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Things I wish someone had told me about life after college

zackshapiro.com

21–30 of 134 posts

Re: Things I wish someone had told me about life after college

#22
post #6

From personal experience: don't do anything for the money, ever.

My dad always said, "Son, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing for money."

I believe the equivalent quote for the OP would be more like "Son, if there is money in it, it must be worth doing." Quite a different thing.

Re: Things I wish someone had told me about life after college

#23
post #6

From personal experience: don't do anything for the money, ever.

Don't do it for the money, really

But when times get tough, it's nice to have something to pay the bills

Bottom line, pick what you like, but something that pays some money, and you're good at

Re: Things I wish someone had told me about life after college

#24

I dont usually bring it up, but curious - am I the only one who finds a blurb like this a bit unseemly: If you enjoyed this post, I’d be humbled if you’d follow me on Twitter.

I think it's an intentional play on the infamous "you should follow me on twitter" sign-off popularized by Dustin Curtis[1] and propagated by bloggers who don't understand the limitations of split-testing.

[1] http://www.dustincurtis.com/you_should_follow_me_on_twitter....

Re: Things I wish someone had told me about life after college

#25
This month marks one year out of college for me. 2012 was the most productive year of my life.

The best advice that I could give anyone is,

"Don't be afraid to be yourself"

While in school a lot of this is defined for you, but the real world will challenge you in ways you haven't seen. Do not roll over for your job, friends, girlfriend, whatever.

If you don't know who you are or what you want (none of us really do), try as many different things as you can. Explore, learn, fail, succeed, cry, laugh... just experience things and find yourself.

Re: Things I wish someone had told me about life after college

#26
post #16

Remember how those first few weeks of college were intensely social. You meet a lot of people you'll know the rest of your life. It's a critical time. I recommend: Social > academic. But they're intertwined, so work hard, and work with others in your core area. Be helpful and smart and humble. Don't worry about your non-core subjects (let others help you). Don't go nuts with freedom. Go to parties, but drink very lit…

> "Don't have a girlfriend at all, this is a time for lots and lots of friends"

You seem to be suggesting the two are incompatible, but in my experience that's not really the case at all...

Re: Things I wish someone had told me about life after college

#28
> Your first job out of college won’t make you or break you

I disagree with this statement. Certainly, if you go to Google/Facebook/Microsoft/Apple, the choice doesn't matter and you can do whatever after you've learned how to work on real software.

But getting into games and many other fields can be astoundingly difficult even two years out of college, as it's difficult to overcome the "finance," "healthcare," or "consulting" tags once they're on your resume. For better or worse, employers usually only see new college grads as full of potential to do anything; after even a single stint at X, you're branded an X-person.

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