7 Important Lessons I Learned After Graduation

Oh my goodness gracious, this first full year after graduation has been a roller coaster of events, challenges, and emotional whirlwinds! You see, I graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design with a B.F.A in Computer Animation and a double minor in Character Technical Direction and Motion Media (yeah, I lost a lot of sleep from this workload). Fortunately, I’m happy with my major. Looking back, though, there are a few changes I would have made had I known better. That is the motivation for this post! 

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Before we begin, I would like to share some statistics that a friend sent to me. Many thanks to Matt Zajechowski from Digital Third Coast for recommending this report to complement this topic! The “2019 College Senior Survey” displays some interesting results on why students don’t pursue the major they’re actually interested in. The study also includes how much influence the current job market has had on students’ course selections, and much more! Whether you have been out of school for a while, just graduated, or are still considering if college is a right fit for you at the moment, I highly recommend taking a look at these statistics to see which bits of information can help you throughout your educational journey. 

Also, many thanks also to another friend from Finder.com for linking us to a simplified step-by-step guide for filling out the FAFSA! If you are preparing to enroll in college soon, please remember to fill out your “Free Application for Federal Student Aid.”

Now, one year later here are some of my personal confessions and lessons learned after graduation. 

Study what you enjoy doing, not what is considered “high in-demand.”

Yes, we all want a job that pays above minimum wage, but believe me when I say that a position isn’t worth it if you do not love what you do. If we’re only going to be happy on payday, then we’re going to want and need a career change much sooner than later, and hopefully that realization won’t be during a social anxiety breakdown in the middle of Sam’s Club over a Sales kiosk (no, this is not an exaggeration).  

If you have already graduated, no worries. There are many ways to learn a skill that you prefer that is listed later in this post. You don’t have to stick to something you don’t like doing! For those who are either still in college or are preparing to enroll, please think carefully as to what makes you happy! The positions that are considered “high in-demand” today might shift in three years, so why study something that you don’t care about? Wouldn’t it be better to get paid to do something you love? 

And if someone tries to tell you to study something else because “no one is hiring for what you want to do,” get into the habit of ignoring that individual more than we ignore persistent telemarketers! If there are people out there making awesome money from something as exotic as Underwater Basket Weaving, then I don’t want to hear any excuse for not studying your own passion due to “lack of demand.”

Don’t try to learn everything at once!

This tip can be a little difficult when you’re having to enroll in three or more courses at once. In this case, then I would recommend strategically planning your courses among things you’re either good at/knowledgeable of with new pursuits, if possible. Also, take into consideration who is teaching the courses. I’m not saying to choose the easiest professor all the time, but there are cases where one professor might fit our learning style better than another. For this, I recommend using “Rate My Professors” to find a good match for you. 

This rule also applies to after graduation. Once we get into a profession, I can almost guarantee that we are going to be given an assignment that we either have never done before or had merely dabbled with in hopes of a passable grade. If this does occur, make a list of the things you need to learn and focus on ONE THING at a time! Ask your supervisor which is a high priority. If you are still in the process of finding work, choose to learn what will benefit you personally first. The more you divide your attention among tasks, the longer it’ll take to become sufficient in a single skill. You’re not expected to know everything right off the bat! 

Learn outside of the classroom!

This is one that I wish I did a lot earlier in college…heck, I wish I started doing this BEFORE college! Don’t limit your learning opportunities to just the courses you are enrolled in. Attend workshops, presentations, and online courses that relate to your interests. One of my personal favorites is using LinkedIn Learning to explore topics. What’s even better is that I can then post the certificates onto my LinkedIn page to show that I am actively improving myself! 

There are other sites as well such as Udemy, Coursera, and many more. Heck, I’m currently using Codecademy to learn how to program during my free time (however scarce that may be at the moment). Let’s not forget YouTube as well! These are just a few sites I use to learn outside of the classroom. Just experiment and find what works best for you! 

Make those connections and network, network, NETWORK! 

I didn’t mean to shout at you, but OMG I truly wish I understood the power of having valuable connections with people YEARS ago! Regardless of if you have been out of school for a few years, just recently graduated, or if you are a freshman in high school reading this, we have to start building connections like yesterday! 

Okay, we’ve heard the rallying cry to network, but HOW do we do that? So luckily, we have a full blog on this called “Networking for Beginners-Even if You’re Socially Awkward!” but for this, I’ll just go over the key points. Networking is about building connections with people and discovering ways you can help each other. Building a strong network should never be a one-way partnership. If you have a talent in say graphic design but stink at writing but have a friend who could write a novel in her sleep but can barely illustrate a stick figure, you both can work together in promoting each other while contributing your talents to a single cause or even different projects. This is just a very small example of how networking with the right individuals can benefit both parties.

Take advantage of social media!

I honestly didn’t take social media seriously until about six months after graduation, and that was due to me starting to blog and needing to get my content out to the world. Please, oh please, do not hold off as I did on discovering how powerful a tool social media can be.  

So that you don’t have to just take my word for this tip, I do have some book recommendations that explain more vividly why our social media platforms can help open new opportunities: 

• Influencer: Building Your Personal Brand in the Age of Social Media – Brittany Hennessy
• The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users – Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick
• One Million Followers: How I Built a Massive Social Following in 30 Days – Brendan Kane

In short, many popular (and upcoming) brands need to get their products and services out to new eyes. Building up a loyal community is hard and takes a LOT of time and patience. Companies could spend millions of dollars to hire a celebrity that may or may not attract to the company’s targeted audience and hopefully bring in more revenue (assuming that the ad isn’t skipped on YouTube, Netflix, or other apps…ha), OR they could partner with someone who has a similar niche and a high social media following, and they will pay you for this exposure. 

For additional information on this, I highly recommend taking a look at the books listed above. Also, check out the summary of Influencer Marketing and Affiliate Marketing to see if you might be interested in these marketing strategies, or check out the course listed below.

Be flexible with your opportunities but persistent with your goals!

We all have various aspirations as to what we want to do after graduation, and I can almost guarantee that those aspirations will gradually change over time. That is normal. As we gain more experience, more opportunities will open up that may shift our interests. I say to be flexible with your opportunities because it can become so easy to overlook chances to improve ourselves when we become narrow-minded to what is out there. For example, when I graduated, I was initially applying for positions that had high competition. I knew that I wanted to use animation to help people in some shape or form. For this, I focused my attention onto big/medium sized animation/gaming studios.  

Needless to say, every denial letter came with an additional baggage of doubt in my skills as an artist (and I applied to a LOT of positions). I temporarily gave up on finding a dream career and began applying for anything that would help cover bills.

This came with a HUGE life lesson for me (check out “Work for your Passion, Not Just for a Paycheck”). In summary, (after a social anxiety breakdown and a true test of patience working Technical Support) I finally sat down and reevaluated what it was that I REALLY wanted to do. My goal was still to help people through animation. Now the question was: how can I accomplish this?

I had to become more flexible with my search but persistent with my passion to help others. Long story short, I’m now happy as a Multimedia Designer working with a small company of less than a hundred people that assists veterans, which brings me to my next tip… 

Don’t ignore small or start-up businesses!

I was still getting denial emails from bigger companies five months after the application process! If you have already been job searching, then I’m sure you’ve already come across those “Entry Level” positions asking for at least three years of experience; I mean come on! How on Earth is that an ENTRY requirement!? I’m not saying to not shoot big because it is possible to land jobs in a huge company immediately after graduation. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of students actually accomplish that (this goes back to the importance of networking early on). 

Thing is, just as it’s a bit of a challenge to get your name out there in the beginning, same goes for small or start-up businesses, depending on their advertising budget. They might not pull up on the first few pages of a Google search unless your search was VERY specific. This is where being persistent with your goals and your passions is going to come to the rescue!  

Now to hear from you!

Are you a recent grad or have been out of school for a while? What are some important lessons learned after graduation that you can provide to our current or upcoming students? Please leave your comment below! For those still in pursuit of an additional education, have you stumbled upon any of these challenges? Please share your story as well! 

If you find these stories helpful, subscribe to our newsletter for more learning opportunities and tips! 

And as always, remember to just live your life one story at a time. 

Take care, 

Kyndall Bennett from Kyrabe Stories 

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