" I blow so much money on pointless ' playfulness ' things that by the time I calibrate , I had no economy and had a maxed - out credit card . "
Sincegraduationseason is right around the corner, post-grads from theBuzzFeed Communityhave provided the one important thing they wish they knew beforegraduating college. Here’s what they had to say below:
1.“Start looking up, narrowing down, andapplying for jobsduring the FALL of your senior year. Don’t wait ‘til spring — that’s when everyone realizes they are about to graduate and be unemployed, so every job will be overwhelmed with applications. It’s best to get ahead and apply early and get that job secured in the fall or winter. Then, you can relax during spring when all your friends are panicking.”
— Anonymous , 26 , Florida
2.“No matter how much of the ‘I need to be the perfect student’ thoughts you’re having, don’t forget, about the fun part of college. I tried so hard to make sure I did all my classes in the morning, went and worked my 40 hourss, and studied, to ace all my tests that I forgot the part where it was supposed to be some of the best memories. Go have fun! If you’re going to be in debt for the rest of your life for this experience, make it an amazing one. Meet people, go to the events campus puts on, and go out on a Friday night. Make. It. Worth. It.”
3.“I wish I knew how brutal applying for entry-level jobs was. If you have your degree but zero years of experience in the field (aside from a crummy one-off internship), chances are they’ll hire someone with even just one or two years of experience over you.”
— Liz , 24 , Michigan
4.“I would have liked to have a ‘career services’ course offered. We had a small department on campus that helped with job placement and getting you prepared to enter the workforce, but you had to seek them out for help, and their expertisee wasn’t always specific to the field you entered. Having a course that focused on things like salary negotiation, understanding benefits packages, interview training, the best ways to get connected to a job, etc. would have been very helpful.”
— robert_dunder
5.“Don’t take 8 a.m. classes if you aren’t a morning person. Don’t get bullied into picking a major because you feel pressure to graduate or because your friends know exactly what they want to do. Most importantly, surround yourself with good people. I was put into a lot of uncomfortable situations because I surrounded myself with not great people for a while. Be aware of your surroundings and trust your instincts! Also, you don’t have to graduate college to be successful. It’s not for everyone, and that’s ok!”
6.“How quickly the change from college to the real world comes. You’re used to a schedule with all these things to do, places to be, and friends to see, and suddenly, your friends go back home, and you’re lucky if you see them in person once a year, to trying to find a job that will pay enough to pay off your loans and cover the basic costs of living. One of my friends graduated in 2021 and still doesn’t have a job in his field. Me, I’m thinking about leaving the field I spent thousands of dollars to be in.”
— Anonymous , 24 , Wisconsin
7.“Most of what you do in your first job you’re going to learn on the job. Even if you learned every single thing that every course in your major had to offer, when you get hired somewhere, you’re still going to have to learn the specific software, policies and procedures, client relationships, projects, etc. for that workplace. College is just laying the groundwork for you to be able to pick all that up. What separates the top performers from the bottom performers in every job I’ve ever had is the people who know how to be productive, meet all their deadlines, and keep their emotions under control. Getting hired is the hard part — but once you’re in the door at your first post-college job, if you can do those three things, you’re set.”
8.“College is about more than a degree. Use the time and opportunities to grow into who you are meant to be. Get out of your comfort zone, and learn about other people and things you wouldn’t have before. Be open to changes in yourself and others. College is where you will come into yourself; cultivate that.”
— samanthae4ef54d0a6
9.“College has to be your choice. No one can make it for you. You should only go if higher education is something you want to pursue. You can go to a trade school or a cosmetology school, but neither of those will drown you in student debt as college does. And college overseas is way more affordable than in the US. Do your research, and make the choice that feels right to you. Education is an excellent option, but it isn’t the only option.”
10.“Save your money! I blew so much money on pointless ‘fun’ things that by the time I graduated, I had no savings and had a maxed-out credit card. I now am living paycheck to paycheck while struggling to get into my career field. I am so envious of my friends who made smarter decisions while in school and graduated with a couple thousand in savings.”
— sxphix
11.“Credit scores and what affects the score. Growing up in an Asian household, no one teaches you about budgeting and credit for the future. It was self-taught, copied behaviors, or learned through work opportunities.”
