Post-Graduate Employment: How to Prepare for a Job After College

When you are a college student, life is great. You can wake up late, sleep through a couple lectures, hang out with your friends, grab some pizza, party that night, and then do it all over again. A couple times a year a break-up, a long paper, or a major exam might add a bit of stress to your otherwise carefree existence. For those students who hold down part-time jobs, the work tends to be straightforward and the pay limited. These jobs are a way of making money to get through college – nothing more or less.

Four (or five, depending on your personal timeline) years pass blissfully and then, all of a sudden, the college hands you a diploma, shakes your hand, and spits you out into the world. Now what? Time to find a job. If you are on of the fortunate few, you have already become acquainted with your Office of Career Services during senior year and may have something lined up. However, is this the best job you could have gotten? On the other hand, if you are one of the typical multitude, your thoughts about a job are just that – thoughts. 

What you may not realize is that graduation from college is a critical breakpoint. Career choices made during and after graduation will affect your entire life – it will deeply affect your skills, your earnings potential, your social circle, who and whether you marry, where and how you will live…in a word – everything. Given the monumental importance of this decision, even a small amount of planning can have a profound influence on your future success.

There are three key pieces of advice that you must internalize: (1) start early; (2) prepare; and (3) follow through. It may not sound like much, but these three steps can mean the difference between a multi-million dollar career and a dead-end one, or, if material success is not your measuring stick, the difference between a fulfilling career and a meaningless one.