some of your skills with a little time and/or money.

COVID-19 has impacted a lot of things—including how we restrict face-to-face interactions. Many interviews are now taking place virtually, especially in the early stages of the talent search.

In recent years, online job interviews have become more popular and many companies, including Hilton, are regularly using technology to conduct preliminary interviews. During the pandemic, job interviews for nearly every stage of the hiring process became the norm.

Close your eyes and imagine a leader. Did you think of a general? The president? It’s not unusual to associate leadership with power, but to gauge effective leadership, I’d argue that power will only take you so far on the battlefield, in the Oval Office, and, yes, even in the workplace. In order to achieve sustainable success, managers need to embrace a humanistic model, which emphasizes compassion, the value of each individual, and respect.

Here are 15 personality traits that are key to effective leadership:

The world of work has changed considerably in recent years. Gone are the days of relying solely on your resume to land a job. It's all about building a personal brand in today's marketplace and ensuring you stand out from the crowd.  

Your personal brand can play a critical role in your ability to secure a new position. The problem is traditional methods of finding employment leave you lost in the shuffle, with employers receiving hundreds of resumes and cover letters that all look the same.  

In any field, it is important first to think deeply about what really interests and excites you. In choosing to get started in the field of human resources, this reflection is important. There are many different functions of HR, such as staffing and recruiting, compensation, employee development, labor relations, management, project management, IT (human resource information system or HRIS), and account management.

Graduating from an undergraduate program is a huge achievement! But as graduation inches closer, many students find they don’t have a clear plan for what’s next. In order to succeed as a working professional, proper planning is essential.

Need some insight and advice on how to prepare for a post-college career? Read on for some tips for the job search, interviewing, and how to best utilize key resources at your disposal.

Now more than ever, remote learning and working are becoming increasingly prevalent in our world, and with that comes a demand for more instructional designers. What is an instructional designer? You could call them the masterminds behind remote schooling and professional training. Instructional designers work with industry experts to translate their knowledge of the subject or job into a palpable online learning experience.

You probably never thought of it, but the ancient Olympics and Disney’s Electric Light Parade didn’t just happen. These events required skilled event planners to come off without a hitch.

Despite the fact that the event profession as we know it today is a relatively new field of study, for as long as we can remember—and even before that—people have been coming together to gather and feast. Back to the ancient Olympics in Greece: Even back then, someone had to organize the pagan festival and sacrificing of 34 oxen and the following athletic competitions among city-states, right?

Before graduating from college and pursuing my career in content production (and before I started writing for Career Catalyst!), I spent my nights and weekends working in restaurants. I worked in several roles — both in the front and back of the house — and I learned some amazing resume-building lessons as a result.