Call To Fellow Bloggers: Provide Your Best 5 Tips for New College Grads

Authored by Rohit Bhargava on June 11, 2007 - 10:30am.

Who doesn't love a good graduation speech? Usually they are full of great advice, wonderful hope and optimism, and more than one caution about expecting things to come too easily or focusing too much on money. One day, perhaps I will be important and old enough to give one of those speeches and offer some sage advice from the stage. In the meantime, I propose a question to my fellow bloggers: what tips or advice would you offer to the new college graduates that they probably didn't learn in school? There have been thousands of college graduations over the last few weeks in the US and one day very soon, these grads will become our colleagues -- so here's our chance to add to an archive of what we'd like them to know. I am going to tag my post "graduationadvice07" and suggest that any other bloggers who post advice for college grads to do the same ...

Read between the lines: The most frustrating thing you will find is that people are not great about telling you what they want. Of course, asking is always an option (and never something to be afraid of). Yet you may get your fair share of "brainless" tasks when you are first starting out. The obvious course is to complete them as requested - but reading between the lines means that you actually think about the task and how to do it better. There is no situation where thinking about a job will not help you. Plus, demonstrating that you are thinking about activities means you are less likely to get the brainless jobs in the future.
Get a deadline and subtract - Deadlines are an ever present part of life in any kind of business, but what you might not realize is that often deadlines are subjective lines that are continually moving. And lots of managers forget to let you know what those deadlines are (even if they have them in their own minds). So the first step is to always get a deadline. The second is, wherever possible, to subtract from the deadline and aim to have something completed early.
Never become the sphincter - Ok, this is not about attitude, though it could be. A "sphincter" in business is an entity through which everything must pass before moving on. Human sphincters are people who introduce themselves into the middle of a process to require "approval" before it moves on. They are also the people who have a vital component of information but are either unavailable or unwilling to share it, holding up other team members. This is not a place you want to be, ever. Answer quick questions quickly and give people the information they need as soon as you can.
Make everyone look smarter (not just yourself) - When you are at the bottom, making your bosses look good is a great strategy ... but this is not about kissing up to the boss. Doing work that makes the entire team look smarter and not focusing on yourself demonstrates several things. Firstly that you can work as part of a team, secondly that you are a star within the team, and most importantly - that your boss will see a real personal reward from your work.
Accept criticism and move on - The typical advice is to grow a thick skin and deal with criticism, and of course that's true. That doesn't mean you have to accept or agree with it. But it does mean that sometimes a great idea will not get heard and people won't get it. Whether the criticism is valid or not, the important part of this advice is the second portion ... move on. A more succinct way of putting it is: get over it. I can't count the number of great ideas I thought I had which I couldn't sell. Eventually, they'll find a home ... but letting them go quickly is the best way to refocus on the next activity.

What other advice would you offer to tell new college grads?

Rohit Bhargava

Note: This piece was originally published on Rohit's blog, Influential Marketing, and is posted on DMW with the author's permission. Rohit's bio can be viewed here.

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A message to the class of 2007

Submitted by Andrew Soucy (not verified) on June 11, 2007 - 1:53pm.

This is a post I did on our agency blog: The Game Changer: A Message to the Class of 2007 Having graduated from college a year ago this week, (that pretty much makes me an adult now right??) I think it’s important for me to share some helpful knowledge with the newly graduated class of 2007. This is by no means a “wear sunscreen” speech, which, now that I think about it – why was that thing on the radio? Then again, I don’t understand how a lot of new music makes it to radio. But I digress… Having a year under my belt, here are the few things I have learned, that you, the class of 2007, should know: Don’t Settle: Do not, and I mean, DO NOT take a job for the sake of taking a job. You are going to be miserable and you know it. Ride it out, looking for a job is tough, but when you find the right fit for you, it makes all the difference. Patience is a virtue. Set Salary Expectations: For you marketing majors, you have more than likely become pretty sick and tired of all of your finance and accounting friends landing jobs as early as October, and then comparing astronomical entry-level salaries. While you may never see $50-$70k right out of school, there is hope. For starters, you will work far fewer hours than they will, so technically you are making more than them – just on an hourly basis. And second, there is a chance you might actually like what you’re doing. See how happy they are when they have to work Sundays, or eat dinner at the office, for the third night in a row. Leave the number crunching to those guys, you’ll need them to manage your funds after Omnicom buys your agency. Say Thank You: There is possibly no quicker way to burn bridges than forgetting this cardinal rule. It is as important for you to make others feel appreciated and it is for you to feel appreciated. Say thank you ALL THE TIME – to a prospective employer after an interview, to a colleague after they help you on the job, to your parents, after they just dropped $100k on your education and to the hippie at Starbucks, who just made your tall-nonfat-caramel-macchiato-double-shot-nonsense. As a student, as an employee, as a manager, as a CEO, as a human being, letting people know their value to you, personally and professionally, is one of the most powerful abilities you have. Two words go a long way. Find A Mentor: Trust me on this; you’re going to need one. Find someone older and wiser, that you don’t directly report to. Navigating the seas of your first “real” job is difficult, and it really does help to have someone to bring your issues to. Believe it or not, you don’t know everything. The 6 Month Wall: This might be the most important thing I will tell you, so pay attention. There is this thing, this funk, this strange feeling that will seep in after a while. I have seen it happen to nearly every single person I know from college, it doesn’t discriminate. It is a hard beast to explain really…you will wake up one day and realize that there isn’t another semester coming, the bubble you have lived in for the past four years is gone and, as one of my favorite movies simply put it, “This is it. This is life.” Some I know have changed jobs over it, or are at least entertaining the thought. Others have moved out, moved back home, went abroad, to the west coast, or wherever. My advice? Stay right where you are. It is a phase, don’t run from it. This is your real first step into adulthood, and its only natural to “freak out” a bit, but don’t let it get you down. If you have followed at least a few of the first four pieces of advice I’ve given, something tells me you’ll do just fine. So there you have it, five things you need to know once you graduate college. Now, throw your cap, say goodbye, go home, hug your relatives, have a cold one with that crazy uncle and wake up tomorrow ready for the rest of your life. Be a Game Changer.