Why do so many graduates struggle to be successful after college?

1. Work on your resume

In order to bag the perfect job at the end of your graduation, you need to stand out from the crowd. There will be several thousand students graduating on the same day as you and job opportunities do not match that number. In order to catch that dream job, you must start developing your resume from day one. Not superficially, but gather actual experience from various internships and online courses. A good resume is very important.

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Ty Warner

Life hasn’t always been smooth for the billionaire mogul behind Beanie Babies. In court documents, it was stated that Ty Warner had to drop out of Michigan’s Kalamazoo College in the early 1960s “because he could no longer afford tuition.” Warner pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 2013. 

Having personal goals

Having goals will make your student’s college experience much more valuable. This doesn’t mean they need to have their major picked on their first day of college. It can mean they want to have certain experiences in college, such as working with a professor on a research project, joining at least two clubs or studying abroad. College affords so many opportunities, so be sure your student is aware of them and incorporates them into their long-term goals.

Is a quote legally enforceable?

A verbal estimate given over the phone is unlikely to be legally enforceable. However, if an engineer visits the project site and produces an estimate, it may be enforceable in certain situations. Finally, unless it is intended to be relied upon, an estimate should not be included in a contract.

Sean “Diddy” Combs

In 2014, Sean “Diddy” Combs was a commencement speaker at Howard University. The future Bad Boy music mogul and Sean John fashion  entrepreneur dropped out of the school in 1990 after two years of study. 

What is the significance of cost control?

The goal of cost management is to guarantee that the company receives an appropriate quantity of cash from the right source at the right cost and at the right time to satisfy its financing requirements. Before obtaining cash from any given source, a cost-benefit analysis of different potential sources must be performed.

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Responsibility

When your student is on their own in college, they’ll have to be responsible for, well — everything! Waking up on time for class, completing their assignments, making their own food — it’s all on them now. Help them prepare by giving them more responsibility at home. Don’t wake them up (even if they’re oversleeping), don’t ask them whether they did their homework, have them cook their own meals a few days a week. It might be a little hard, but it will benefit them in the long run.

Be a Team Player and Treat Others Respectfully

Give credit to others where due but make sure your supervisor is well aware of your contributions in your updates in a factual, matter-of-fact tone.

Continue to Build Out Your Skills

Put your professional plan into action, list out new skills you'd like to learn over the next year, then follow through.

2. Interests

img source: novoresume.com

If you don’t have any specific interests, it may be that you need to expand your horizons a little more. You may be perfectly comfortable where you are, but that’s unlikely to help you move forwards in life. Push yourself out of your comfort zone every now and then. Try out new things – from sports to the arts to cookery. Remember, it’s possible to specialize and find a vocation in almost any field. A great way to find your calling is to be proactive and keep looking for something that clicks. Don’t be afraid to pick something up and put it down again if it isn’t right for you – you can just chalk it up as another valuable learning experience and move on. You can always come back to it once you’ve explored other avenues and interests.

3. Build a Professional Network

A professional network is vital to achieving your long-term career goals because it expands your opportunities by having others look out for you, according to Indeed. Your network is the group of people who can help you get promotions, new jobs, speaking engagements, committee appointments and, eventually, board seats. They can provide inside information about jobs and specific companies. They can also give you the references you’ll need to land bigger and better jobs.

Keep a written list of the people you want to be part of your long-term professional network. Make sure you connect to them on LinkedIn. If they have social media channels, follow them. Make sure to keep in touch with them each year – don’t contact them only when you need something from them.

If possible, set up several informational interviews each year with people in your network. These are interviews where you ask a more senior person to breakfast or lunch to talk about their career, how they started, what they do and what advice they would give to you to help you get to where they are someday. Many people don’t see these interviews as an imposition – they are flattered someone wants their input and advice and will want to share what they know with you.

In addition to getting valuable advice from these people, you might get a phone call in the future: “I’m Bob Smith, the HR director for XYZ Co. Debbie Johnson said she had lunch with you a while back and that you might be interested in a job we have available.”

You will lose touch with friends

Unfortunately, some of the friendships you made during college will dwindle once you graduate college.

You may slowly find yourself not speaking much to your sorority sisters post-college graduation or not reaching out to your previous roommates except for a few times a year on their birthday or around the holidays.

And it’s not because those friendships didn’t mean anything, they meant a lot to you at the time, but when you graduate college your priorities change.

No longer are you worried about studying for the next test or trying to see who wants to grab lunch with you on campus before your next class.

Now your focus is on being in the workforce and creating a future for yourself whether that means starting your own business, starting your own family, or even moving across the country for a brand new job opportunity.

You may also like: 9 Steps You Can Take To Prepare Yourself For Life After College

Your friendships will naturally grow apart and you will find yourself keeping up with your friends from college from afar on social media like Instagram and Facebook. And this is all perfectly normal.

You will make new friends in your current stage of life and you will find comfort in the people who mean the most to you like your significant other, siblings, parents/guardians, and those one or two best friends from college or childhood.

Nowadays, two years post-college graduation, I rarely speak to any of my sorority sisters. Occasionally I will text my sorority littles, but it may be months before we catch up again. Instead, I spend a lot of time with my boyfriend, my twin sister, and my parents. And honestly, I’m content with that.

4. Extracurricular

Being a straight O student has no point if you end up becoming a bookworm. College is the perfect time to work on your extracurricular and develop some hobbies. Make sure you work on your personality as well. Extracurricular is also an important part of the resume apart from the academics.

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  Adid Bella Oct 8, 2016

  “Be strong and courageous as much as possible, because studying in college requires you think about your future, your family, and how much you will make a change in life if you study well. Thank you.” …” more

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