12.“I wish I had learned more about the whole variety of careers I could go into with my degree. I studied music, and the options we were given were basically to be a performer or a teacher. I didn’t want to be a teacher, and when I graduated and realized the life of a classical music performer wasn’t for me, I felt completely lost. I thought I had wasted all of my time in school and that I had to start from square one. Eventually, I found my way into arts fundraising, and now, I’m very happily a gift officer for a major orchestra, with access to experiences I likely never would have had if I had tried to stick with performing. There are SO MANY career paths that are likely adjacent to your major, and you can figure out what actually fits you best and still allows you to be involved with the thing you love!”
— Anonymous , 31 , U.S.
13.“Try your best not to compare yourself to others. Everyone is on a different life timeline than you are. Be the star of your own movie and don’t let other people’s timelines make you feel bad about yours.”
14.“I wish I was better equipped to navigate working alongside people of older generations prior to graduating. Learning how to objectively and tactfully communicate with people of differing mindsets/opinions is one thing. However, unlike in school where almost all peers are of the same generation so there’s some level of commonality. In the workplace, each generation has its own, sometimes very different, way of doing things. As a millennial, I mesh better with my Gen Z colleagues taking a more laid-back approach, leaning into using tech, and embracing innovation and change than I do with most of the boomers who feel too rigid and afraid of change. Upon entering the professional workforce, I felt wholly unprepared to work alongside people of, what I consider to be, outdated mindsets who seem to be far less open-minded than is preferred.”
— Anonymous , 35 , Chicago
15.“Take advantage of your school’s career center and/or your department’s internship coordinator office! There are so many opportunities to get a start on your career path while in school. Getting your degree is great, but it isn’t a guarantee that you’ll get a job right out of school.”
16.“That when a college claims ‘just the name of the college alone will help get you a job in x field’ that it is a BIG FAT LIE! I was an education major, and my department head said multiple times how the name of the college would help me get a job teaching because of how ‘prestigious’ our education department was. Keep in mind, I went to a small, liberal arts college. I’m 100% convinced that the ‘name alone’ claim was only for the area around the college, not statewide.”
— becky07990
" Very few schools have ' internal identification ' for being superior to others ( Ivy League and a handful of others ) . Your teacher was probably right in stating that locally , your school would gestate a lot of weight to it . I , too , went to a small shoal that regionally has a great deal of name recognition , but when I interviewed masses outside my area , most had never heard of it .
The college you work to really only helps you when you are looking for your first job anyway . After that , employers are more implicated with your experience . "
17.“Join clubs. I was nervous about not getting good grades and did no extracurriculars during my freshman year. It’s the best way to meet people, and it gives you things to put on your résumé and to talk about in interviews when you graduate. In the US, college is for networking and making friends. Unless you want to go into academia/get an advanced degree (usually a 3.5 GPA), don’t stress too much about grades. Once you get your first job out of college, no one cares about your GPA, but if you want to leave your first job for a second job at a new company, that person you met in your volunteer club will be much more helpful in getting you your next one.”
18.“The one thing I wish I had known was not to settle for an ‘administrative/executive assistant’ job while waiting to find a job in my field or in hopes that it would help me get an ‘in’ or to climb the ladder. Being pigeonholed as an assistant, especially as a woman, is tough to break out of and not worth the debt of a degree. I have nothing against these positions or the people who do this work; I actually applaud them because it is hard being that overworked and under-appreciated (and underpaid). If you have a degree in something — say journalism, graphic design, biology, whatever it is — my advice would be to try your hardest to get a role in your chosen field, even if you have to wait tables or bartend to get by at first.”
— Anonymous , 47 , Colorado
19.“There’s no such thing as the perfect job. If you over-specialize, then you will eventually hate your job. In college try to get as broad a background as you can, and when you change jobs later on, don’t always look for the same thing. This is tricky because it might mean taking a pay cut for a while, but in the long run, you’ll be a happier and more productive employee, and you’ll make much more money.”
20.“Apply for a Fulbright! You can have a gap year where you can teach for 15 hours a week, or you can research at an international university. It helps with grad school, and right after the Fulbright, you have top consideration for government jobs. It’s fantastic, and some countries, like Oman and North Macedonia, have super high acceptance rates.”
— delaneyjaney
21.“Yes, at some point you will likely be fired or quit. Just roll with it.”
22.“If you want to be successful, do internships your entire college career, not just when it’s required. The experience you gain from those internships is what sets you up for success and makes you stand out among the other college graduates. My biggest regret as a first-generation college grad was not doing internships my entire college career, but I didn’t know to do them until it was too late.”
— mandinblythe
23.“I wish I had learned that a person does not need a college degree to succeed.”
