We Ask, You Answer: Advice for Recent Grads

Sam Davidson says on December 10th, 2007 at 7:56 pm

Regardless of what ‘field’ you may be going into, consider planning just the next 4 years of your life (like you just did in college). So instead of casting some sort of vision 10 or 20 years into the future, spend the next four getting the experiences and experience you need. Learn the practical things you didn’t learn in college. Find your passion. Work jobs that interest you. Discover yourself. Commit to four years of process, reflection and introspection so that you’ll be able to know what it is you want to do for the next chapter of your life. Chances are, that history or poly sci degree isn’t all that employable right now - but it will be if you combine with some unique experiences that allow you to discover what it is you want to focus on. More here: http://www.coolpeoplecare.org/feature/passion/

Yellek says on December 10th, 2007 at 7:57 pm

If you are a recent graduate entering the software development field the best advice I can give is to always be curious. This industry is always changing and the best people never want to stop learning things. They are always picking up new technologies, reading tech books and consuming RSS at a great rate. Even if they don’t have job responsibilities that require them to know stuff they are participating in open source projects in their areas of interest and blogging their experiences for all.

When I am interviewing developers I look for the ones who have a keen interest in learning. I know that they are the ones that won’t get bogged down with the way things are and instead will always be looking to improve how the company does things.

Sangrail says on December 10th, 2007 at 9:04 pm

Take the lowest paying job with the best job description and title, rather than the best paying job with the worst job title - where best also means ‘most interesting’.

In IT for example, screeds of people at all levels, started out with a Comp Sci degree, and often the only thing that differentiates the help desk jockeys from the DBAs, is what jobs they took from then on.

Do not go into IT support unless that’s *really* what you want to do - if you are capable of it, then find the most junior programming/dba/admin-ish role at the *smallest* company if you have to, because once you’ve got that experience, once it’s on your CV/Resume it’s pretty easy to step into a similar ‘titled’ role (even if it is more complex than your previous role) at the pay level that the job ’should’ be getting.

Stepping into something easy and comfortable and ’short term’ can be *death*. If you’ve already done this though, remember that it’s not really death, you’re generally just stuck because of your own opinion, not other peoples, so go back trying to find a job related to what you *actually* want to be doing, and come up with a good reason as to why you were in a dead end job for so long (hint: focusing on other areas of your life, wanting some stability while doing *blah* personal projects, or even go to the extreme of pointing out the crazy overseas trips or Burning Man projects you did, as that will contrast with the idea of ‘dead end jobs’ or give the impression that you really were up to more).

Dave says on December 10th, 2007 at 11:48 pm

Accomplish something measurable in the first month no matter how small you may think it is. A good way to make a positive impression on your peers and (your boss) is to actually finish a job you started.

“Follow-through” is a great characteristic to be known for when you are first hired. Small projects executed without a hitch will lead to larger and more interesting projects.

Keep plugging away.

jtimberman says on December 11th, 2007 at 12:44 am

First, I have general advice, applicable to any college graduate. I wish I had not ignored this, even though it was told to me by a very wise friend and mentor.

1. Learn how to do a written monthly budget and do it every single month. This is your homework now and forever more.

2. Pay off your student loans and credit cards as fast as possible.

3. Don’t buy a car. Especially don’t borrow to buy a car. If you already did, SELL it, get a beater car that you can pay cash for and drive that.

4. Do not buy a house. Rent cheap like you did in college. Live frugal. Save a heap of cash so you have enough of a down payment that you either pay 100% down, or you have enough that your mortgage is no more than 25% of your take home pay on a 15 year FIXED rate loan. Find a mortgage company that will do MANUAL UNDERWRITING. Do not buy a house until you meet this criteria. Your friends will make fun of you, but they’re broke and house poor.

5. Live frugal. Likely you learned how to do this while going to college. This doesn’t mean you are a cheapskate and you can’t spend any money. It means you live within your means, you find bargains by shopping around and negotiating prices with vendors and you know the opportunity cost of your money.

6. Do what you love, even if it pays less than something you’re good at. On that note, figure out what you are good at that you love doing. You will love your job (most people hate their’s) and you will do well in your career. Employers recognize an employee that loves what they are doing. Don’t worry if this isn’t what you got your degree in, that is largely irrelevant for many people a few short years after they graduate.

There’s many other sites about personal finance. I like http://www.getrichslowly.org/.

That said, here is my some specific advice for my field, which is Information Technology Infrastructure Systems Management (ie, Unix/Linux System Administration).

1. Learn as much as you can about automation, particularly with scripting languages and configuration management tools. I like shell scripting, the Ruby language, and Puppet (http://reductivelabs.com/trac/puppet/wiki/AboutPuppet).

2. Don’t be afraid to specialize. Some system admins work on broad knowledge bases to be as marketable as possible. This isn’t bad, but specialists can have equally lucrative and enjoyable careers. A few areas of specialty with good growth are: Networking, Security, Storage, Disaster Recovery, Configuration Management/Automation.

