What’s the next step? These exact four words circle the young minds of new graduates the moment they step foot into the thin line that divides students in their last few days of college and young adults who are eager to seek the right career options for themselves.
What comes next? The same exact question that acts like a blast of an alarm ringing, waking someone up from deep slumber, only this time it can be a bit more intense – perhaps mixed with a reasonable amount of thrill, excitement, confusion, and fear.
What comes next? An introspection that lingers through students’ minds as they realize that the last four years of striving and thriving through paperwork, deadlines, academic stress, and last-minute cramming have come to an end.
What comes next? A question that can only be answered by actions.
After years of dealing with unsolved math problems and mystery words you can’t seem to familiarize yourself with, the day has finally come when you stand in front of a crowd and receive your diplomas.
After years of working out your goals, there are those who experience a sudden halt as they navigate their way into figuring out their next steps. This article delves into how to kickstart a great career after graduation.
Starting From Point Zero
This may sound rough and uneasy, but no matter how prepared you think you are, life has ways of getting you off guard. Regardless if you have planned a career path since you started college, high school, or even elementary, there is still a tendency for change.
Thus, don’t be afraid to start from point zero. Do you want to pursue higher education and acquire a post-graduate diploma? Do you want to start working right after graduation? or do you feel like taking a month off before heading into the working world?
A few days of reflecting on your next move will take little from you.
Let Go of Unnecessary Pressure
For most people, working on their careers starts after getting their bachelor’s degree; nowadays, students like to engage in different industries even before graduation, which becomes a stepping stone towards pursuing their dream job.
Although applying and working on various internships can jump-start your career, don’t put pressure on yourself by thinking that others have an edge due to having more experience pre-graduation.
Although experience is a good reference for someone when applying, remember that you can also progress at your own pace.
Acknowledge what you can and can not handle at a given time, and learn not to put too much on yourself just because you see people doing something you don’t. Remember, being physically ready can take days or months, but restoring yourself from mental drainage can take years.
Thus, knowing how to limit things and acknowledging that you might need more time to rest and adjust is essential.
Build Your Portfolio and Find People in Your Niche
Finally ready to send in applications? One thing you can start doing is by building yourself a good resume and a great portfolio to show people your work. Compile all your work from college up to present time. Indicate any job experience in your porfolio.
Are you an architecture graduate? Compile your best plates to show hiring managers what you can do. Likewise, when building a resume, ensure that you only include the details that will tell hiring officers about your background. Include information such as your educational background, experiences, and technical proficiency.
Another thing you can also do is by doing research on career opportunities and networking. Creating an account on Jobstreet, LinkedIn, Indeed, Upwork, and Kalibrr can introduce you to jobs currently available in the market.
Check on Job Seeking Sites
Aside from job postings, creating profiles on job-seeking sites will give you career options to asses yourself if you wish to pursue a specific role.
Subsequently, websites like LinkedIn is an effective way to network and connect with people. Do you want to have a career in human resource management? Try looking for someone in the industry and study their roles to familiarize yourself.
Pursuing Career Options
There is a slew of career options you can consider, depending on you interest and graduate degree or post graduate degree. You can have a bright career in hospitality management if you are a mass communication degree or hotel management graduate and have the right communication skills.
There is also a huge demand in digital related career options like mobile app development, digital marketing expert, business analytics, google ads expert, digital marketing, programming languages, and sem specialist.
If your interest is in technical work you might want to consider interior designing, software engineering, computer technology, information technology, implementation engineer, and QA test engineer.
For those who are good at analyzing numbers you can look at eligibility criteria for audit manager, credit analyst, treasury manager, data science, data visualization, and the like.
Continue to Learn and Practice
As the saying goes, practice makes perfect; want to start a digital marketing career? Try looking for small businesses and offering to help them post graduation; this is a great way to practice digital marketing. Who knows, you might see yourself coming to work as a digital marketing manager.
Want to pursue modeling as a career option? Keep sending in your portfolio. Are you a writer? Write. Do you wish to be a photographer? Keep on taking photos.
Improving your technical skills is a crucial ingredient to career advancement. Remember that the only thing we can do to improve is practice and learn more about a craft. You don’t think you don’t cut on having a successful career in business administration because of your skills?
Then the key is to learn more about the job and gain more practice and experience.
Build Your Confidence, Attend Seminars
Enroll in professional courses and attend seminars that will enrich your knowledge regarding your niche. There are a lot of great online seminars and online courses just a few clicks away, including data science, arts, marketing, machine learning, copywriting, and more.
It’s Never Too Late to Expand Your Knowledge
Aside from seminars to expand your expertise, there are also full-time courses you can enroll in online. If you continue your studies while working, online courses can make things easier and more convenient. Online courses are also great avenues to venture into other industries or career paths.
If you are an artist and wish to have a career as a digital marketer, there are online courses that provide lessons and certificates that will surely help you.
Another thing you can consider investing your time in are courses that offer an opportunity to expand practical knowledge, such as handling finances, understanding insurance, business management, leadership seminars, and the like.
Courses that tackle these topics are beneficial for you regardless of your niche. Having a background in matters such as business leadership, management, marketing strategy, and finances can be beneficial for you in the long run.
One great thing about seminars is that they usually feature actual professionals and experts. Wouldn’t it be great to hear investment managers talking about the importance of investment manager insurance? or Doctors talking about their specializations?
Online courses offer an array of opportunities, from expanding knowledge to acquiring new knowledge. Although some courses cause a couple of bucks, you can think of it as an investment – one that will surely boost your move to successfully reach your dreams.
Have Courage and Shoot Your Best Shot
As mentioned, the question of what comes next can only be answered by actions. At the end of the day, we make all sorts of preparations and sacrifices, such as pushing through to get a degree, taking time to practice and expand our knowledge, all these to pursue the job we love and do the things we enjoy.
Having a fear of doing something for the first time is inevitable, so take a deep breath and shoot your best shot when you feel like you are ready enough to do so.
Once you have finally built your portfolio and updated your resume, slowly introduce yourself to the corporate sector and the idea of becoming a working adult by scrolling through job postings.
Head to your preferred job-seeking site and look for something that suits you, your skill set, and your ideal career path, and shoot your shot.
Remember, like in most things in life, everyone starts from point zero. Just like the process of knowing your likes, dislikes, and interests, your journey to your dream job and the right career path for you has to start with making a move.
So, enjoy each moment of your last days in school, celebrate, relax, and re-energize. The moment you step into the so-called real world, things might feel overwhelming but know that no matter how big or small the step is, you get much closer to the life your younger self has envisioned to live in.
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