5 Must Do’s In College
How Not To Hit The Common Post-Grad Ruts While Still in College
Regardless if you got that job you wanted, or have smoothly transitioned into adulting full-time you can hit a rut.
These ruts aren’t caused by anything in particular it just happens because of the instant changes that occur once graduating. You go from stressing about finals, that unnecessary e-board meeting, and what you’re wearing homecoming weekend to the unforgiving job market, loan repayment, new bills. It’s a lot in a matter of weeks from graduation it just all hits you.
Don’t be afraid but spoiler alert, don’t graduate.
The change was a little more drastic for me since I moved to D.C. from NY. I’ve also heard some of my peers vent on social media about #postgraddepression being a thing so I knew I wasn’t alone.
I’m excited to share primarily with those who are still undergraduates (these can apply to grad students as well) some steps you can take to get ahead of the curve before graduating.
1. Networking & Socializing
My first year out of high school I asked my boss at the time “how did you get this job?”, He said the following:
“This job and every job except my first out of college have all been through someone I knew.”
That was a very impactful quote. At the time I questioned so did you not apply to any jobs … did they just find you … or were you just lucky? He laughed at my naive remarks. With reasoning, he went on to clarify that networking and being open to productive dialogue with others had clinched him opportunities he didn’t think were possible if he had just applied online.
This is why you not only need to network with your immediate classmates and peers but you must also network with alumni, keynote speakers that visit, and company reps that show up on-campus for career fairs. Collect business cards — heck go print your own business cards on vistaprint for $10 bucks.
Now you’ve collected some contact information from a person of interest. Follow-up within 24hours because it is likely that they’ll forget your interaction. You can send a note like the following:
“Hello X,
Hope all is well. It was an honor meeting you yesterday at X event. Just for reference I was the student who asked X question. I wanted to thank you for answering my question and follow up with asking how did you find your first job out of college?
I also wanted to connect on LinkedIn, would it be okay if I sent you a request?
Best,
Joel Durán”
But its not only about forming those initials connections it's important to nourish and develop these relationships naturally over time.
What do I mean by naturally? You can’t meet someone once, and then ask for their help. I hear this as a common complaint from those at big companies with randoms asking for referrals. What I like to do is once I’ve connected with someone I update them on what’s going on. I simply send a note asking how they’re doing and give them an update on myself (classes I’m taking, internship, & interest). It’s a great small talk way to lead into an interesting conversation. The frequency you do this can depend, but I say don’t let 6–12 months go by without contacting them.
Now socializing can be listed under networking but I would like to talk about it separately. First if you’re reading this you’re probably still in college. I studied Computer Science I truly don’t believe I could’ve made it without my friends. Big shout out to the CS Squad. My point is college is a great time to socialize and collaborate with peers to get through courses. Cause guess what? THAT'S WHAT YOU DO IN THE REAL WORLD! We usually formed group chats through GroupMe or iMessage and communicated there.
Refocusing on the topic at hand avoiding post-grad ruts. Having friends is important after graduation. Being able to talk to others facing the same challenges as you, can be comforting because no one has it figured out. Even if you take all of these steps you won’t have it figured out.
I truly believe in the power of uplifting each other through collaboration. Don’t be afraid to reach out to upper classmen who you might look up to on campus or recently graduated. They’re more inclined to give you some words of advice because they were recently in your shoes.
I graduated as part of the class of 2018 at the University at Albany. A little over a year ago and I’m familiar with peers who have graduated from my class or the previous one that work at Google, Microsoft, Amazon, HBO, PwC, EY, Lyft, PagerDuty, MLB, etc. to name a few.
Regardless of what school you go to ideally your peers will go on to do great things as well. For a network effect this is great because you both will be able to leverage each other if one is looking for opportunities at a given company. Keep this in mind, I have yet to do this but I plan to if the scenario occurs.
2. Gaining Relevant Experience
I worked at Dick’s Sporting Goods my first semester at UAlbany for $10/hr. I quit after a month because I was paying for a meal plan on-campus but was missing dinner (dinning hall closed at 11pm) several times a week because I had closing shifts. Needed the extra cash for spending money and for purchasing my trips to go back home. I later found an on-campus gig fixing computers that was much more flexible.
I tell the story above because I knew I had to get relevant experience and I needed cash so why not kill two birds one stone. Getting good grades and being a good person unfortunately will not get you a job.
It should be a requirement across the US for every undergraduate to have an internship/apprenticeship related to their field of study or role they’re interested in pursuing. Many realize after graduating that their degree alone is not enough. Do not and I repeat do not let four years go by and you did not gain any relevant experience.
