While you are in school, grades have a lot of significance. Often students assume that grades are required on resumés. But outside of school, grades are usually a whole lot less significant than they have been while you were a student.

Regardless of what it is specifically causing your worries, here are a few things you can do to make starting your first day easier.

Thinking ahead to how this job will look on your resumé may be causing you some worry now, but it could prove to be just the thing to motivate you to try on some strategies for making lemonade out of your summer job lemon.

Question: I’m looking for a summer job and I need to get outside! What kinds of outdoor work could I look for? Summer is a busy time and creates a wide variety of outdoor job opportunities.

To figure out which questions you might want to ask you can start by thinking about what you would like to know. What would help you understand the job and their organization better?

Question: I’ve never had a “real” job before, but I now have an interview and don’t know who I should use as references. Please help!

Question: I am going away for two months this summer and want to spend the remaining two months working. Is it possible for me to find a job for only two months?

Question: Everyone keeps telling me how important networking is, but I don’t know anyone in the career I’m interested in. How can I network if I don’t know anyone? Answer: You may be surprised how many people you’re connected to after all.

The holidays are a great time to do some things completely unrelated to school or your career, but in between the eggnog and Auld Lang Syne, you may also be able to find some time to prepare for a job hunt in the new year.

Not having a prescribed set of careers you must pursue can be both a tremendous freedom and a bit of a headache. Without that equation of “x degree = y career,” how do you figure out which career is for you?