10 myths about life after graduating

Myth 1:

That your career path will be determined by what you studied in college. Wrong. Unless your field and major is an extremely narrow specialty (and even then) your career path will not be determined purely by what you studied in college. Some people don't even finish college. Blush. Blush. Can I become successful even if I've wasted my teenage years?

Myth 2:

Life circumstances and luck won’t be important to your career. Wrong. Life circumstances and luck will determine everything - from what city or country you work in, to what jobs you take up, to your decision to stay in those jobs. You can read about the luck factor in my life here: People say if it's meant for you, it'll be yours.  

Myth 3:

Your priorities will remain static. Wrong. Your priorities will keep changing. Early in your career, it will be all about earning money, and climbing the career ladder. Later, autonomy, flexibility, work life balance, or taking up a unique challenge and doing something more meaningful, may become more important. Work-life balance may be the most important thing at one stage, taking up a unique challenge at another stage.  What are some one and done mistakes in your profession?

Myth 4:

Education will protect you from unfortunate job events such as layoffs and terminations. Wrong. Education will not protect you. In fact, even though you are highly educated, you may find yourself with periods of unemployment, even long periods. Do I have any advice for dealing with those periods? I sure do: What advice would you give an unemployed person? I also advise you to build up as much of an emergency cushion as you can. How much? So much, that you can view your periods of unemployment, as goof-off periods, your own paid sabbaticals. Let me explain: How does financial freedom change your life? Why should people try to achieve the financial freedom?

Myth 5:

Good grades will be your ticket to success. Wrong. Adaptiveness, communication, professionalism, responsibility, determination, things such as that, will count far more. If not initially, it will definitely count very soon after.

Myth 6:

You will enjoy getting up and going to work every day. Wrong. You will have to get up and go to work every day, in spite of not wanting to get up and go to work every day.

Myth 7:

Your experience will be enough to make a successful job change. Wrong. You will have to prove yourself again, with every job change. And you will not be successful, unless you adapt to whatever the new environment brings.

Myth 8:

Once you are done with your university education, you are done with your education for life. Wrong. You will have to continually retrain and re-certify in different areas, plus add additional skills and knowledge to your skill set; and sometimes, you will have to start down an entirely new career path, completely unrelated to what you did before.

Myth 9:

What you think you are good at, is all that you will be good at. Wrong. You will surprise yourself. As I surprised myself by becoming a commissions analyst, after being an advertising copywriter. You can read more about that here: What are some jobs people luck into?

Myth 10:

Once an employee, always an employee. Wrong. You may think that it’s what your path is going to be, when you graduate. And then suddenly, for some, you decide to go out on your own. As I did. Both in my first career, as an advertising copywriter, and in my second career, as a commissions administrator. You can find out about my why, here: As an entrepreneur, what motivates you the most to pursue your goals?

So yes, as you are driving your career, watch out….there will be surprises and detours ahead.