Myths About Your First Year Post-College

“There are so many people on Instagram with incredible jobs. I feel so behind from people my own age.”

“I feel like we are all struggling, but no one is talking about it.”

Most people said my first year post college was going to be hard. But what I didn’t expect was to have so many conversations with friends my age about the unique ways in which we struggled. We all talked the past 12 months of things we wish college taught us or things that we felt we were falsely told. Here are a couple of the conversations I’ve had in the past couple of months and some of the myths I found to not be so accurate to my experience.

1. MYTH: Your friends at big companies have better jobs.

Free food. Big campuses. When I graduated college, my friends who were going to America’s biggest companies seemed to have their future set. While many of them found that they did enjoy the lifestyle, I’ve had plenty of conversations with friends around how discontent they were in their current situations.

Some of my friends have even traded in these large company jobs for roles at startups because it fit their personalities better. At the end of the day, the size of the company didn’t equate to more job opportunities.

2. MYTH: Salary + 401K = financial responsibility

I was a rare college graduate that didn’t leave school drowning in college debt. But when I graduated, I was so excited for a salary: guaranteed money, every other week. And then when I started my 401K, I thought I was really getting my finances together.

As important as those two aspects are, most people gain net worth by saving money in MULTIPLE ways. I love to budget and in the past couple of months, I’ve gone on a full financial diet, seeing just how much I could save without significantly changing my schedule. Financial responsibility is not only what you save and what you earn, but (and I would argue more importantly) how you spend your money.

3. MYTH: People are going to respect your degree.

I graduated from a top business school, so that should mean a higher salary and more job opportunities, right?

Well, it depends. Working in marketing, many people didn’t even ask if I had gone to college. People asked about my personal brand that I was able to grow and social media profiles that I ran during my time in college.

Because my degree wasn’t absolutely necessary for my job, many companies didn’t take it into consideration when it came to my potential salary. This was a harsh reality I had to come to terms with. While many of the jobs required a bachelor's degree, barely any thought it was reason enough to pay me more than other candidates. While Gen Z loves to talk about corporate culture, pay is still a HUGE factor in choosing a job, and subsequently a career path.

4. MYTH: The #MeToo era in college paved the way for more opportunities for women.

Kinda. Going through college during #MeToo was a liberating experience as a woman. As I was graduating, people were pointing out wage discrepancies between men and women and calling for drastic change.

Something that trended recently on Linkedin that I totally understood was that men are more scared to mentor women now. As I joined my first full-time offer, I found that many of my mentors were women. It wasn’t that I didn’t search for male mentors. But I noticed that when I found men that I respected and I wanted to be mentored by, we would always find ourselves discussing the news around #MeToo.

I remember talking to one potential male mentor outside of my company, and him suggesting women in his network for me to talk to. I voiced that I really respected him and wanted to be mentored by him. He said that in the age of #MeToo, he was wary about mentoring women and, while he wasn’t doing anything wrong, he worried about what other people might speculate.

While #MeToo pointed out horrendous discrimination and abuse, it didn’t solve the lack of opportunities or tense nature of these conversations. We still have a bit more to go before I will join a workplace without thinking about my gender in my decisions.

I asked some of my fellow 2018 graduates what myths they encountered as well.

Joel Hansen, a former Linkedin Campus Editor and currently a Business Development Manager at Skidmore Group (pictured here on the left), broke down a couple of the myths that he heard before graduating.

MYTH: You can’t continue side projects

“I’ve had the chance to pursue unique projects within work and outside of work once a relationship of rapport was established with my direct report. Graduates must know that this will likely be a case per case answer, but most companies are open to seeing how they can develop younger staff to retain them and bringing your ideas to the table is always valued.”

MYTH: All your skills are going to be used in your 1st role

“Relax, you have a 40~ year career ahead of yourself. You are not going to accomplish EVERYTHING in your first couple years in the working world. Document what you enjoy / dislike about the role, but keep your head down, work hard without entitlement and use the feedback from this first role to help advise what next position you’d be interested in."

I also spoke with Julian Gamboa (pictured left with the microphone) who was also a former Linkedin Campus Editor with me back in college and now works as a Marketing & Social Media Manager at Adweek.

MYTH: Working from home is a bad idea at your first job.

“During my time as an undergrad, many graduate friends warned me of working remotely. Many told me to stay away from it mostly because it would make me miss the team relationship-building that naturally comes from being present at the offices. "It's harder to get promoted. It's harder to get your work noticed." But these are all just assumptions. Earlier this year I started as a Marketing Associate and am now a Marketing & Social Media Manager at Adweek. I have an incredible team with which we've built amazing things and the sense of "team" is definitely there.”

Are you a recent college graduate? What were some of the things that you experienced in your first year out of college? I would love to hear from you in the comments below!