Getting Life Right After College

College, for all its fun and frolics, is super-duper stressful. It’s trying to juggle a part-time job and studies, knowing you need the former to pay for sustenance and the latter to pass your finals and thus give yourself the best chance at a better life. It’s a whole bunch of pressure to manage, which is why millions and millions of graduates can’t wait to leap into the reality TV show known as The Real World the moment they’re done.

It’s exciting. It’s new. It’s independence and freedom. It’s a time that is packed full of promise and opportunity. So long as you know how to make the most of it, that is.

So, without further ado, here are some top tips on how to navigate life in the first moments after graduation.

1. Stay Tight With Your Friends

When you are in school, it’s easy to make friends because you’re all forced into the same classrooms and buildings day in day out. When you enter the real world, making friends and maintaining friendships becomes super-duper hard. This is an issue because friends are the best, they help us through life at every turn. That’s why you need to make a real effort to stay in touch, even when work gets super heavy, even if that just means Whatsapping each morning.

2. Take Your Degree And Brand It

One thing you will learn straight after college is: not every degree is worth the same. It sucks, but it’s the truth. Some degrees are designed to land you top-paying jobs, others are not. If yours falls into the latter category, you need to find a way to brand it as awesome. You need to emphasize your skills, sell yourself as a fountain of knowledge, highlight your epic work experience and network the heck out of life.

3. Take On Your Student Loan Sitch

The sacrifice we all make for going to college is leaving with a huge treasure chest of debt. It is the worst and not least because it is sooooo overwhelming to think about, nevermind deal with. Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to make this challenge less challenging, like speaking to the legends at studentloansconsolidation.co, seeing if your employer will pay off all - or some - of your loan, working in a rural opportunity zone, or focussing all your energy on paying this down for the first two years of your adult life and smiling thereafter. It will be worth it.

4. Know Where To Live

This is one of those things people give way too little thought. But think about it: you’ve finished college and now have the freedom to go and live anywhere you want. Sure, it may be easier to go back to your hometown and find a job there, but how awesome would it be to start your own adventure and head to a city where job opportunities are rife and the cost of living is still low? To do this, you need to get your research cap on and look at things like average salary, average rent, cost to buy and standard of living. Trust us: it will be the best thing you’ve ever done.