Congratulations! Making it through four or five years of college requires concentration, stamina and discipline and you should feel very proud of yourself. I am proud of you.
I imagine you have been getting looks of pity from friends and relatives since you are graduating in one of the bleakest economic climates since the Great Depression.
Here is the good news: there is no need to worry.
Living with constraints and challenges is one of the best learning opportunities you will ever get. By succeeding in a tough economy, you will be much better prepared for life than peers who graduate with offer letters waived under their noses the moment they cross the stage to collect their diploma. Constraints breed creativity. Creativity is the single most useful skill you will ever develop.
Here is my advice to you, based on thirteen years working in and studying career development, learning, human behavior and performance inside and outside of corporations:
- There is no perfect job.
I am so sorry if you agonized over choosing a major. It must have been really hard to decide the subject matter to specialize in that would prepare you for a fruitful career. So here is the good and bad news. Bad news: you may not work in a field that has anything to do with your major. Good news: just as there is no perfect major, there is no perfect job. As soon as you settle in to the perfect situation, it will change, your manager will leave, your company will be acquired, or you will be promoted and everything you loved about your job will change. A much better way to view your career is by observing the kind of work that interests you. Which activities energize you? What kind of people bring out the best in you? If you view your interests and and skills as ingredients searching for a recipe instead of searching for the perfect job, you will be much happier over the course of your life. - You are always self-employed, no matter your tax designation.
The job market today is radically different than that of your parent’s generation. No job is guaranteed, and no company can promise stability. So the best way to create long-term income security is to manage your career at all times as if you were self-employed. If you take a job as an employee, do not ever put your career in the hands of a manager or mentor. Always be looking around for ways to make yourself valuable to the company, and your company’s customers. Always stay connected to the job market at large. If you work for yourself, never close the door on work as an employee, since if you run into a rough patch, you may need to be your own venture capitalist for awhile until things straighten out in your own business. There is no inherent stability in working for a company and no inherent glamor in working for yourself. Both are viable ways to make a living. - Don’t be afraid to skip a step.
Many people will give you advice that you must stay in one position for a set number of years in order to ready yourself for a certain responsibility or opportunity. The people I consider the most successful (by my definition which includes enjoying their work, earning a good living, feeling happy and accomplishing lots of life goals) do not wait for permission from anyone to pursue opportunities. I encourage you to become familiar with young entrepreneurs like Shama Hyder who is on her third successful business at 24, Ben Casnocha who started a company and wrote a book before starting college and Ramit Sethi who has co-founded a successful company, positioned himself as a personal finance expert and written a best-selling book at age 26. You don’t have to follow their path as entrepreneurs, but you would be wise to channel their self-confidence and ability to brush off older naysayers. - Don’t chase the market.
One of the biggest regrets I hear from 40-something coaching clients is following a career path that they did not feel passionate about, but that was “practical” and “paid the bills.” Many find that their early career choices set in motion a highly pragmatic but intensely unsatisfying work life. Instead, follow the kinds of things you are really passionate about. Brett Farmiloe and his college friends, disheartened by their first corporate jobs, took off across the country to interview people passionate about their careers. Their Pursue the Passion project allowed them to interview hundreds of fun, enthusiastic people, and landed Brett a prime job as Social Media Manager for Jobing.com. - Fast, free and scrappy wins the race.
The best way to build a career or a business is to test and try a lot of things. If you spend too much time in the planning stages, opportunities pass you by. You may be a really good student and pride yourself on graduating at the top of your class. This is a great accomplishment. It might also get in your way, if you worry that every project you undertake must be perfectly executed, or you will consider yourself a failure. Instead, get used to testing often and failing fast. If things don’t turn out as planned, instead of asking “Why me?” ask “What happened?” or “How could I improve that next time?” The pace of work is so fast, and the tools of technology are so adaptable, that the people who are able to work quickly, creatively and flexibly will be the most valued in the market. - Trust your body.
You may feel confused about which decision to make or which direction to take in your new career. You may lie awake at night weighing options and evaluating the merits of each choice. As your brain works hard, your body is quietly sitting there with tons of relevant information. In fact, it probably holds the best answer for you if you just listen to it. Here is a trick: remember a great moment in your life, and notice how you felt in your body. Then remember a horrible time in your life, and notice how you felt in your body. Now think about each of your career choices. How does each feel in your body? The more you trust your body’s responses, the better decisions you will make. Listen to an interview with my coaching mentor Martha Beck for some more clues to how your left toe holds the clue to your right life. - Be generous.
