Hi Ladies!
Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend! First off, I would like to take a moment to congratulate all of the seniors who will be graduating this upcoming May: You’ve almost made it! All of your hard work the past four (or five!) years is going to pay off and you should be excited to be starting your professional career (or continuing your education at grad school)! With May just around the corner, it’s time to focus on transitioning to life after college, which just so happens to be our March Hot Topic. Here are some pointers to help with your transition:
1.) College Has Not Prepared You For Everything
Many recent college grads are not prepared for the emphasis placed on teamwork skills, the importance of dealing with different types of people, maintaining work/life balance, and personal finance and budgetary issues. Be prepared to face these challenges upon graduating, and make sure to make necessary adjustments to personal habits.
2.) Finding Employment May Not Be Easy
Make sure to use all available resources to track down all job leads, and follow-up on all leads and interviews. A common mistake among college students is an over-reliance on the Internet, and passive job hunting. While this is important, don’t forget to use different avenues such as networking with friends, family, alumni, professors, mentors, and former co-workers/bosses. Many schools offer services to help find employment. And many organizations (Like SWE!) can be useful tools to network to find a job.
3.) About That First Job
It’s great to have idea of what you want your career path to be, but don’t be discouraged if your first job doesn’t fit perfectly into your envisioned plan. Your first job is great way to gain experience, maturity and confidence. The big trend now is for college graduates to change careers – not just jobs – multiple times over the course of their working life. So don’t worry if that first job is not a great fit for you.
4.) Time Management
The working environment requires more structure than college. Most jobs require that employees be at work at a certain time, and work for a certain length of time. This can be frustrating for a new professional and the new times structure will require an adjustment. Another big adjustment will be harsh reality of vacation time. Long gone are the days of long winter and summer breaks. You will probably get two weeks of vacation in your first job and can expect it to take years before you accrue vacation time at a higher rate.
Hope this helps guys. Congrats again! And good luck with the job hunts and the rest of the school year!
–Caitlin
Welcome to the Society of Women Engineers Region C blog, the premiere source for the Region C SWE news, and beneficial engineering topics!
