The Young Professionals Guide to the School-Career Transition
By Alex Batty, MHI Marketing Communications Coordinator |@mhi_alex
If you’ve earned (or are so close to earning) your degree or certification, you’ve managed to become a decent master of the school world. You know how to manage yourself and your style and how that works with learning, and you feel pretty confident at this point about picking up new tasks. Then you get a job.
First, congrats. Second, be prepared. Working and schooling are different beasts and need to be treated differently. It will be an adjustment, moving from school to work, and here are some reminders as you transition from one to the other.
Time Management
It will be a transition from a school schedule to a more standardized work one. Even if you worked during college, there is still a major difference between moving from class to work to class and having an 8 to 5. But bright side, no more homework! But just a word of warning: 8 to 5 is a whole different beast. You just can’t go out with friends several nights during the week and still be productive at work. Create healthy work habits and find a good work-life balance. As well as the two standards that are hard for anyone: Eat healthy and get enough sleep. But that’s just good life advice.
Budget
After living as a poor student (or even poorer grad student), that first salaried check feels like you’ve won the lottery. Beware the temptation to start spending willy-nilly. With the first paycheck come the first real expenses. Make sure you budget and see how much disposable income you actually have after taking care of bills like utilities, insurance, and gas. Remember, you probably also have student loan debt. While traveling Europe is awesome and should absolutely be a goal, it’s probably smarter to pay off those loans, and then save for trips.
Degrees don’t earn special privileges
You’ve got a shiny new sheet of fancy paper that says you know how to do stuff. And you do, just remember that your diploma doesn’t mean you won’t do grunt work. Remember that everyone at some point does grunt work; it’s just part of working a job. And an entitled attitude, whether you have an advanced degree or not, is a sure-fire way to alienate coworkers.
Create a New “People Bubble”
Depending on the program, by the time you go to graduate, you actually get to know your cohort pretty well. My programs were close enough that we came from similar loves of things, which is what drove us to the program. We fit. And generally those shared likes and shared experiences within the program made it much easier to just work together easily. However, when you enter the ‘real world’ and enter your first job, you’ll find that people come from a very large spectrum of backgrounds. You’ve got the marketing people and the engineers and management and all of a sudden that safety zone, the people bubble of shared experience, is gone. But this is a good thing! You may feel a little lost at first, but take time to get involved, both in the company and without. Build yourself back up a community and create your own people bubble.
This Job Isn’t Your Last
Though the previous generation could expect to start at the ground floor of a company and work their way up for the next 20 years, that really doesn’t happen much anymore. Staying with one company your whole working life is now the exception rather than the rule. Companies can suddenly face layoffs or you could want to move on. Definitely be engaged in your work and enjoy your time on the job, but be aware that this may not be the last company you ever work for.
Bottom line: Work hard, have fun, and know that it’s going to be different. But you already made it through one milestone; you can make it through this one too.