And by relevant experience it doesn’t just have to be an internship you could be VP of an organization or even hold a position at the student government. If you have to work a job I suggest trying to find one on-campus they’re much more understanding with your scheduling if you want to take time off to study. You could also potentially get school work done while on the clock. I know a bunch of friends who worked desk jobs that always did their homework on the clock.
I recently surveyed some peers and asked “What’s something you wish you did while you were an undergrad to prepare you for postgrad?”
“More internships”
“Relevant experience”
“Tried different jobs”
Were among some of their replies. This is the perfect opportunity to try new roles and guess what? If you don’t like it now you know what you don’t like. I had peers who had way better gpa’s and experience than me but when I told them I was applying to work at Google they would cringe and say “it’s impossible why even apply”. I’ll say this much, remove these kinds of people from your life ASAP. To conclude this topic, check out John Gorman’s “You’re Not Lazy” post that speaks more on fear and how it withholds you from your true potential.
3. Preparing for Post-Grad Early
I saw it every year and with good reason (e.g. finals, jobs, personal problems). Scholars who just thought they could worry about post-grad after graduating.
To get right into it you should be at least thinking about an action plan the summer before senior year. There’s three main categories that I would put rising seniors into: Full Time Job, Grad School, & Gap year. I’ll be discussing the first two only. Although some find themselves in a gap year due to not preparing but since you’re reading this you’ll be prepared!
Full Time Job Seekers
Depending on where you want to work the Fall Semester and even late summer is prime recruiting season for some of the biggest companies. Facebook opened its RPM (Rotational Product Manager) program app on August 1, 2019, it closed within two weeks.
Also remember that even the most lucrative tech companies have non-technical jobs. Yes, I’m talking to you Business majors, Psych, English, etc. majors. I just felt like mentioning that because the amount of people who just refrain from even trying is astonishing.
Find out what resources your university has to connect you with alums because through the ones my school had I connected with individuals that work at top companies.
Otherwise, set the filters on LinkedIn (e.g. Company: Amazon, University: SUNY Albany) or just find the recruiters at the companies you want to work at.
I have a google search cheat code for you guys:
“company * companyname” “recruiter” site:linkedin.com/in OR site:linkedin.com/pub -intitle:profiles -inurl:”/dir”I won’t add a screenshot but literally just insert the company’s name where it says “companyname” copy & paste into google and there you have it a list of that company’s recruiters.
Why do this?
Well, you want to send some “cold emails”, personally via LinkedIn I’ve found people to be very responsive. Ask questions about their role, how they got there, and any resources or advice they have for applying. Don’t message them with your life story, quickly introduce yourself and say you want to connect for X reason. If you feel comfortable enough you might even finesse yourself a referral which just increases the chances of you getting an interview.
When it comes to interviews prepare for those as well. Write out all of the common behavioral questions and draft out answers. Practice them out loud and practice them with a friend. Get feedback and improve. Many interviews today are usually over the phone or video conference. I take advantage of those and grab some index cards to write out common questions with three bullet points. For example:
Tell Me About Yourself?
- Current Position (Mention quantative impact)
- School (Extracurriculars, etc)
- Hobbies (Maybe relate these to the role)
This helps me have a good reference if I get stuck or get nervous which is fine. You just don’t want to sound scripted so I don’t recommend having the questions you drafted. That’s more for preparation to respond with quality thought out answers.
Graduate School Seekers
So I’ll say this I didn’t pursue grad school but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. As different majors have different industry expectations. Anyways, you should take advantage of school resources depending on which graduate exams you’ll have to take for the profession or school you’re looking to attend. The books and resources are not free. On-campus organizations look to provide these resources to students. I’ve even heard of cases where graduate admissions have donated resources to students.
I won’t lecture you on this topic but prepare yourself before hand. Pick your Top 5 schools. Befriend some professors early or even email them over the summer to secure those recommendations and you’re well on your way to incur more student debt. Just kidding hopefully you get some scholarships and aid.
Fun Fact: Did you know you can pursue a PhD after undergrad? So, consider that as well for my Data Science/ML/AI/etc folks.4. Personal Finance Basics
I actually probably should’ve put this topic first.
I mean the level of financial illiteracy not only among college students but in the entire US is embarrassing. 40% of Americans wouldn’t be able to afford a $400 emergency expense. That’s 2 out of every 5 people.
