Okay, graduation day is fast approaching and you don’t know what you’re going to do next. Your roommates have jobs, friends are going to grad school, but you have no clue what’s next. You don’t want to school to end. You’ve loved the experience, and you’re feeling clueless about what’s to come.
What should you do? Here are three steps to help you get traction on your future. Do these things and you’ll feel better fast.
1. Cut yourself some slack!
First of all, relax! In writing my book Graduate to a Great Job I’ve done over 50 case studies of recent college grads who eventually landed successfully in the job market. And about half didn’t know what they wanted to do when graduation day came.
Despite your parents’ concerns, what you’re going through is very normal. The transition from school to the world of work is hard and emotional. Don’t beat yourself up for not knowing what you’re future path should be. If you take the right steps in the next few months, you’ll be fine. So let’s get started.
2. Develop a realistic action plan
Everybody graduating with you faces unique circumstances with different interests, skills and resources. That’s another reason not to compare yourself to your friends.
First, check your finances. Can you coast for a few months, or do you need income immediately to cover living expenses? Your financial resources will dictate your flexibility and level of angst. You may not want to move home and sleep in your old bed for six months, but having that option is different than knowing you’ve got to come up with rent money right after graduation. Being realistic about how soon you need to be earning significant money is a key factor.
Second, set a goal for when you really want to start a “real” job, that is, one that you couldn’t have gotten without your degree. Do you want to start working June 1st, August 1st or by next Thanksgiving? Sure, you might be waiting tables or life guarding before that, but we’re talking about how soon you need to finish a real job search. Setting a deadline for yourself is important because it creates pressure to take the actions you need to get real results. Job searches almost always take longer than you expect.
Third, decide the geographic locations you’re willing to consider. Moving back home or near home will give you a better network for your job search. (Staying in your college town will also help your networking.) But this is also a great time in life to try living somewhere new. Unfortunately, that means you’ll have to work much harder at networking. You’ll also need extra cash to make the move.
3. Start scheduling “informational interviews”
No matter where you decide you want to end up – Washington, Chicago, Little Rock – the most productive step you can take is to start scheduling more “informational interviews”. If you don’t know what these interviews are and how to make them work for you, stop what you’re doing right now and find out. My book Graduate to a Great Job goes into lots of detail on how to do these. It also has a killer script you can adapt to start scheduling meetings right away.
One thing that’s critical to understand is most people you want to speak with today are feeling crazy-busy. They are happy to talk to you about their careers and to offer advice. But do NOT take their failure to respond personally. Expect to contact people up to three or four times before they agree to a meeting or a call. (If done politely, this is not stalking! It’s what adults have to do to connect with each other today.) The key skill for any job search today is polite persistence! I can’t emphasize this enough. Expect people to ignore you, but don’t stop asking them! People want to help you, but they feel so busy that your request just keeps slipping by them.
Set a goal for yourself to do two or three of these interviews a week. It’s a part-time job in itself managing all the information you’re going to collect. Don’t be surprised if you feel overwhelmed after a while. That’s part of the process of sorting out potential career paths and job opportunities.
The other critical rule is, even if you have a series of promising interviews and see a job you’re really excited about, don’t stop pursuing other options. My book is full of stories of young grads who thought they had a job offer in hand, only to have it fall through. Keep pushing forward on multiple alternatives until you land a job you feel good about.
You can do this! Transitioning out of school is a daunting challenge today. The job market has gotten ten times more difficult than when your parents started out. But it’s totally manageable if you know the rules of the game and are willing to put in the effort. And you’re going to need these job search skills again and again. So it’s a great investment to learn them now. You got the degree. Now go get that job!