Last week, I uploaded a video about all of the things I wish I'd known before college,
and I'm so glad that it seemed to resonate with a lot of you, even if you're not even
in college right now. This video is part two, where I'll be sharing some advice for getting
through those first years of postgrad life, or life after college. If this is your first
time here, hi, I'm kchoi. I work full-time as a change management consultant and I post
videos about career and education, as well as travel and other adulting-related things,
so if any of that sounds interesting to you, then please hit the subscribe button below,
as well as the notification bell so you can know when I post a new video. Going from being
a college student to working full-time is a pretty big transition. I remember my first
week of working full-time -- and it actually wasn't even full-time, it was an unpaid internship,
and I think it was like a few times a week -- that first week, I remember I got sick.
I got a fever, and a bodyache, and I think my body was just not used to sitting at a
desk all day, being 100% on and on my best behavior, and just doing the same focused
work for that many hours at a time. It also just gets really monotonous because in college,
even if you have a full, packed schedule of classes and club meetings and work, every
day is still a little bit different. You also have the ups and downs of having midterm exams,
and then having a break, and then studying for finals. You're working towards a specific
milestone. But when you join the full-time workforce, every week is just kind of the
same. So it's not only a physical change, where you're probably sitting at a desk for
eight hours a day, which you're not used to, but also a mental change where you just have
such a drastically different schedule than you were used to when you were in college.
One thing that I think helps with this is to identify a 'highlight' for each day. This
is something that I learned from the book 'Make Time," which I'll insert a screenshot
of the cover of here. A highlight is basically a goal to accomplish for the day. It's not
the only thing you want to accomplish, but it is something that you want to prioritize.
That highlight or goal could be work-related: maybe you have a big presentation that you
need to finish on a certain day, so that's your highlight for that day. But it could
also be personal, like trying a different recipe for dinner that night, or having coffee
with a friend. But the point of the highlight is to really give meaning and purpose for
your day because I can't tell you how many times days would go by and I'd be like, "What
did I even accomplish this week?" because the days just get so routine and so monotonous.
Getting used to a 9-to-5 schedule straight out of college is a lot and it's a big change,
but I think identifying some sort of priority or highlight for your day really helps with
that. I was really insecure about my job coming out of college. I just mentioned in the previous
point that I was interning; it was at a fashion PR agency, and for the first few months, I
was working there a few times a week while tutoring on the other days, and then eventually
I eased into working there on a full-time schedule. I'd also moved back home with my
parents, and while I did have a lot of friends who also moved back in with their parents
because if you have the opportunity to do so, it's a really great way to save money
coming out of college, the people that I was focusing on were the ones who had gotten these
really high-paying jobs straight out of college, a lot of them being at really big tech companies
because I went to school in the Bay Area, and they had moved into their own apartments,
whether it was in San Francisco or in LA, or whatever. The thing is, I got to do a lot
of cool stuff in my first internship out of college. I got to plan and go to lots of fashion
shows and events, I got free clothes and stuff from our clients, but I was always a little
bit embarrassed to tell people what I was doing. I would put myself down a bit, or position
it as, "Oh, this is a stepping stone for the next thing, like I know that this is not much
right now, but this is what I want to do next," and always wasn't really proud of where I
was at the moment. But looking back on it, I really did learn a lot through my own journey
and experience, and of course, it ultimately was a part of my path that led me to where
I am today. I just might not have taken the same path that other people have taken. And
even though I might have felt "less than" other people because of my job, I've had people
tell me that my job and what I was doing seemed so cool and fun, and it just goes to show
that you really shouldn't compare yourself to others because you don't know what others
are really going through. It's fine to look to others for inspiration and be motivated
by that, but you don't want it to get to a point where you're just thinking negatively
about yourself. This is something that took me a while to learn, but is a really important
lesson for those early postgrad years. Wherever you end up working after college, I think
the most important piece of advice I can give is to just be nice and work hard. Everything
we do in life is so incredibly driven by the connections we have and the reputation that
we make for ourselves, so treating people with kindness and working hard can really
take you a long way. It's fine to show confidence when you enter a job because obviously, you're
qualified for it and they wanted you for the job for a reason, but you need to balance
that with humility. Even if you don't get the ideal job that you wanted, it doesn't
mean that you shouldn't put in the same amount of effort that you would have for that dream
job. That job that wasn't your first choice might open up a different connection that
you wouldn't have had or discovered otherwise, and if you aren't putting in your all into
that, even though it's not your first choice, then you're only going to sell yourself short.
You never know who you're going to meet or what connections you're going to make, so
again, just a nice, thoughtful person, do your work, do it well, and it's going to open
up more doors for you. If you're transitioning from being a full-time student to being a
full-time employee, then you're probably getting a lot more income than you're used to, and
it can be tempting to change your lifestyle to match that income. You might want to spend
on things that you weren't able to when you were a student. It's fine to do that to an
extent, for example, maybe you need some new business attire for your job because you don't
have anything that's appropriate. But something I learned when I first started earning an
income was that you need to set aside a portion of your paycheck, every paycheck, into your
savings automatically, or as the first thing that you do. I have a video on how I saved
money after college, as well how I budget today, so I will link those in the description
box so you can look at those for some more information. But get into the habit of saving
money and putting it in your savings account because then, it's out of sight, out of mind,
and you're less likely to spend it unless it's some sort of emergency, or it's time
to use it for a specific thing that you were saving for. If you haven't seen my previous
video about what I wish I'd known before college, my first point there was that finding your
passion as it relates to your career takes time. And this still applies after college
because just because you've graduated and gotten your degree, doesn't mean you suddenly
have it all figured out. For me, I had the journey of working at a couple of different
public relations agencies, doing in-house PR, and through all of those experiences,
learning so much about myself and what I'm good at, what I like, what I don't like, and
that ultimately helped me decide the next stages of my career, and ultimately led me
to my career today. But there are so many other paths out there, and some people will
find their passions or a job that they really enjoy sooner than others, and that's totally
fine and normal. But until you have actual experience in a job, you're not going to know
if it's the right fit for you, or if you're good at it, or if you like it, so there are
going to be those awkward years as you're figuring that out. But it's all just part
of the process. And as you go through that process at your own pace, and without comparing
yourself too much to others, you'll find something that you enjoy, that you're good at, and that
challenges you in all the right ways. That's it for this video. I hope it was helpful.
I know there were a few of you who commented on the previous video saying you were looking
forward to this one because this is the stage that you're at today, so I hope it gave you
a little bit of inspiration or even at least just some comfort in knowing that you're not
alone in how you might be feeling during this postgrad stage of your life. Before you go,
please leave any video ideas or suggestions in the comments, and as always, thank you
so much for watching. I will see you in the next one. Bye!