When was the last time you fulfilled your social responsibility of "paying it forward?"

Although I can be quite talkative at times about random, unimportant topics, I've recently discovered that I can be a little stingy when it comes to sharing professional advice. I share a ton of stories and articles online, but how many times have I shared my advice in public? Almost never! While I'm trying to fix that now with the new Google+ community "Life of a Texas Job Seeker", a person can still get a little discouraged in the "pay it forward" department with minimal feedback. So you can imagine my excitement when I received the opportunity to help a young college student this week with his career goals. While it felt great to get back on the "pay it forward" wagon, the best moment of the experience was bonding with another person over shared professional aspirations and dreams.  

So I decided to share some more advice! :)

Blurry but confident!

I think we often forget what it felt like to be a recent college graduate!

I remember being overly confident in my abilities the first few months after graduation, only to receive a rude awakening that I was just another applicant with no experience! Although I was lucky to have friends and mentors in place to help me along the way, not everyone has someone in place to show them the way. 

So my "Pay It Forward" advice is to share your knowledge! 

It was brought to my attention this week that college students and recent graduates are pretty much alone in their career search journey. They have the career center at their schools, but even then there's only so much information a college counselor can provide. What they really need and want is advice from professionals about how to achieve their dream jobs. For example, resume reviewing, interviewing tips, how to network, how to negotiate, business acumen, what to wear, what to read and etc. I was extremely lucky to have numerous executives take me under their wings, but why should that flow of information stop with me? 

So let's start sharing what we've learned! The only cost on your end is your time!

I can tell you without a doubt that the advice shared with me over the past few years has meant more to me than the four years I spent in college. So let's start paying it forward and making a difference in the lives of our future business leaders.