Transitioning to the Work-Life as a Recent Grad

Tips for your first full-time job after graduating

Ram Vegiraju

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Image from Unsplash

It’s almost been three months since I’ve started working full-time after graduating this past December. It’s truly been a whirlwind of confusion, excitement, frustration, doubts, and nostalgia that has swirled in my head as I’ve settled down into the dreaded, monotone 9–5 life. To be fully honest, at first it was a lot of fear, anxiety, and whole lot of doubts over whether I’d made the right choice of pursuing a job right now. It certainly didn’t help that we’re currently in a global pandemic and forced to work from home, while my apartment-mates shotgun their way through what should have been my last semester of college. Throughout these three months I’ve slowly become acclimated to this structure by changing some of my day to day habits and adapting to this scary yet exciting new phase of life. With this article I wanted to share some of the tips that got me through this transition and are continuing to help me as I try to navigate my way through the next big steps of life.

Catch Your Breath

Everything happens so fast. One second you’re getting your diploma, the next second you’re getting onboarded onto your new team. In moments like this nostalgia will often leave you craving for the simpler days of undergrad. Change is scary and intimidating at first. Especially as we grow older and take on more responsibility this fear of change worsens. We can’t expect our parents to save our ass and we can’t justify mistakes by saying “I was young”. The dreaded feeling of growing up gets heavier as you start thinking of retirement plans, long-term savings and many more aspects of life that were definitely taken for granted in our younger days. All these thoughts will circle in your head and it can be extremely overwhelming as the realities of adulthood hit you. It’s so important to take a step back and let yourself process the change that happens. Even if in the moment the change seems like the end of the world and you’re plagued with doubt after doubt, it is crucial to remember not all change is bad. Change is one of the few constants of life and it can be difficult to adapt at first, but as you naturally get acclimated you start to reap the benefits and see the pros of this next phase. Something that really…

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