Post #79 Three Things to Know Prior to Graduation
You are either close to graduation or maybe you like to dream about it. Either way, that’s great! However, read this post for some practical graduation tips. As one door closes, many more will open. If you embrace the graduation advice provided here, you will be many steps ahead of your competition.
Hard Work is Just Beginning
No doubt you have worked extremely hard to earn your engineering education. There has been sacrifice, sleepless nights and maybe thousands of dollars worth of loans. While graduation and receipt of a diploma are certainly noteworthy, use caution when moving forward. Whether you start a new career or a new degree, don’t lose sight of the hard work ahead. If you think about all the hard work that earned your degree, think about the hard work necessary to achieve your next goal. The message here is do not slack off after graduation. There will exist a need for much sacrifice and hard work to further your success.
Stay in Touch With Professors
A second bit of graduation advice is to remember the importance of staying in touch with your professors. In general, they enjoy hearing from former students and may even make offers to help. Your former professors can be a very rich resource for your future career. In Post #15, I discuss the various ways in which your former professors may play a role in your future endeavors. It wise to befriend them because you may need to depend on their advice, resources or recommendations. Make it a goal to stay in touch with as many professors as you can handle.
Plan on Things Not Going as Planned
Life does not always go according to plan. That’s the bad news. I will state the good news: change is the only constant in this world. Planning is a great tool and life is grand when everything goes accordingly. But you should be mentally prepared for those times that don’t go according to plan. Perhaps that means no job offer, no raise, poor feedback or a rejection letter of some sort. My best piece of graduation advice, given the fact that change is constant, is to detatch yourself from your expected outcomes. It’s okay to plan, dream and hope things turn out as you would like. But don’t emotionally depend on expected outcomes to always play in your favor.
For additional tools and brain exercises to help you manage your COVID-19 circumstances, visit my YouTube video: Managing Student Life During COVID-19