3. Learn as much as you possibly can about IT security. This is a *HOT* topic, but if your degree was related to IT, I’m sure you knew that already :-). The SANS Institute (www.sans.org) provides a wide variety of security related classes and courses.

yang says on December 11th, 2007 at 2:11 am

i am a soon-to-be college grad, so i don’t have much info to contribute yet, just wanted to say please keep the answers coming because there are people like me who will graduate in a few months time and we’re hanging on to your every word!

audall says on December 11th, 2007 at 5:16 am

Some who are graduating from college will need to go into the workforce. By “need”, I mean they might have to help support family or have others depending on them. But if you have the luxury of only worrying about yourself, I say get out and do exactly whatever it is that you want to do, regardless of money. Obviously, you need to eat, have shelter, etc. But there are ways to obtain these things with less than you think. Get out and travel. Go ski bum in the alps. Go teach in Mongolia. Try a business idea. In your 20’s, you can do things and try things that won’t be as easy later down the road. You can “get away” with doing these things. You can even make them help you to stand out from all the other poor saps who will look exactly the same and have the same experiences. Most importantly, it’s likely that you will find these experiences to change you and shape your life far more than any entry level job ever could. That’s worth more than 5 years of entry level paychecks. We’re lucky to have the opportunities that we do, and they’re not as difficult to seize as many think. Get it.

Jens Poder says on December 11th, 2007 at 5:35 am

I agree with much of what has been said here. Especially about finding out what you love, and sticking to it. Once you have chosen a path of work it’s so much more of an effort to change.

But my advice on how to get a great start in my business would be to start working on the things you don’t don’t learn much about in college.

1) INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
How you get along with colleagues will greatly influence your ability to achieve success. Building relationsships and trust is key to get things done in organizations. Key skills in this field is.
- Listning to the needs of other
- Negotiating
- Assertive Communication Skills
- Guarding your integrity

When people trust and like you, you will get by better. But you have to be able to push your own agenda as well.

2) LEARN ABOUT YOUR INDUSTRY
When you arrive fresh from school, there’ll be much to learn. Find experienced people who can tell you about your company and it’s business. Perhaps find a mentor. Learn about the competition. And most important: Learn what creates VALUE for the customers.

3) KEEP LEARNING NEW STUFF
It’s great to learn new stuff all the time. New insights and ideas will emerge from the strangest sources. After a while you’ll need to renew yourself. Don’t be to critical about what to learn. A course in calligraphy can bring fresh insights to your business, as Steve Jobs demonstrated.

- Jens Poder

Jason Johns says on December 11th, 2007 at 9:38 am

The best advice I could give a recent graduate is to “Be a Sponge!” Soak up as much knowledge from your peers and superiors as you can. Sure they may seem out-dated or fixed in their ways but there is a lot of experience and information that can be gleaned from the old-timers.

This comes from personal experience as an IT manager. I’ve actually had to let folks go because they stubbornly refuse to ask for help and end up delivering poor work; being late for deadlines or becoming so frustrated that they just walk off the job.

Now, since you’re going to be asking questions, here are my tips to not being “that guy” when it comes to querying:

* DO your research: make sure you’ve exhausted all of your resources before blindly asking a question.

* DON’T spend so much time researching that you put yourself at risk of missing a deadline. With all of the search tools available today, if you can’t find the answer in an hour or so, ask someone.

* DO have some guesses available. Let the person know you’ve thought about what you’re asking.

* DO make the person feel like an expert. We love that sort of stuff.

* DON’T ask the same question over and over. Take notes, make a FAQ for yourself that you can reference later.

* DON’T forget to say thank you.

Jon says on December 11th, 2007 at 5:04 pm

* Stay in touch with everyone. Your personal network is the best way to find new jobs.
* Get and stay out of debt. Keep living mostly like a starving student until you pay off what you owe.
* Don’t get too attached to your first jobs. Unfortunately you’ll probably have to change jobs at least twice in the first five years just to get to the right job title and salary.
* Start saving money right away. Learn a bit about investing and don’t give away free money like a 401k matching program.
* Don’t be afraid to take some time off. This is the most freedom most of you will have until you retire. That might even be worth breaking the “no debt” rule.

Jacki Hollywood Brown says on December 11th, 2007 at 9:54 pm

Ask yourself when (if) you will plan your family. Take that into consideration when planning your career. Women especially should take into consideration exit and re-entry strategies when career planning.

ChrisR says on December 15th, 2007 at 10:51 pm

Im only a freshman finishing off my first semester, but I think I can give one important piece of advice:

Move back home! Living expenses are difficult to shoulder on your own if you are also paying off college debt and just starting out your career. Why not get some support from your family?
If it’s a viable option for you, by all means, move home long enough to start off your career and pay off your debt, start saving money and preparing for life. Those few years will give you an INCREDIBLE boost, and give you more freedom to explore opportunities you may not have been able to look into due to money issues beforehand.

Also, I can’t stress this enough:

LIVE WITHIN (or, especially, BELOW if at all possible) YOUR MEANS! LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS! LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS!

There’s a reason that even highly-paid professionals in this country are drowning in debt…

Hope that helped!

Anonomya says on December 24th, 2007 at 1:40 pm

I have to disagree with one of your points, jtimberman. Instead of not buying a house, buy a small and/or inexpensive house. First time home buyer programs are available (Freddie Mac, Fannie May) that will allow 100% financing with a low fixed rate for 30 years if you have half decent credit. If you know you are going to be staying in a certain area for 5+ years, don’t waste your money on rent. Find a mortgage payment that is close to the average rent in the area. You will be building equity instead for yourself instead of the landlord. Just don’t buy a house you can’t afford (a good rule of thumb here is to keep the mortgage payment below the amount of two weeks’ take-home pay) and don’t rely on roommates to pay your mortgage.

A few suggestions for any field… 1. Credit is important! Make sure you pay your bills on time. It takes years to rebuild if you make mistakes now. 2. Stay at one company for at least a year. This shows future employers that you are willing to stick with it. While you are there, try and get involved in at least one major project. 3. Subscribe to trade publications and online networking groups. This will help you keep up with hot topics are in your industry and provide you with something to discuss with coworkers.