There comes a time in every young college student’s life where the glory days of sleeping through class, spending late nights in the library, and cheering from the student section must end. While it’s hard to grasp, it’s inevitable.
Chances are that this day will come much sooner than you anticipate. That’s why it’s important you prepare for it, and the many days that come after it. Preparing for your post college life is tough because it wakes you up to the realization that college is temporary, but not preparing means you’ll face a harsh reality upon graduation. Check out these things you should do to prepare for your post college life.
Finding a Job
Arguably the hardest thing for recent college graduates is finding a job. While it never used to be this hard, it is now, and it’s important you start looking early. Throughout your college life, you should spend summers interning with companies related to your desired career field. Even if you’re just making coffee, you’re making connections that might prove to get you a job when you graduate. You’ll likely be doing more than just making coffee though, and you may even design the next iconic baby on board sign.
Come June, hundreds of thousands of graduated college students flood the job market, making it harder to get a job in the field you want to go in. If possible, start taking extra classes during your sophomore and junior years (even the summers) and try to graduate a semester or two early. If you are able to graduate in winter, you’ll have a much better shot at landing a job quickly, since there are less college students saturating the job market.
Choosing a City
Make sure you anticipate what’s going to happen the day you graduate and your lease ends up. If you have a job lined up, you likely know when and where you’re going to be moving. But usually this is not the norm. Are you going to move back in with your parents? Are you going to extend your lease a few months?
When planning what city you want to move to after graduation, make it a city where you have connections, or second tier connections. It could be a city where your dad lived when he was younger, and a lot of his friends still there. That way you’ll have people to call when looking for a job, or just to ask advice on where a good place to get a hamburger is.
Networking
Prepare for your graduation by spending your senior year networking with professionals. You should definitely be networking before your senior year, but make sure you ramp up your efforts in the few months before you graduate so you’re fresh on people’s minds.
There are a number of ways you can network, and one of the most popular right now is social media. Follow professionals in the industry you are interested in, and reach out to them constantly. Do this before you graduate, so you have time to build a relationship that you can use post graduation.
