What to do after college

[z28dreams]

A few tips from a guy that really F'ed up after graduating college:

(1) Definitely take any experience-building job. Try to find something at least remotely close to the general direction you'd like to head. Experience is the absolute best thing to have on a resume

(2) If you're planning on going to grad school, take the exams for it now (MCAT, GMAT, LSAT, etc). You'll be a lot sharper because you're still in school mode, rather than taking it a few years down the road. Most of these exams are good for about 5 years.

(3) Start considering working on your own company part-time now. Once you get older, you can't take the risks that you could when you were younger because you'll have mortgages, wives, kids, etc.

As far as grad school, that's a toss up. If you want to go directly, you can knock it out and get it done pretty quick. The disadvantages are you'll be broke for another 2 years.

The other option is to go part-time while working full time. The plus is that a lot of employers will be part or all of your tuition. The minus is that it really, really burns you out while you do it.

Lastly, it's ok to bounce around between a few jobs to see what you like, but try to pick a career path within 2 years or so. I've changed jobs about 3 times now, and it's getting frustrating because you never really move up, but just sideways because you're crossing industries.

Hope that helps.