When I was in my twenties and thirties, older mentors in the corporate world (most of them male) told me that I was too nice for my own good. “You have to learn how to be more tough if you want to get by in the business world,” they said. I have no problem being strong, or working hard, but I never considered that being kind and generous was synonymous with a limp career. Here is the good news: being kind, generous and authentic is now seen as a brilliant career strategy. It helped me gather the world’s kindest community of blog readers and clients around me, attracted a book deal from a major New York publisher, and, most importantly, makes me feel proud to show my kids how I work. - Relax.
Your life is not a race. You have plenty of time to experiment and figure out what interests you. You should travel. Volunteer. Try really out really different kinds of jobs and see what lights your fire. There is not a universal timeline for figuring things out, although many will tell you there is. The real questions to ask yourself as you cruise through life are: Are you happy? Are you learning? Are you contributing something positive to the world? Are you interested in others? Are you enthusiastic? Learning how to slow down and enjoy the present is a wonderful gift to yourself, and will help you produce really high quality work. - Work your tail off.
I just said to relax. But I didn’t mean be lethargic and lazy. If you are sleeping on your parent’s couch and eating Flaming Hot Cheetos all day, that is not relaxing, that is copping out. If you don’t have an income stream coming in right now, find something worthwhile to do. Use your hands and build something. Take on a big challenge at your local community center. Build a website. Start a blog. Seth Godin has some more specific suggestions. I encourage you to listen to him; he is one of the most creative, productive and hard-working people I know. - Don’t try to do things on your own.
Rugged individualism is highly overrated. By trying to do everything yourself, you will take longer, produce worse results, feel isolated and have fewer exciting experiences. Instead, build on your current network. Stay in touch with classmates, professors and old bosses. Fill your life with all kinds of smart, interesting and compassionate people. Aim to have peers and mentors of all ages, professions and backgrounds. The more diverse your network, the more opportunities will come your way. Us old folks think that you are the social networking generation, so leverage Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to maximum advantage. Ask for help and help others, and watch your career thrive.
Like any advice you receive, you are welcome to ignore mine. Your own instinct is your best guide, and will not fail you.
Enjoy your journey, and thanks for listening.
Great advice Pam – even if you’re just a hair beyond college age!
Doron
This is destined to be a classic post, Pam! Could your next book be “How Never to Join Cubicle Nation”?
My best move right out of college (during the nasty recession of the early 80s) was to take the only job that was offered and learn, learn, learn what NOT to do in the future. Six months later, started graduate school… great move.
Laurie Foley’s last blog post..Is The Flexibility of Working For Yourself Driving You Crazy?
Baz Lurhmann couldn’t have said it better Pam! This is also good for high school graduates as well, because a lot of the ones I work with are completely unsure about where their life is headed, and have a skewed view of the world. Even still, keeping in mind that you are separate from the job you take is very important, and you demonstrate that with some good examples. Work hard, work smart, and keep your wits about you.
To grads reading this: If you’re smart, you’ll take some of this stuff with you.
Jim Valeri’s last blog post..Emotions: Can We Control Them?
Hi Pam,
This is a wonderful article! We will definitely mention it on our blog at CollegeTipsForParents.org ; in fact we’d love to have you guest post on this topic if you’d like. Let me know.
P.S. – I love your new book!
Fantastic, inspirational advice Pam!
It really feels like a combination of yours, Martha’s and Seth’s work. (I finished your book last week, reading Martha’s “Finding Your North Star” this week, and Seth’s post this week.)
I especially love your advice on testing things and not getting caught up in the planning. That’s one of my biggest fears and complaints about college. We do a lot of theory work, but very little practical. You give us the best of both worlds and let us apply the theory we’ve learned in small practical steps!
Thank you for letting us follow in your footsteps and benefit from your wisdom! I know I appreciate it as I’m on my freshly minted journey out of the college and hopefully out of the cube! Hopefully I’ll be FOC soon too! (Fresh Out of the Cube for those non-twitterites)
PS: Don’t worry I’ll try to get this post to some fellow grads. I’ve already sent a few people Seth’s after how inspired I felt after reading his!
Andrew’s last blog post..Book Review: Escape From Cubicle Nation
Pam:
This is great advice – even for someone who’s been around awhile – I like #1…There is no perfect job. I need to keep reminding myself of this in my own career transition.
I agree with Laurie, this is destined to be a classic post. I can see you giving this advice in a commencement address.
Tim’s last blog post..Food, Inc. For Thought
Sorry for the last comment, by mistake i hit the enter button and voila the comment went. Please delete the comment.
I was saying great advice once again. I really don’t understand why people just take the work to be everything. Just getting in the mad rush like its the end of the world is very harmful for a person both mentally and physically. While I won’t encourage casual approach, I believe one needs to work smart and not work hard.
