College Grad Lessons

I had a different post planned for today, but around the end of the work day I noticed a bunch of people that I follow on Twitter tweeting and retweeting about Steve Jobs taking a medical leave of absence. Mashable posted and then updated about Steve Jobs taking a medical leave of absence. According to the post, Jobs wrote an e-mail to Apple employees explaining that his health issues are more complicated that he thought and that his health has become a distraction for people at Apple. Mashable’s update later added that Apple shares “have re-opened in after hours, trading around $79/share, down from a closing price of $85.33.”

Given that this is important news to Mac lovers, tech geeks and beyond, I’m not surprised that I saw so many tweets about it in such a short amount of time. I was curious who had picked up the story already in the mainstream. Around 4:30 p.m. (EST) I searched Google News to see what I could find. Not much. At 5:45 p.m., however, the story had already exploded. Google News shows that multiple stories are being posted per minute about Steve Jobs taking a leave of absence.

It is truly amazing how fast you can learn about stories that you are interested in just by having the right network of people online. I’m still trying to figure out how to harness this power to share knowledge about life after college, job searches and more. You don’t have to be a tech geek to benefit from things like Twitter. If you are a recent college graduate looking for housing, a job or just a good place to eat in a new town, try creating a Twitter account and searching for your town, career interests, etc. You might be surprised with how much you find.

You can follow me on Twitter @erin_stewart.

Driving back from my grandparents house (also know as “The Farm”), my boyfriend and I got to talking about all the things that we had done in 2008. It was a busy year for both of us, but 2009 might prove to be even more eventful. It’s exciting to think about what New Year’s Day 2010 might be like for me. I hope to start working on a Master’s Degree in Information Architecture, Interaction Design or something similar. I’ve also been thinking about looking for a job in another state (hopefully in the South) since some of the graduate programs I am applying to can be done entirely online. Ultimately I have no clue what I’ll be doing when 2009 comes to a close, but I’m enjoying the uncertainty.

In light of all of the possible changes I may experience in 2009, one of my resolutions is to make sure any changes I make in 2009 move me closer to my long term goals. (more…)

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…)

At some point during today it hit me. I’m officially adjusted to adult life. One year ago today, I would have been disappointed to wake up any earlier than 1 p.m. I would have had no cares for the next week or two. When it got close to starting spring semester, I would have dreaded having to wake up for classes or doing homework. I would have been avoiding the fact that in one year (today) I would be an adult with a job, bills and other responsibilities.

Today, however, I was ashamed that I slept past 10 a.m. I didn’t know what to do with myself since I don’t have to go to work for the next week and a half. I tried to use my free time productively by running errands and studying for the GRE.

One year ago (more…)

When offices slow down around the holidays, new employees (that lack vacation days) often struggle to find something to pass the time with at work. This is the situation I’ve been in since about Wednesday last week. While a slow day at work gave me a chance to check some low priority tasks off my list, and a second slow day gave me time to research for some upcoming projects, by the third and fourth slow day I needed something to do.

I had originally planned to spend most of my day studying for the GRE at work since I knew most people that I work with wouldn’t be here. Of course, when I got to work at 8 a.m., the last thing I wanted to do was study for the GRE. So I started thinking about what I could do that would be both productive and fun. Despite working on a web design team, I know very little about Photoshop because I usually use Fireworks to layout site designs and create simple graphics. So I started searching for a good tutorial.

I found this one on PSDTUTS and decided to create an image to attach to one of my sister’s Christmas gift in place of a gift tag with her name on it. A few hours later (took me awhile to get started), I had created the image to the right of my sister and her best friend.

Using my free time at work to pick up a new skill helped me pass the time in a fun way, be productive and learn something that benefits both my job and personal projects. So if you have some down time at work, think of something you’ve wanted to learn for awhile and get started! Strive to work on learning something that is relevant to your job, as well as fits a personal interest.

Anyone have suggestions for other ways to pass time productively during a slow day at work?

The past few months of my life I have flown by, but none faster than the month of December. As the holiday season was approaching, I was quite excited to get to enjoy the month leading up to Christmas. Some how I was convinced that I’d have lots of time to enjoy baking, Christmas movies, holiday shopping, etc. now that I’m out of college. Usually December meant final papers and exams and then crashing for the week before Christmas because I was so exhausted from the semester. I seemed to miscalculate the amount of free time that I’d have as a college graduate. (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…)