Making The Transition From College To Career

This is a true story as told to LatPro.com where you can find helpful career interviews and job search advice in your desired industry. Visit to find a career interview in your field today. When I entered college, I considered a number of varying majors and figured I would take several different introductory courses during my freshman year to get a feel for which subjects interested me the most. I was pretty good at math and science in high school, so I thought maybe I would try to major in mechanical engineering. However, I also realized that many students changed their majors once they got to college, and many did not even select a major until their sophomore year. Knowing this fact, I was not in a hurry to declare a major as I wanted to explore all of my options before making a decision that was going to affect the rest of my life. Ultimately, I ended up majoring in Sociology. I changed my mind about becoming a mechanical engineer when I realized I did not like the math and science courses I was required to take and the overall competitiveness of the classes. After taking several introductory sociology and psychology courses, I was hooked on the idea of being able to think freely and discuss social and personal problems within a specific context. A typical day in college was filled with a lot of reading. Most of my courses had several textbooks and course packs that we were required to read on a nightly basis. After spending time in lecture for each class, I would head to a quiet spot in the library to get my course reading done. It seemed as if every week there was an essay or term paper due, so I also spent a lot of time writing papers. There were many aspects that I enjoyed about my college experience, but what I enjoyed most was being able to make long lasting friendships while learning things about human behavior that I had not thought of before.

Making The Transition From College To Career

I took a few steps to find a job before graduation, but was not in a big rush to join the “real world.” After a tough senior year, I was looking forward to a couple months of relaxation before joining the workforce. However, I did attend several job fairs on campus to get a feel for the job interview process and start to make some professional connections. I knew the job interviewing process would be something I had never experienced before and wanted to learn what it was about so I could properly prepare myself for when my ideal job presented itself. My life changed dramatically after graduation. While I had responsibilities while in college, they were less important than the responsibilities you face after graduation. When you are in college, you are able to take a break from your studies whenever you feel like it. As long as you are keeping up with your required reading and papers, you can go out with your friends on a Tuesday night. This is not the case in the working world as you are required to be at work early in the morning and ready to do your job efficiently every day of the week. You cannot take a day off here or there as you might be able to when you are in college. It was not too difficult for me to adapt to the working world. I graduated just as the economy was starting to go on its downturn, so I had a hard time finding a job right away. I forced myself to treat my job search as my full time job during the day so that helped prepare me a little bit for the working world. Once I accepted a full time position it was easy to transition into this role and join the nine to five workforce. One thing I would have done differently in college is try to network a little more. Networking has helped me gain access to new job offers that I otherwise would not have been privy to. Graduating from a large university has helped increase my networking circle, also. If I could go back and do it all over again, I would try to attend more networking events on campus where alumni come back and either speak to students or a meet and greet is set up. You never know when your path will cross with other alumni so it is best to try and meet as many of them as you can. My story of how I thought I was going to major in mechanical engineering in college only to change my major to Sociology. Once I had my degree, I quickly found that networking among alumni can pay huge dividends in the working world and open up many career opportunities. Transition college to career image from Bigstock