College Grad Lessons

There are a lot of important things to consider when researching grad schools. Some of the most common considerations are the cost of tuition, rigor of the program, required coursework and acceptance rate. Another common consideration is the school’s city or region. Whether you are interested in staying close to family and friends or you are hoping to get a job in a particular location after graduation, a school’s city or region may impact the program’s appeal. When considering a school’s location, be sure to also think about the neighbor the school is in. Is there public transportation? Is it safe? How much will rent cost? Would I want to live here for two years?

This morning I drove to Baltimore with my parents to look at the area surrounding one of the grad school’s I’m considering - University of Baltimore’s M.S. program for Interaction Design and Information Architecture. From what I’ve read about the program, it looks like a great match for me. I’ve talked to two professors from the program, looked at the course requirements and researched where graduates work. Baltimore is a fun city, but each neighborhood is very different from the next. Having the opportunity to walk around the blocks that surround the university gave me Read the rest of this entry »

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 Read the rest of this entry »

College Grad Lessons is officially one month old today. While College Grad Lessons is still very new, I’ve already had the opportunity to meet some great people online, interact with friends I don’t see very often, share a bit of what I experienced since graduating college and much more. Thank you to everyone that has been reading so far.

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to join 20 Something Bloggers, start Twittering and add a bit to my site’s layout. This is just the start of what I hope College Grad Lessons will become over the next year. When College Grad Lessons is 1 year old, I hope that it will have developed into a resource center and support network that college students and recent graduates can trust and rely on for information about life after college.

In the future, I hope to develop an organization that goes beyond this site and works to prepare students for graduating college, working and adult life. Read the rest of this entry »

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?

As a student, this time of year means winter break for most. For adults, this time of year means work and trying to fit in their holiday to-do list. While some choose to use vacation days around this time, others are still going to work. While I was aware that being a grownup typically means no winter or summer break, I wish someone had stressed to me that days off are much harder to come by when you work full-time. As new employees, recent college grads don’t have extra hours of leave built up like senior employees do. New employees also tend to earn leave at a slower rate. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently joined Twenty Something Bloggers, a social network hosted through Ning, and thought it would be fun to join in on their December Blog Carnival. I decided to pick the topic, “a wishlist of things you want that are free,” so here’s what that wishlist looks like:

Dear Santa,

I’ve been very (or at least for the most part) good this year. In light of the current economic recession, I thought I’d ask for some things that didn’t cost money.

Here is what I’d like for Christmas: Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »