Best Career Advice for New College Graduates

Congratulations! All your hard work has finally paid off. That degree is finally yours.

Undoubtedly, walking across the stage and listening to the triumphant notes of Pomp and Circumstance is a moment of glory. However, once the initial emotions fade, you may find yourself pondering what your next step should be. To get a successful career you have to act with a strategy and make the career choices that will help you move forward faster.

Now that you're entering the workforce, the best thing to do is to begin your journey confidently, and to do that, you need some advice.

The following tips are general guidelines for new college graduates seeking to begin their careers on the right foot and build a solid foundation for the rest of their professional lives.

1. Financial Literacy Should Be Your Priority

Upon graduating from college, your financial circumstances change tremendously. While this might have a positive impact since getting out of your comfort zone can help you grow your skills, you have to work hard in order to prepare your future and make a difference.

Graduating from college opens the door to massive possibilities, from rent options to working opportunities, but it can also create significant financial challenges. For example leaving your parent's house could sound a great idea but you have to manage a lot of things on your own and do your own research as well as mistakes as you learn how to leave alone.

Since you're the only one who truly understands your income and expenses, make financial literacy your priority. Learn the basics of personal finances, understand your current budget, deduce the most optimal way to manage your student loan payments, and try to keep things as rational as possible. Create a to do list with ideas on you you can make or save money, if there is any side business that you can run with a friend or family member for an extra income or find other ideas to follow your passion. If you do only these you will be one step ahead from what more and more people are doing (real data showcase that they realize too early that they need to learn about finance and how to make their financial success)

Some general good advice includes doing your best to live under your means, building your credit, and working steadily to build your future rather than living in the present.

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2. Sell the Textbooks You No Longer Need (and Keep the best pieces)

Money issues will be one of your top concerns after graduating. But luckily, you might be keeping a small goldmine collecting dust on your bookshelf.

Many of your college textbooks were only helpful during a few classes, so you might be eager to get rid of them. In such cases, selling them might be your best option, as it is an efficient way to declutter before opening a new chapter in your life, and it also provides you with extra income to invest in other expenses.

College textbooks are always in high demand since new students will always be around. But if you'd rather sell your books fast and without hassle, consider using online platforms.

You can sell old textbooks with DirectTextbook, as its search tool allows you to compare options to ensure you get the best deal. All you need to do is use the ISBN lookup to determine which buyback companies are looking for your textbook and how much they pay.

However, don't impulsively sell every single textbook. Some may be useful for the rest of your career, so you must carefully determine which are worth keeping.

3. Keep your Expectations Realistic (but Ambitious)

Having big dreams is important as motivation, but remember that you might not achieve them as soon as you step out of college. If you keep unrealistic expectations, you might set yourself up for disappointment and even lose motivation to move forward. Thus it is essential to build your qualifications and focus on creating a network of peers that you can grow and learn new skills together. Find what you are interested in and invest your time and energy as well as build relationships that move you closer to your goal and bring you value long term.

The solution? Keep your big objectives as the final goal, but set smaller ones along the way. This will not only make it easier to plan your approach but also to see your progress and keep you motivated.

The other extreme is also dangerous. Having no hope or expectations for yourself in a world wish so many opportunities around you, is equally as harmful as having too much of either, as it keeps you from pushing forward and achieving your goals. Speak to any employee working in any company, learn more details about any project regardless of the topic, just to spark your curiosity and you will see your ambition excel!

4. Continue to Build Your Network and your career path

The importance of networking as a new graduate cannot be overstated. The market is not that big, so your peers will be the ones working

Knowing the right person at the right time can change how your career unfolds and speed up your career growth, so you must put in the effort fresh out of college while you remain connected to fellow students and professors, as they can be the key to meeting further people.

Other key ways to build your network involve participating in industry events or alumni associations, as they can get your name and face known, kickstart a mentorship or provide collaboration opportunities.

