The following is from a LinkedIn post that I made after having read an article from Chartr. Having recently spoken to undergrads recently I thought this article was timely to share and comment on.

My college career started in September 2001, just a few weeks after the devastating 9/11 attacks on the United States. I had declared Management Information Systems as my major, but after my first co-op and meeting professionals with that degree I decided it wasn’t for me. The following year I switched to Marketing, met some professionals with that background, decided it worked for me, but I wanted more. I added Finance to a dual concentration and finished college with an idea of what I wanted. A couple years after graduating in 2006, we entered the global financial crisis in 2008.

I cannot stress how fortunate I was to not only have the financial means to attend a university like Drexel, be awarded a scholarship based on merit, and the support I had from family, friends, and professional network to build what I have today. I understand how challenging building a career can be when you have a relatively low level of experience, a limited professional network, and generally don’t know what a career can look like.

If there’s three things this post from Chartr (using data from YouGov) taught me it’s this…

• When considering what to do for a living, connect with people that are doing what you believe you want to do as soon as possible. Learn about their journey, the ups and downs, and being in a position where you can tap into collective knowledge so you can say “I’m glad I learned XYZ now instead of in the future”.
• Understand that you will have good days and bad days at work. You may not find it immediately, but do the best you can to anchor yourself to a purpose as this will help support not just what you do for a living, but WHY you do it.
• Always remember that you are responsible for your career. There will be constraints, internal and external, but having a plan about what success looks like, and revisiting that plan every 6-9 months, will keep you moving in the right direction.