Job Search & Career Blog

After college, what do you do?

July 23rd, 2008

CV Tips has a page about life after college, http://www.cvtips.com/life_after_college.html, which we thought was simple enough to read.

Apparently not. We obviously need to clarify the points to someone, because the message didn’t get through, at least to this poster:

”
What? Deciding what to do with your life is simple? That’s a news flash to me. As far as I knew, people change careers at least once or twice in their briefcase-toting lives (probably an understatement). And it’s not because they loved their job so much they wanted to get a new one.
“

First of all, it would not be my “first decision” to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life. That’s too much to ask of someone. That’s like asking a monkey to tell us the meaning of life. It’s great if you ARE one of those people who has always known what you wanted to do, but if you’re not, don’t sweat it. Just find a way to be happy and support yourself.
OK, so we don’t write career advice for monkeys. What a coincidence. Sorry about that, whoever you are.

What we’re talking about, however, is trying to live your life after college as you want to live it, and do the things you want to do with your degree.

That involves decisions, it involves thinking, and it involves doing more than floating in and out with the tide.

Surely there has to be more to being a college graduate than drifting around cluelessly, with no idea of what you want to do.

Don’t really get the reasoning. Are you supposed to just sit on your butt, with a happy smile on your face, no ideas in your head, and helplessly washing up on whatever career path comes along?

Excuse us for asking, but what the hell are you supposed to do with yourself, after you’ve done all that work, presumably for no reason?

OK, Generation Y, which really ought to have guessed the score by now, has apparently noticed there are different rules from three generations ago.

Things aren’t simple, nobody said they were.

See any billboards around, saying Life Is Simple?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 12:05 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

One Response to “After college, what do you do?”

1. theleftovers Says:
   July 24th, 2008 at 12:47 am

   Whoever wrote this didn’t seem to read what I had written on my blog. I pretty much said that I felt that the advice was over-clarified…to the point where it sounded degrading. Yes, college graduates (and anyone) should figure out what they want to do after college, but I was saying that the question “What do you want to do with your life?” isn’t so simple. It’s not a matter of understanding or not understanding…it’s about the process of answering that question. And that process is not always simple.

   Also, I am not a poster. I’m a person.

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