So, the grades have been submitted, ceremony attended and you finally have that degree in your hands. Now what?
Is a piece of paper really supposed to dictate where you will end up in life? You were a star student, top of the class, active in extracurricular activities. Or you were the complete opposite.
Starting afresh
Whatever you were at university does not matter much once you leave. I would look at it as the opportunity to start afresh, you can be whatever you want to be; you can go wherever you want to go. Once you come out into the real world, people need to see what you can bring to the table, and a piece of paper is not enough. Not anymore. I can tell you from experience that sometimes the peers that you thought would go on to achieve great success, end up moving back home and working for the family business. That may frighten some but it just goes to show you how unexpected life is, it could change at any moment. Call me naïve, but that’s exactly what I love about life! Not knowing where you will end up. When you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.
Get prepared
Not to bring a sour taste to your mouth but it’s better to know now, to be able to prepare yourself for the future. Having a good degree is beneficial in very specific career paths, the technical ones. Such as doctors, engineers and so on. But having a generic degree, like a business degree sometimes does not amount for much. However, there is a positive side to this. It allows for you to venture out and try different things. You don’t have to subject yourself to just one type of career path. You have the freedom to try different avenues as you would see fit.
Degrees are still important
Now this does not mean that you don’t have to go to university at all, or you can drop out halfway. It is important to have some sort of degree because in our world today, having a university-level degree shows that you can handle the detailed content, working with deadlines and interacting with people from different backgrounds.
Listen to yourself
No one else should be able to tell you what to do. If you made the decision to go to university, you can make the decision on your career. So don’t be afraid to apply for a job that you did not study for at university. Because as any working professional will tell you, more than half of them are working in fields that they did not opt to study whilst at university. According to the Washington Post, results from a survey that reached 3.5million homes conducted by the Census Bureau concluded that “nearly 75 percent of all holders of bachelor’s degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines don’t have jobs in STEM occupations”.
Don’t let a piece of paper define who you are. You should define who you are.
Do you think getting a good degree guarantees a good career? Let us know in the comments below!
Photo: Mike Goren / Flickr
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