As you finish up your freshman, sophomore or junior years of college and get ready to leave for the summer, I want to give you an assignment. Don’t groan. This isn’t intended to be punishment. It’s an assignment that will help you do the research, practice the skills, prepare the tools and gather the information you will need for your senior year job search. Although you may think that it’s much too early to get started, that just isn’t true.

If you’ve read any of my earlier articles, you know my philosophy. I believe that “The senior year job search actually starts in the freshman year.” It takes a lot of work to land a great job with a respected employer. Students who take the time to prepare will always have an advantage over those who don’t. The summer is the perfect time to work on that advantage.

To improve your chances for employment success, here are a few things you can do:

Accomplish Something - First and foremost, employers want to learn about your capabilities. They believe that your past accomplishments and results are realistic predictors of future accomplishments and results. Therefore, it is up to you to build a list of significant accomplishments, results and successes, while you are in college. For the most part, accomplishments are achieved in the classroom, during campus activities, at work and in the local community. Savvy students look for opportunities to add to their list of successes and accomplishments each summer.

Develop or Expand Your Network - Your network plays a critical role in job hunting success. However, it takes time and effort to build and maintain a working network. To get started, make a list of people who can help you and then begin to build a relationship with each of them (renew existing friendships, meet new people, potential employers, community leaders, business executives, teachers, high school friends, college friends, other college contacts, neighbors, college alumni, business association members, etc.). Students with a functioning network will always uncover more job opportunities than students who don’t take the time to develop one.

Work On Your Plan - If your goal is to land a good job with a respected employer, you’ll need a plan with a series of steps to take you there. What three or four things will you need to do, next semester, when you go back to college? Be sure to include something you want to accomplish, in order to impress potential employers. Also, you will need to answer the question, “How will I differentiate myself from other qualified candidates?” All of this should be in your plan. Think about and update your plan during the summer.

Gain Some Experience - All work experience is good. However, job-related work experience is even better. Regardless of where you work, potential employers will be interested in your on-the-job contributions and accomplishments. Summer jobs are more than just a little spending money, they are insights into your capabilities.

Do Some Research - Summer is a great time to do some of the research that will uncover the information you will need for your senior year job search. You can identify potential employers, their hiring requirements, alumni contacts, employment web sites and employment agencies, etc. If you wait until your senior year, you will have squandered time that you can never recover. Don’t make this mistake.

Take A Course - While you are home during the summer, consider taking a night course at a local college. Summer is the ideal time to take an extra course in your major or minor, make-up a course, re-take a course to improve your grade, take a course to address a weakness or take a difficult course to get some practice before you take it at your college, next semester. If you do well, you may be able to transfer the grade to your college.

Work On A Critical Weakness - The best employers have broad and deep expectations and requirements. They look for leadership skills, communication skills, etiquette, social skills, interviewing skills, writing skills, presentation skills, technical skills and language skills. Why not take an objective look at yourself and try to improve one critical weakness.

Do Some Writing - There are many things that you can do during the summer to give yourself an edge over future competitors. Since some of these things require a bit of writing, wise students will use the summer to make a list of their accomplishments, draft a resume, prepare a sales letter, design a business card, list the points to be made in an interview, write out how they will differentiate themselves, list their references and what they want their references to say about them.

For college students, summer vacation is not a vacation. It is a time when dedicated students anticipate and prepare for the critical needs that lie ahead. Those students who choose to use their summers wisely will help to guarantee a greater degree of job hunting success. Those who ignore this opportunity will almost certainly guarantee that they will lose out to equally qualified, but better prepared, competitors.