Likewise, don't forget to nurture these connections. A cold email or an occasional message can go a long way. Any action that you do matters and will help your career path. Several people working will give you the career advice that you need to remain competitive (which is not always about salary comparisons but mainly about your skills) while keeping a positive attitude in your career.

5. Don't Stop Learning and keep a positive attitude

Well this is something that our career counselors used to say. To continue your path towards success, you must know one little secret: learning should not stop with your diploma. Spend your time getting more skills and develop resources that you will need in new opportunities that you will get in the future (so be prepared!)

It's not just about furthering your higher education, although it can certainly be helpful to pursue your goals. It's all about understanding that the learning process you went through in college was just the baseline of what you need to know.

Remain curious and open-minded about your career and pursue further knowledge to acquire additional skills (regarless if the skills are soft skills or hard skills) you might not have had in the classroom, primarily through online courses or workshops. Likewise, remember that your field will most likely keep evolving long after you graduate, so you'll need to keep track of new developments.

Also, don't forget—you also learn through experience! Be open to the knowledge you can gain as you work. It will be invaluable.

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6. Don't Neglect Your Personal Life and have positive impact

An often-forgotten tip that graduates should follow is to learn to take it easy.

Starting a new chapter in your life can be physically and mentally tiring. Prolonged stress and neglected self-care can lead to chronic stress, burnout, and even the development of multiple illnesses, which will lower your quality of life and keep you away from the goals you were trying to achieve in the first place.

Be sure to eat balanced meals, exercise regularly, and engage in activities that bring you joy and peace of mind. Self-care comes in multiple forms and can be as simple as meeting up with friends regularly or as complex as learning a new skill for fun. Believe me you have plenty of time in your life to try a lot of things, so do not underestimate the college experience and the extracurricular activities (or the physical activity). Each of those actions will give you extra skills and learnings and will help you find your dream job faster!

Whatever you do, be sure to remain consistent with it. A balanced lifestyle that provides as much for your career as it does for your mental health will pay off in the long run.

7. Invest In Your Future (forget your comfort zone)

Budgeting and cutting off needless expenses does not mean you should neglect truly valuable investments. And as a recent graduate seeking to build a path towards the future, nothing is more valuable than yourself. Your career goals and getting experience by working with a team that will be able to answer your questions and help you grow your career and jump on your next job is super important. Don't hesitate to ask for advice from people that already made it (for example managers

Whether it is time, effort, money, or all three, consider investing them towards the path you want to take. Furthering your studies, doing volunteer work or internships, paying membership for groups or programs where you will network with others—all these things require sacrifice, but they are sure to help you reap benefits long-term.

College graduates have finished one chapter, but the rest of the book is still ahead—be sure to start writing it wisely.

8. Start your own business (even on the side) or find a career coach

Starting your own side business will help you learn a lot of skills. You have to accept that the only way to learn a skill is to actually work on something (for example a side project) until you ultimately learn putting your effort into something that produces real results (i.e. revenue or profit). The value will be related with the work that you put in your project and sometimes it is difficult to describe with words how many

If a side business is not what you like you can find a career coach that will help you identify your skills and what you need to remain competitive and develop your skills! Find the areas that you are interested in, select the essential skills you need to learn to become a professional

In any path that you will select you will quickly find out that the leadership skill is always helpful and you will have to go through a continuous learning process if you want to advance and create a solid career action plan (or even a single career step). Success in life is mainly a result of adaptability skills, the work that you put and potential mentors that will give you considerable knowledge from their experience. While academic knowledge and academic learning is important you will quickly find out that building a knowledge base requires hands on experience from your current role and this experience will be expanded by having an ambitious idea and starting your own business.

A great piece of advice is that even a bad idea for a business will teach you so many things and will help your college experience expand to a leadership ability that will be used. So listen fresh graduates! After your campus activities, start drafting your career action plan and make the most of your time in school. If you are working, network in your current company and try to find a primary mentor in your life that will guide you in your business or next job!

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