You’ve put the finishing touches on your dissertation. You’ve conquered that last exam. Your education is at an end. Time to release that sigh of relief. However, as the exhilaration subsides, the realities of adulthood set in. Remember, you’re not alone – many have been where you are now.

Today, I reveal ten truths from my own post-graduate experience. These are not just realities, but valuable lessons learned that I hope will guide and inspire you in your own journey ahead.

Lesson 1: The Employment Quest
Landing a job isn’t as straightforward as you’d think. There’s frustrations, setbacks, and periods of unemployment. It took me weeks to secure my first one. We’re frequently told that a degree is the golden ticket to career prospects. But with around 900,000 students stepping into the workforce annually, the competition in the job market’s very real.

Lesson 2: Accepting Changes
It’s normal to feel sadness as you close a chapter that has been your life for the last few years. The shift from an academic environment to the professional sphere might scare you. But your university years led you to this point. Remember, every ending is merely the start of a new beginning.

Lesson 3: The Value of Money
Life’s full of simple pleasures: an unplanned espresso, a pint with friends, or a takeaway on a Friday. But these come at a cost. The value of money quickly becomes clear when essentials like food and bills are taking up a fair part of the budget.

But being financially responsible doesn’t mean living spartan – it just needs a little creativity. For example, your gym membership could help save on your water bill if you use their showers. Buying phone insurance from comparison sites that offer perks like a free weekly coffee is one way to get a caffeine boost without the purse bump. And switching to a bank account that has cashback rewards is a game-changer.

Lesson 4: Time’s Precious
In adult life, our weeks can become a cycle of sleeping, eating, and working. It’s too easy to forget that time’s short. Everyone needs to recharge, but don’t forget to make the most of your weekends. Your days off aren’t just for rest, they’re for play too.

Just as you’d invest in finances, you should invest in yourself. Take a trip to a place you’ve never been before or spend an hour a week making jewellery.

Lesson 5: Have a “Believe and You Shall Achieve” Attitude
Or “fake it ’til you make it” as some would say. This mindset can be a game-changer. Confidently take on situations. Even if you don’t feel it for a moment, pretend. With time, it becomes real.
Comfort zones feel safe (they’re not known for their comfort otherwise) but real growth happens when we stretch them. Be proactive and make yourself visible, whether that’s at job fairs or online. This not only builds connections, but keeps you on the pulse.

Lesson 6: New Day, New Chances
Personal development isn’t a one-and-done deal. Actually, mastering interpersonal or ‘soft skills’ is an ongoing process that lasts a lifetime. Every day brings opportunity to boost your communication, increase your adaptability, and enhance your problem-solving abilities.

Lesson 7: Stay Focused
Finishing your degree is a milestone. There’s no doubt you’ve earned some rest. But remember, complacency breeds discontent. Staying active not only sharpens your mind but also keeps your drive to succeed up.

Lesson 8: Stop Comparing Yourself to Social Stories
It’s easy to view life as a competition when all we see is posed perfection on social media. Our constant engagement with these platforms can make us believe that we’re not stacking up. However, what we see’s all too often carefully crafted for self-promotion or ‘clout’. It’s far from the truth. The snippets of life that we see on our screens only represent a tiny part of someone’s reality, just as they see only a little of yours.

Lesson 9: Your Degree Doesn’t Define Your Career
Some careers demand dedication from GCSEs onwards. For example, medicine. But that’s actually unusual. Most find themselves doing jobs in areas loosely, if at all, correlated to their degrees. How many published authors actually did English Lit I wonder?

Don’t worry if you still don’t know what you want to do. Trust is, none of us really did – we had inklings, but nothing finite. The key is understanding your interests, strengths, and ambitions and going from there.

Lesson 10: Embrace the Blunders
In life, everyone makes mistakes. We see them as failures regardless of how big or small they are. But they’re not. Shift your perception to see them as learning moments. True growth comes from learning from them

By: Millie Fuller