College Grad Lessons

2008 was a exciting year for me. Like all college graduates, I experienced the nervousness leading up to graduating, the fun of being a second semester senior, a job search (or two), moving in (and out) of my first apartment, the end of a relationship and the beginning of a new one, working full-time and more.

To recap my college graduation year, I thought it would be fun to write down a memory or two from each month of 2008. For those of you that have graduated from college, hopefully this will spark some fond memories of your senior year in college as well. For those of you that are still college students, I hope this senior year time line gives you a sense of all that you have to look forward to during your college graduation year.

In January, I started my last semester of college. I was working on my senior project, thinking about what type of jobs I’d want to apply to and starting to get a little nervous about life after college graduation. At the end of the month, I celebrated 100 days (party marking 100 days until graduation) with my senior class. I also decided to apply to Teach for America. (more…)

Graduating college can be overwhelming. One of my biggest stresses during senior year was figuring out what I wanted to do as a career. I majored in Economics and minored in Asian Studies, and almost applied to law school. Then, around this time last year, I decided that I didn’t want to be a lawyer. I was faced with challenge of coming up with a new career path. Of course, your first job out of college does not have to be what you do for your entire career, but I wanted to have an idea of the types of jobs I might want to pursue.

The first thing I did was research. I spent a lot of time googling entry-level jobs, looking at job listings and reading about how to choose a career path. This helped me get an idea of what was out there. It was particularly useful to look at job listings for places I wanted to live to get a sense of what industries were in each city. It also helped to see what skills were in demand. (more…)

In the survey that I posted on Saturday, I asked college students and recent graduates what makes them nervous about life after college graduation. I got some great responses and have also thought of a few of my own. So here’s the list of what makes college students nervous about life after college graduation.

1. The economy and the strain it will have on the job market
2. Paying off student loans while still affording housing, food, etc.
3. Getting into a good grad school (more…)
   

If you only use one method when searching for a job, it should be networking. Ask your family, friends and people you’ve worked with if they know someone that does what you’re interested in. Contact your college’s career center and alumni office and ask if they know someone you could talk to about your desired career path. The most useful advice I got when searching for an entry-level job was that you should ask each person you talk to if they know three other people that would be willing to talk to you as well. This allows your network to continue to grow.

The focus of each conversation you have with someone should be (more…)