March (and spring weather!) are just around the corner, and March is National Reading Month! Last year, I joined the board of my local public library, and that has served to reignite my lifelong interest in reading for fun. In my return to reading more, I have dabbled in memoirs, historical fiction, non-fiction, and even a few young adult novels! As a student at Penn, you probably have lots of reading to do, and while most of it is interesting (I hope!) it might not quite qualify as fun. I bet that many of you enjoyed reading in your younger years, but as time goes on and you were required to read more for your academic work, your reading for pleasure was pushed to the back burner a bit.
As a career advisor, I am often asked by students and alumni how they can improve their odds as they apply for jobs and internships. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula I can give that will guarantee success. But one thing I do know – reading for fun can help to make you a better job seeker. And while I cannot draw a linear connection between reading and the offer of your dreams, reading can help you and be fun in the process.
So, I give you the top five ways reading for fun can help in your job or internship search:
- Sharpens your communication skills – the more you read, the better you will be at writing and speaking. So much of job searching is focused on writing and speaking – you must write a resume, cover letter, LinkedIn summaries, and more. Then you must interview with multiple people to make the case why you are the best person for the job. The more you read, whether it be daily newspapers, fiction, or non-fiction, the sharper your communication skills will be, regardless of format.
- Expands your industry knowledge – how many times have you read a novel for fun and learned something new? Through reading, you can explore foreign lands, “meet” people you would never have the chance to interact with in real life and gain insight into the lives of others. Learning more about the world will help to build the confidence you need for networking conversations and interviews.
- Grows your vocabulary – the more you read, the more you will pick up new words and phrases. You will feel more polished and professional when you use this new vocabulary to describe the kind of impact you have had in previous settings.
- Strengthens your critical thinking – reading will work to train your brain to see things in a new and different light. Without any practice, you will see new ways to analyze arguments, spot gaps in them, and to ask better questions. Reading will give you insight into new ways to expand your perspective leading to more thoughtful interview answers.
- Gives you stories to share – interviews are essentially focused storytelling sessions. Through reading, you will see the different ways that people can communicate their decision making, and you can think about new and engaging ways to tell your own story. One of my favorite interview questions is to ask a candidate what they’re reading now. This is not a question with a right answer; I am looking for insight into what the candidate might be like to work with – what’s interesting to them enough to read?
What you read does not matter as much as actually doing it, so find something you enjoy! In addition to the thousands of periodicals and academic books, Penn’s libraries have a host of options for reading for fun as well. So, get out a book and flip the pages and open some doors!