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“Constraints breed creativity. Creativity is the single most useful skill you will ever develop.” Amen!
I was “lucky” enough to slide right into running a family business, negotiate a merger when the industry consolidated, work my way up the new corporate ladder… and then watch the company implode under old school mentality in today’s new environment.
I worked my butt off and enjoyed it… until I realized that I wanted out. Your “Be Generous” point #7… YES! This is how I operated… and I suddenly found myself in an environment that didn’t.
However, I had never stopped to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I’m now 42 and learning how to exercise that creativity. What’s that phrase… “Necessity is the mother of all invention?” I have no regrets… but this is so much more fun!!
I am thrilled that my kids will NOT have the same “luxury” of a birth-right career and that they can create a life that they love rather than feel compelled to take one that’s handed to them on a platter.
Great advice regardless of age or career stage! Like you, I often hear from coaching clients that they ‘chased the market’ instead of followed their passion and now regret having done so. Thanks for writing this and giving people permission to reach for their dreams.
Hi Pam,
I recently started reading your blog. I’m a recent graduate from an MBA program and this employment market has forced me to finally explore my entrepreneurial desires and so I started my blog and have really put myself into it. I finished undergrad at Berkeley in December 2000, so you can imagine how I might have felt to graduate into a recession for the second time in my life. But, this time I’ve taken a much different attitude and have used the time to do many of the things you talk about. Thanks for this post, it’s awesome
Pam you parted very wise words to the recently graduated. #2 is something I wish I had learn to do early in life. There is no time like the present to improve ones self.
Wishing you a scent-sational day!
Patty
Wonderful! May this year’s graduates learn at least some of this earlier than I did, well into middle age. This advice was no less true when I graduated – many, many moons ago – but the lessons seem more urgent and important now.
And I agree with Laurie – this looks like the outline of a great second book!
Pam, I’d hate to admit to you how long it took me to learn #2 (You are always self-employed), #3 (Don’t be afraid to skip a step), and #4 (Don’t chase the market). I wish I could tell you the number of people I’ve worked with and for who’d told me the opposite of #1 (There is no perfect job), #4, and #7 (Be generous) in order to “help me learn business.” [Yeah, thanks a lot. Yeesh!]
This is a great post, and certainly worthy of it’s own book. I’m passing it along to all the folks I know who are currently in the market for a new job (whether they want to be or not – like me!) as well as all the younger folks starting out in this big scary world. Thanks for hitting a home run with this post!
Pam,
As I read through this I wanted to comment based upon my own recent graduation as an MBA. I have been in the workforce for 20+ years and have put up with a variety of jobs and basses of all types. My advice as you move forward is to never let yourself be degraded. No matter how important the money or the position is, you are worth more than to be the constant object of negative bombardment.
Also remember to “Work to Live, DON’T Live to work” There are too many cool things out there. And as you progress, you will find that almost all of them are more important than your paycheck.
Finally I was once given advice to “do what you love,” well, if you do that and are frustrated, how much longer will you love it? Do what allows you to do what you love.
Remember, you can make you job and career a passion and a joy, but remember that you need to live, love and enjoy outside of a job.
POWER ON–Mark
http://www.atomicpenny.co
Mark R’s last blog post..Stumped? Tinkertoys to the Rescue!
Pam,
Thank you for this inspirational piece. I’m 45 years old, yet it’s never too late to receive great advice. At this juncture of my career, your words were just what I needed to hear. Thank you.
Yaron
Pam,
As a recent MBA Grad, I agree whole heartedly with your post. This is a tough time for graduates. I have already seen some friends retreat to their parents couch, remote in hand, hoping that a job website will do the work for them. Recent grads need to be more pro-active while looking for jobs, getting themselves to networking events, and positioning themselves to prospective employers. Great Post Pam!
~Miguel
Very good advice. My perspective is slightly different – follows my book “5 Necessary Skills to Keep Your Career on Track”: Recognize what is going on around you: what are the in demand fields, what is the economic outlook in your area and nationally? Be proactive and take action – don’t wait for someone else to make your decisions. Build a network of people who can advise you. Learn to deal with all types of managers. Find and foster a relationship with a mentor. We can no longer depend of the institutions of government or corporate America to take care of us.
As a recent college grad, I’m glad to see I’m following most of your list. Maybe that is why I’m enjoying my job and my life while my former peers are stressed to the max and running around like headless chickens.
What an awesome post. #2 is especially powerful. It’s a reminder that we need to engage in, manage, and take responsibility for our lives in every aspect – relationships, our health, our career, etc.
Jessica Ryan’s last blog post..Be a WYSIWYG!
Such excellent advice Pam.
As a recent grad (more or less) – I can really resonate with these golden nuggets.
