There were a few of these floating around twitter last week, and some of them were helpful, some of them had stuff everyone always says job wise. It got me thinking about what were things I wish I had known whenever. This is what I've come up with in general and in no particular order.
I wish I had known:
- where I wanted to live after graduating from college. No one ever says that to you while you're looking. I loved EVERY minute of my time at Syracuse University, but lets face it - middle-of-no-where-New-York-State is not the same as middle-of-everything-New-York-City. The quality of internships isn't the same (and I had 3). I had to make more arrangements to go live in the city for a summer in order to get one, and paying for it was NOT easy. Not a bad thing, but I should have considered location more heavily while looking for schools. I lucked out that Syracuse's Alumni are EVERYWHERE. :)
- that entry level jobs after college probably won't pay you as much as you paid for yearly tuition at a University. SU at the time was costing about $35,000 a year to attend (now its up around $50,000), and I most definitely did not make that my first year out of college.
- that I can travel the world and get paid for it at an earlier age. People make it seem like the world is a really hard place to get out into, and it really isn't. With today's technology you are now more connected than ever before by using Facebook and Skype (Twitter and LinkedIn are NOT widely accepted outside of the US, yet. Maybe in Europe a BIT). And once you're out of America the world is actually much smaller than you'd think. Getting around is easier, people are generally friendlier, and the opportunities are endless. If you're working vs. traveling it's a great way to spend your 20s and avoiding the rat race of home.
- that I'd need a skill. The jobs I've held have been amazing, and I now have a wide range of useful skills, but to actually sit down and say that I know Sales, or Marketing, or teaching really well would have come in handy years ago. I've had to learn everything on the fly because I didn't focus enough on academics when I had the chance.
- how to do HTML at an earlier age. The amount of jobs out there today related to computers, computer science, software design, and more is insane. Always time to learn I suppose, but at most it could be now is a hobby.
- how to be less selfish in previous jobs. I'm most definitely a team player, and LOVE working with others, but everyone has those days where you just want to say, "This isn't in my job description, I don't have to do this." But as time has gone on, I've realized that if everyone said that, nothing would get done. If you have the ability, try and make things easier for those working around you. It's karma really, hopefully they'll repay the favor.
I'm sure there's more that I wish I had known because I am always on the search for constant self-improvement, but these are the big ones I've thought about more than once.
What are some of the things you wish you had known earlier on in life? How do these things affect where you are now?
I wish I had known:
- where I wanted to live after graduating from college. No one ever says that to you while you're looking. I loved EVERY minute of my time at Syracuse University, but lets face it - middle-of-no-where-New-York-State is not the same as middle-of-everything-New-York-City. The quality of internships isn't the same (and I had 3). I had to make more arrangements to go live in the city for a summer in order to get one, and paying for it was NOT easy. Not a bad thing, but I should have considered location more heavily while looking for schools. I lucked out that Syracuse's Alumni are EVERYWHERE. :)
- that entry level jobs after college probably won't pay you as much as you paid for yearly tuition at a University. SU at the time was costing about $35,000 a year to attend (now its up around $50,000), and I most definitely did not make that my first year out of college.
- that I can travel the world and get paid for it at an earlier age. People make it seem like the world is a really hard place to get out into, and it really isn't. With today's technology you are now more connected than ever before by using Facebook and Skype (Twitter and LinkedIn are NOT widely accepted outside of the US, yet. Maybe in Europe a BIT). And once you're out of America the world is actually much smaller than you'd think. Getting around is easier, people are generally friendlier, and the opportunities are endless. If you're working vs. traveling it's a great way to spend your 20s and avoiding the rat race of home.
- that I'd need a skill. The jobs I've held have been amazing, and I now have a wide range of useful skills, but to actually sit down and say that I know Sales, or Marketing, or teaching really well would have come in handy years ago. I've had to learn everything on the fly because I didn't focus enough on academics when I had the chance.
- how to do HTML at an earlier age. The amount of jobs out there today related to computers, computer science, software design, and more is insane. Always time to learn I suppose, but at most it could be now is a hobby.
- how to be less selfish in previous jobs. I'm most definitely a team player, and LOVE working with others, but everyone has those days where you just want to say, "This isn't in my job description, I don't have to do this." But as time has gone on, I've realized that if everyone said that, nothing would get done. If you have the ability, try and make things easier for those working around you. It's karma really, hopefully they'll repay the favor.
I'm sure there's more that I wish I had known because I am always on the search for constant self-improvement, but these are the big ones I've thought about more than once.
What are some of the things you wish you had known earlier on in life? How do these things affect where you are now?