Seniors graduating from college already have a lot on their mind, the 4-year, mind-numbing degree program is enough to take its toll on them, let alone in some cases allowing them the room to ponder over their future endeavors. Further studies or employment? These two are the only two options that most to-be graduates think.
Doesn’t matter if you desire to stay in the education field as a professional teacher or dissertation writing service provider, or work at the state level as an, for example, economist, you should plan your future well in advance prior to your graduation ceremony.
This is why students are asked to consult professional career consultancy services or the college counseling department to acquire help in this regard. As for this blog, we are going to talk about some strict, yet powerful tips that you should consider in your future plans.
- Start early, as a freshmen or sophomore
You may be having a long, 4-year phase ahead of you, but students should start thinking quite early about what they will be doing after the graduation date, for example, attending a law school, dental school, or even hunting your first job. The ideal time is the freshmen period, or perhaps, the sophomore years. When enrolling in a graduate program, you clearly need to know the mandatory and optional requirements, for instance, courses, major, extracurricular activities, internships and other voluntary programs, the decision to spend your junior year abroad, etc.
However, this doesn’t mean that everything you do should be contributed in your future planning strategy development, neither should you avoid the situation at all. It’s about finding the right balance between the two.
In some cases, some students also prefer to take a gap after their graduation. It might not seem much, even a waste of time in the phase when the student is expected to go hell-bent into making a name in his or her field, but a gap of a year or two allows the students to create and strengthen their credentials, such as, working as a volunteer in an NGO, applying for a social research, etc. Often times, students get to hone their personal and project management skills in the period away from employment or college.
- Focus on professional development in your initial employment period
Understandably, we have the biggest temptation to start earning big bucks right after stepping out of the college and pay off all the investment our parents have done on us so far. However, it’s not that easy as said.
Students should enter their careers as more “learners”, and less “earners”. By saying this, we don’t mean that they start working absolutely free of salary, but the prime focus of any newcomer in the industry is to learn as much as possible. In short, think about where you will be heading in the next few years in terms of professional development rather than how much money you’ll be making from your first job.
The best positions and job descriptions are those that allows you to groom yourself from both soft skills and technical perspective, and not those that require the employee to act as a “sales machine” without providing any prior machine. In the latter scenario, it is a clear indicator that you might not be in the long-term plans of your manager. Besides that, the student should also keenly inspect the retention rate of the employer, and the satisfaction level of the workforce.
