It’s that time of year – graduation is in full swing! So I wanted to do a bit of a different post and share my advice to the graduate.
It’s shocking to me that I graduated from college 5 years ago – it feels like a dream! A good dream but one that is a blur now. The photo above is from that day – so crazy!
I’ve been lucky to have had great jobs since graduation and to have a great support system with family, friends, and coworkers. I have people to ask for advice on virtually anything, and I’ve had people help me all the time! So don’t think I came up with all of this on my own – I didn’t! – but I wanted to share a few tips that I think are the most valuable for someone graduating from High School, College, or Grad School.
be yourself
One of the biggest mistakes I made when I moved to St Louis was hiding my sense of humor. SO random – I know – but I wasn’t sarcastic at all and I pretended that I was super sedate. The first times I was sarcastic around the new people I met they didn’t find it funny, so I stopped…and then years later I tried to be funny and they were SO confused.
If you’re hilarious, don’t hide it! If you love to watch Star Trek, don’t hide it! There is absolutely no point to hiding aspects of your personality from the people around you. Obviously some thoughts need to be kept to yourself (duh!) but don’t try to be someone you aren’t. But you will find better friends by being yourself and not pretending to be someone else – and this will make all the difference in college and the workplace!
surround yourself with good people
This is so true in both college and in your entire life – you will become like the people you spend time with. I’m so blessed that I had a great group of friends in high school who are still my friends today, and our similar morals and values have kept us so close. You truly do become who you spend time with, so be careful who you let into your circle. Choose your friends carefully! Obviously we all run into people that annoy us or we find mean, etc, but don’t make those mean people your best friends.
Also, in a similar vein, don’t give into peer pressure to cheat or steal. There will be PLENTY of people who plagiarize or buy papers in college, or steal other people’s work in the workplace. Don’t fall into these traps because it looks easy – it will NOT pay off in the end and people will figure it out pretty quickly.
work hard
Hard work will say more to your friends and colleagues than anything you could every communicate verbally. Spend more time getting things done than chatting about doing work. You will meet lots of people who talk a big game but can never produce anything – be the person who gets things done, and done well.
keep learning
Being in a tech job I know how quickly things change. New platforms are released, old ones are phased out, and things change almost daily! The solution to that is to keep reading – I’m always reading Wired, Medium, TechCrunch, and a blogs like Hubspot and Moz. Not to mention I’ve always got Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal up on my computer. I also set up Google news alerts for terms related to my clients and projects so I can see if anything interesting or relevant happens!
be positive
I knew I needed to focus on positivity when I was surrounded with negative people and it started to impact my feelings about work. I was complaining all the time, felt angry, and just was taking other people’s negative feelings as my own. Then I realized that just because other people were unhappy, I didn’t have to be! I didn’t agree with the things they felt, but I was being impacted by their negative emotions constantly. I realized that your emotions are your own choice and you don’t need to follow the people around you – if you’re happy, don’t act angry. Being positive and upbeat will make people like being around you and will make the days less stressful!
Graduation is a time of new adventures and new opportunities. It’s so fun to go out into the world and experience new things! This post is a bit longer than I expected but I hope the tips are valuable – some are obvious but worth restating.
