Now that I'm done, what do I do with my degree?

You may have gone into economics or you might have studied political

science. The truth is things aren’t as black and white or structured as you

are made to believe in institutionalized academia. There may be several

different paths available. But what do you do after you have finished your

degree? Here are some things that you should definitely be doing to make

things easier for you in the long run.

Start Applying

Even before you graduate you should be sending out applications. If that is for your future job prospects

or for grad school, it really doesn’t matter, you should be looking forward. Another thing that many

people have problems with is using the connections they make along the way. Make sure that y ou are

networking and ready to use your network connections to help you through the application process.

Make a Game Plan

You should have a clear plan on how you want to use your education. You may not be using everything

that you learned in school, so you should be open to applying to a number of jobs that may seem out of

your scope of education. The more open you are the more opportunities will be presented to you. It is

important to have that clear picture of the future and where you want to go, as this will help you

continually be moving forward just building that resume that will

land you that dream job in the future.

Don’t stop learning

Just because you got your degree doesn’t mean that learning

should ever stop. There is too much at stake for that! Make sure

that you are taking the time to learn new things every day and

start seeking ways to receive advanced certification or skills that

can set you apart from your peers.

In today’s society, you will find that more and more people are falling behind be cause they are the same

as all of their peers. While it is good to specialize, it is also good to reach outside of your comfort zone

and make sure that you have some skills that can take you to another industry completely.

Your degree may take you overseas, or it may keep you in the same town. Make sure where ever it takes

you; it is where you want to go. When you find that things aren’t going the direction you want them to,

that is when you need to do a course correction and find out where you went off course. There are

always options out there and a college degree is just the beginning to getting out there into the world.

One thing to keep in mind is that even though you may not feel qualified for a position, you still need to

have the confidence to apply because you never really know if the position only requires that college

degree. That is the mindset you should have when you go out to the job market after graduating from

Colorado Springs College.

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