My Advice for Soon to be College Graduates

Boman Tokioka
Nov 7 · 4 min read
Photo from Drew Beamer from unsplash.com

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been a college graduate for nearly 7 months now. I am slowly settling into my new role as a Support Engineer at Microsoft where I support Endpoint Protection products. Looking back at my time throughout my undergraduate experiences, there were a few tips and pointers I wish someone told me prior to graduating. Here I will elaborate on a few of those tips and explain my experiences while getting my B.S.

  1. Don’t be in such a rush to graduate

Looking back at my senior year in college, I was so focused on landing a job after graduation, that I did not soak up and enjoy my last year as a college student. I was consumed with completing job applications, preparing for interviews, and stressing myself out about what I would be doing after graduation. I forgot that this would be some of the few moments I would have left to enjoy not working 40 hours a week, spending time with close friends, and not have to “adult” and begin to pay bills. As a college senior, students should cherish their last year as being a “kid” as much as they can.

Photo from Cory Schadt from unsplash.com

2. Do be proactive with the job/ grad school search

On the other hand though, you should be actively searching for your next move for yourself after graduation. You should have a clear objective as to whether or not you would like to pursue a career first or pursue going to graduate school or just take sometime off for yourself. No matter what you choose, you should be weary that filling out and completing applications is a long and meticulous task. College seniors should plan to set aside at least 2–3 hours, at a minimum, each week solely dedicated to working on applications. Be weary of this, and don’t wait until the last 2 months to figure out what the next few years of your life is going to look like.

Photo from Felipe Furtado from unsplash.com

3. Create a quality LinkedIn

This is something I cannot emphasize enough. Having a stellar LinkedIn can be a great way to land that dream role, as was the case for me. LinkedIn is a great platform to find a plethora of jobs in different locations, with different responsibilities, as well as be recruited from different organizations. Additionally, you can search for employees from companies that you hope to work for one day. I would reach out to many employees from stellar companies and try to get feedback and advice for getting a role with that company. I also suggest reaching out a few seasoned veterans in the field you would like to enter and find a great mentor who can help guide you and give valuable advice to help you get to where you want to go.

Photo from unsplash.com

4. Have numerous courses of action

As I’ve mentioned before, you should have a desired goal of what you would like to do and where you hope to work. However, our lives hardly ever go exactly as planned. Essentially, you should have a few back up courses of action or routes you can take to begin your life. For example, you should have a set number of reach applications. These applications will be for roles that, if landed, would be a dream come true. Next, you should have a few applications for roles that you think you can reasonably attain and be your back up plan if don’t get your dream roles. And finally, you should have some applications for a few roles that are less than ideal, but you can fall back on if nothing works out.

Photo from unsplash.com

All in all, don’t put too much pressure on yourself to get out of college and enter “The Real World,” as you’ll have plenty of time to do that once you graduate. College is a place where you can meet some of the best friends you will ever come across and is essentially the last few years of living carefree. I know this may all seem like a lot, but at the end of the day if you end up going somewhere or doing something that you don’t enjoy or like, that you are still young and have the rest of your life ahead of you make a change and reach your goals.

Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn @Boman Tokioka

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