So what are some basics you should equip yourself with. To keep it simple I’m going to break it into 3 categories:
- Budgeting: No by budget I don’t mean you have to stop going to Starbucks. By budget I mean you should pay yourself first. If you have debt or savings goals automate it. If you get paid twice a month set those automatic payments to come out a couple of days after for buffer in case you need to cancel a transaction. The rest is yours to spend guilt free.
- Investing: This can be a blog post in itself so I instead want to point you in the right direction. GOOGLE & YOUTUBE. No seriously. I’ll give you some recommendations later but everyone will have personal preferences. Some topics: 401K, ROTH IRA, Stocks (Divdend, Value, Growth, etc.), Index/Mutual Funds, ETFs, REITs, Real Estate (Rental, House Flipping, etc.), Cryptocurrencies, etc. There’s several ways to invest but don’t get caught in analysis paralysis.
- Credit: Hopefully you’ve ignored maxing out your card for spring break long enough now. All the above is pointless if you mess this one up. To move into my current apartment they checked my credit score that’s how crucial this is. So if you accrued some consumer debt while in college that’s okay but now you want to prioritize it over any other debt because it’s the highest interest rate varying between 17–24%. If you in the future plan on borrowing any money (Mortgage, Car, Business) this will be crucial at how much is granted and at what percentage to you.
Now for some key recommendations. This is pretty much my financial infrastructure. Disclosure: I’m not sponsored by anyone, some links below are affiliate links.
Checkings Account: I have 2.
- Bank Of America: I use my regular BOA Checkings account to receive direct deposits and pay bills. It’s convenient to have a big bank because they’re usually everywhere regardless of the state that I go to.
- Charles Schwab: I use their High Yield Checkings Account. This account is where my spending money goes. Mainly because Schwab has unlimited worldwide ATM rebates. Meaning they pay for all my ATM fees when withdrawing money :). It also helps me separate my bills from my spending money.
Savings Account: I have 2.
- Marcus by Goldman Sachs: This is a High Yield Savings Account (HYSA). The interest (2% 4x National Avg) on this account accrues daily which is pretty dope. I keep my emergency fund and other savings goals here.
- Qapital: I had Qapital before I got Marcus. It was a great way for me to save without even noticing it. The account connects with your bank to autosave. Check out the image below:
Investing Accounts: I have several but mainly use two.
- Robinhood: I use this for speculative growth investments because of its commission free trading. If you’re interested in opening an account with Robinhood click this link and get a free stock like Apple, Facebook, or FitBit.
- M1 Finance: I’ve yet to fully start using M1 Finance but I love all the tools it has. I believe its literally Robinhood on steroids. Obviously there’s different pros and cons to each platform but I plan on using M1 for the majority of my investing portfolio. They also have retirement accounts so you could have everything in one place. If you’re interested in opening an account with M1 use this link and get $10.
Also check out this YouTube channel by Joseph Carlson on the M1 Finance platform where he takes you through a $50K portfolio.Credit Cards: I have a couple. I’ll note the two that I’ve gotten the most value from.
- Chase Amazon Prime Rewards: This card gives me 5% cash back on Amazon purchases. We (my family) shop a lot on Amazon its clutch.
- Bank Of America Travel Rewards: When I signed up they had a great promo if you spent $3,000 in 90 days you got 25,000 points which is equivalent to $250. I knew I was going to spend that much anyways because I needed to buy furniture so I took advantage and got a free flight.
I recommend being careful with credit cards in undergrad though. If you’re not making money there’s no need for more than 1. That should be your limit until you’re making money consistently.
Checkout Ramit Sethi’s NYT's Best Seller “I Will Teach You To be Rich” to learn more about personal finance.5. Travel
I went to Barcelona this past January. Let me tell you, it was beautiful! I almost considered moving there and how I would do it.
I think it’s important to travel to gain empathy for different cultures. The value is priceless and the experiences are endless. If you can study abroad I would do it. I unfortunately didn’t and that is probably my biggest regret from undergrad.
Go anywhere that peaks your interest. Some take a gap period between starting their job or school again just to travel. It is important to allow your mind to take a break and pursue other interest. Your school should have a Study Abroad office, start there to evaluate your options or save on Qapital. In 4 months I saved $1800+ to go to Barcelona for 8 days.
These were just some thoughts I won’t hold you up past syllabus week reading this post. I wish you a phenomenal Fall Semester. Remember “Pain is Temporary. GPA is Forever” but also “C’s get Degrees” but they don’t get you into Dental (Med) School.
Go and be great! Remember Collaboration over Competition. Feel free to follow me here on Medium & on Twitter for more post on Products, Tips, & Sports.
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” — Paulo Coelho