I will also add that you should always leverage your innate strengths. In college, there is a lot of focus on becoming well-rounded. This is key of course, but your career should be built on your utmost strengths.
Kudos Pam!
- Shama
P.S. – I am only 24. = ( 25 seems so old! No offense. = )-
–
Dang girl, 24? You realize that if you think 25 is old, 42 is knocking at the nursing home door, eh?
Now fixed in post.
-Pam
Shama Hyder’s last blog post..Book Giveaway and Review: Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pam Slim
Awesome letter, Pam… thanks. I love how it’s all about a shift in thinking from ‘PROVIDE ME’ with a job/career/life to ‘CREATE MY OWN’ job/career/life. This post along with your books/writings are like a key to the door we all have called ‘PERMISSION TO CREATE’ that we all need to take risks and do unconventional things.
For a next step, how about writing an Open Letter to the Parents of Recent College Graduates? Or other major influencers in the life of a person in their 20′s and 30′s?(significant other, friends, other family, etc.) I know you cover this in your book but it seems like these people need the same kind of paradigm change to embrace the unconventional apporach you write about in the letter to College Grads.
Andrew Parkes’s last blog post..Blog School – Day 2
thanks so much!
this is great
What a refreshing post! I graduated from college 3 years ago, did some international traveling, did some grad school, did some real-world work, and still have no clue what I want to do. I love your tips – esp. #s 1, 4, and 6. Maybe I should be a writer like I’ve always wanted?!?! Thanks for some great advice!
Great post! Trust your body cannot be understated. At 26, in my first office job, I had a nagging feeling that my whole body was just “shutting down.” Ten years later, working as a personal trainer, I met numerous people in their late 40s and 50s whose bodies had indeed “shut down.” My metaphor for it: your body must recognize your life as Life. If not, it will check out – in some cases, literally.
Barbara Saunders’s last blog post..$125K Teachers?
Great post…. especially liked, “Constraints breed creativity. Creativity is the single most useful skill you will ever develop.”
Whitney Johnson’s last blog post..Athelia Woolley: Fortunate Frustrations
From a recent grads point of view, it can often feel like a bad time to graduate. I graduated less than two months after the dot-com crash had started. My father tells of his fear of being drafted to Vietnam when he was leaving school. Even in the good times, as you prepare to step off-campus into the real world, it can seem like the barbarians are at the gate, waiting to attack.
But when faced with a challenge, the same perseverance that got them through four years of school will contribute to their eventual success. I suspect today’s recent graduates, bursting with potential, will do just fine…
Mark C. Webster’s last blog post..Giving a Great Presentation: 7 Must Know Tips For Developers
[...] start doing them! Wow… so simple… yet so incredibly hard and something that 99% of you will think is a good idea (right now) and actually not do. A variation of the old saying on the most optimal time to plant a tree: other than 3-5 years ago isn’t the best time to start pursuing a dream RIGHT NOW? Notice that these WALLS all focus on LACK – what you DON’T have. Keeping your thoughts on what you don’t have will cause you to find more things you don’t have… we are all really good at this already… and the DREAM-less pursuit continues. Let’s stop this madness… tomorrow, I will be writing about what you DO have and how this can help you break through the WALLS that stand in front of your DREAMS. As well, check out these recent blog postings for more great information on not giving up on your dream while young. They are excellent: Seth Godin: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/06/graduate-school-for-unemployed-college-students.html Pamela Slim: http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/2009/06/12/open-letter-to-recent-college-graduates/ [...]
[...] graduates I think all recent engineering graduates should read this article by Pamela Slim. Open letter to recent college graduates | Escape From Cubicle Nation We interviewed Pamela Slim on CrazyEngineers. Read the interview here – Pamela Slim – Escaping [...]
Man o’ man, I wish someone had told me this when I graduated!!
I’m reading your wonderful book now….my friend Eugene C. in Berkeley gave it to me and it’s just about the best book gift ever.
The above open letter is really inspiring, and so spot on!!!
I especially like the “Be Generous” — I too often encounter folks holding things back because information is power and they simply don’t want to share. I remember those who took the time to share their knowledge and be open and honest about information.
Anyhoo, thank you, Pam! This is just so good! You are a gem!
Cherry C.’s last blog post..Do you have Salsa?
The short answer is- most ideas you can think of are good enough to start a business around – in short you can probably make some money doing almost anything.
The real question is whether or not your business idea is worth the risk, and will provide adequate reward if it works out. For sake of argument let’s say adequate return is enough money for you to live on, at least replacing your current income. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration.
Simply put your unique selling proposition (USP) is the reason I’d buy from you and not a competitor.
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