How to Adult - Careers

Guide to navigating adulthood for new graduates

Congratulations on achieving one of the biggest milestones in your life! Your years of hard work have finally paid off, and you are ready to close this chapter and embark on the next. This might involve moving to a different state, or a different country, and facing the prospect of being completely independent. You are probably bombarded with unfamiliar vocabulary like “401k”, “taxes”, “investments”, “student loan payoff schedule”, or “career ladder” and don’t really have any idea of where to begin. While it may seem like a daunting task, you are entirely capable of conquering these challenges. I would like to offer some tips to help you develop intuition around these various topics.

Background: I mentor fresh graduates to help them through this transition. With the class of 2019 graduating, I have been receiving more messages regarding this topic. Since everyone’s goals are different, I do not aim to prescribe a list of to-dos. Instead I aim to provide a framework with which you can use to decide what’s most in line with your aspirations.

Career

1. Don’t burn bridges

If there is one thing I could tell my younger self, it would be “Don’t ever burn bridges.” This is the single most important thing to remember, and is forgotten far too often by those just starting out in their careers. Unlike in school, where you can complain about your lecturers, or fall out with friends, and you’d have to put up with the same people for a year at most, a career is a long term project. Your reputation is something you begin building from day one, and it follows and grows with you for the entirety of your career.

2. Have realistic career goals

Having trouble coming up with goals for yourself? For reference, take a look at the job requirements of companies for senior versions of your role. Have goals for 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years out, respectively. You may change completely half way, but always have at least one goal in mind because work isn’t going to be all fun and games. When the freshness of a new role dies out and repetition starts setting in, that’s a good time to look at your goals, check your progress, and remind yourself of what you are working towards.

3. You win as a team, you fail as a team

Team harmony is way more important than any stellar individual contributor

In school, everyone’s working for their own GPA. Frequently, grades are based on bell curves, where your score is elevated by others doing poorly. This is no longer the case when you are working. Almost all jobs call for team players, because projects in industry require large teams to complete. Team harmony is way more important than any stellar individual contributor. Your manager is part of this team too. Be clear with your manager what your goals are, and a good manager will support you by showing you a path, or by providing other recommendations.

4. HR is there for you

There’s a misconception among new graduates that HR is there just to enforce policies, like that strict disciplinarian you had in high school. That’s not the case — the HR team is there to ensure that you are cared for, and that your rights are being upheld in the workplace. I cannot stress this point enough — If you experience discrimination or harassment, go straight to them. They are trained professionals who will take care of you.

5. Be passionate about what you are doing

I frequently hear mentees talk about being bored with what they are doing, or not being excited about their projects during the first few months at work. This is expected, because you are going from doing 5 or so different classes, to just working on the same project day after day. You can talk to your teammates who are working on the same project to give you more context around the project. Many times, their perspectives will inspire you to think about aspects of your work that you’ve not previously thought about. A key difference between school and work projects lies in there being a known, standard answer to the school projects, whereas work projects may involve doing things that have never been done before. So my recommendation here is to communicate with your coworkers and project leads who are on the same project as you to gain a better understanding of the goals of the project. If the project isn’t expected to be impactful to the company, the company wouldn’t be wasting resources on it.

The other thing that I’d like to highlight is that, at the end of the day, you are wasting your own time if you are doing something that you are not passionate about. Perhaps you are accomplishing in 8 hours what you could’ve done in 4 — had you been focused and passionate. Instead, you find yourself distracted and constantly searching for excuses to postpone tasks associated to the project. Don’t do this. Instead, try the tips above and if they don’t work for you, ask your team lead or manager to move to another project. Explain why your current project is not aligned with your goals, and show that you have tried to make it work. A good lead will help you transition out / show you a new path forward.

6. Communicate, communicate, communicate

You’re coming from an environment where everyone is about the same age with similar interests, to an environment where people of all ages and backgrounds are working together. It is very common to have preconceived misconceptions, often unintentionally. The only way to clear up these misconceptions is to communicate with people who are very different from you. This will allow you to not only be a more effective team player, but you’ll start feeling more comfortable at work that much faster.

The above 6 tips are my advice addressing some of the most frequent mistakes I see new graduates make. Don’t try to put them all into practice on day one as that may be overwhelming. Start practicing them at a pace that you are comfortable with. Remember, your career is a marathon — there is no need to sprint to the finish line. Take your time to enjoy this wonderful journey of growth and learning.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting about Managing Finances (Student Loans, Savings, Investments, 401k, etc), Friendship, and other related topics.

[Shoutout to Spencer for making my writing human-readable!]

Cross-posted on Medium