Don't Stay Too Long At The Party

Five don'ts for college seniors approaching graduation

In our extended family, we often give people nicknames, well why act your age when you can act your shoe size? Anyway, a while ago a 30 something started appearing with a couple of our twenty something's and was seen as the cool worldly-wise older dude; this was surprising as he had clearly gone, and was going nowhere with his life. You could see it in his attitudes, his personal grooming, and his body language and there was an indefinable something that said that he knew it too; his response to his predicament had been to struggle to maintain his life of 12/15 years ago. I was pissed that people I cared about seemed to be idolizing this poster child for underachievement.

Fortunately it took them about a week to figure him out and he dropped from sight. Then driving in the car last weekend, he crossed my mind like flashes from a bad dream, I asked what happened to whatever his name was and they replied, "Oh you mean Too-Long-At-The-Party?" We all laughed and one said, "yeah everybody calls him Too-Long now, he's so stupid he thinks its something else."

College is great and I wish we could all spend our lives there, but if you or a friend or a loved one is approaching graduation, please don't make the five mistakes that started Too Long on his stuttering life of thwarted dreams.

1. Knock knock. Don't think a job is going to appear magically out of thin air, or that Career Services is there to get you a job; they are there to help you, but it is up to you to make the proper approaches in a timely manner. The more you put in the more you'll get out.
2. Anybody home. Don't leave your job search till the last minute. If you do, you are more likely to get lost in the crowd, or worse yet trampled in the stampede. You don't want to be two years out of school, with a paper hat and nametag job, competing against your third class of graduating seniors.
3. Wake up. Don't reply solely on the big job sites like, Hotjobs, Craigslist, or Careerbuilder to kick off your career. It is arrogant to believe that all opportunity is available in only three or four places and on the days you happen to look in those places. There are a dozens of ways to find great jobs that will separate you from the stampeding herd, you just gotta educate yourself.
4. Smell the coffee. Whatever you do, don't dream of learning about job search and career management. After all you are just at the beginning of a half-century worklife, where you are likely to change jobs every four years and experience three or more distinct careers in the process; why would you need to learn anything about navigating these unknown waters? Nah leave me alone I was out late at a party last night.
5. Kick-start the big game. Besides, waking up and smelling the coffee now will only help you kick start your earning capabilities, you know, the cash that will determine the quality of the life you live for the rest of your days. Why bother? Mom and Dad will always pay the bills and you can always crash with Too-Long in his cold-water walk-up. Yeah that sounds like a plan, and maybe in a few years you'll become another "Too-Long-At-The-Party" and never get the joke.

Knock knock. Anybody home? Wake up, smell the coffee, there is a bridge to be crossed and only you can cross it. Kick start your big game and leave Too Long with his inevitable dreams of desperation. You know this makes sense.