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All of us have to go through various significant transitions in our life. From nursery to kindergarten, from kindergarten to primary school, from primary school to secondary school, from secondary school to university/college, from tertiary education to working life, from working life to retirement life, etc. This blog will be focusing on the transition of secondary school or tertiary education to working life. As fresh graduate, what should you do to further improve your future career or job opportunities?

1) Get Something to Do for Earning an Income

We will encounter tremendous change from financially supported by the family to self-financial support. Some of the youngsters even start working during their studies. I personally started working part time during my college time as home tuition teacher.

Some people may think of having an enjoyable vacation before starting to work. Yes, it is totally up to you if you can afford to do so. If not, getting your first job is your first step to the competitive society. Some people may want to be self-employed, for example being an insurance agent. Some people may even have the idea of establishing own business. This blog will not focus on the direction of doing business. Let’s imagine we leave the school empty-handed without having cash and not going to solicit our family or others for cash, then we have to be employed or self-employed like being an insurance agent, unit trust agent or provide certain services to acquire money for your living expenses. That’s nothing wrong to work for people to obtain your first income because you are still earning money with your own effort.  We need to absorb experience via the working process. As fresh graduate, I will advise never aim for high pay. Income gained that is sufficient for your survival is pretty ideal for a fresh graduate. Having the opportunity to learn is your ultimate reason of getting your first job. In order to learn how to perform well during an interview to get your job, you may have a look at this article.

I would like to provide an extra point here. It is not advisable to immerse yourself into any get-rich-fast schemes that promise you to get sizable return ‘effortlessly’ after investing a few hundreds or thousand dollars. These are definitely scams. As fresh graduates, we can easily under-estimate the difficulty of earning money and may have the wrong perception that earning money can be pretty easy if adopting shortcuts. Please be aware of that. As fresh graduate, you can’t afford to lose so much money despite a few hundred dollars. My message to you is, ‘Earning Money Does Need Effort’.

2) Self-improvement

Everyone needs to continue growing mentally and not just stop your learning process after your graduation. It is a good practice to read more books relevant to your career or some self-motivation books during your leisure time. You may consider of attending some self-development activities such as joining Toastmasters – an educational program which is going to benefit you for the entire life. If you don’t want to stay at your existing position or existing income for the rest of your life, YOU HAVE TO IMPROVE YOURSELF!

You may try to unleash your talent and develop it. For instance, I have ever heard people joining dancing class after their working hours. After few years of polishing their dancing skills in the class, they end up becoming dancing teachers and bringing their dance performances to international stage. Hence, learning something you are passionate about and be excellent in it. It may be served as your second career.

3) Networking

Networking is a process of an extended group of people with similar interests or concerns who interact and stay contacted for mutual assistance or support. You may network with people from your church or club, such as Toastmasters Club. Look for those people who don’t appear to be gold diggers and may have something meaningful to give you in return, perhaps knowledge. Primarily, they must be quality friends whom you can communicate to keep yourself savvy.

A senior friend in his 60s told me, old people should mingle more with young people in order to live younger; young people should mix with more senior people to gain experience and knowledge. I totally agree with that. By doing that, you can refrain yourself from doing a lot of mistakes. No doubt, learning from mistakes is true. If we can highly reduce our mistakes to a minimal level and yet save our precious time and money, why not?

4) Meticulously Plan Your Income

Learning how to carefully plan the allocation of your income can be a useful skill. My sharing on how I apportioned my income when I was still a fresh graduate is stated in this article, Simple Personal Financial Planning for Fresh Graduates. Everyone of us needs to start cultivating the financial consciousness whenever we step into the working society.

The habit of saving money is a wonderful virtue that we should practise. I have gone through the stage when saving of money is something hard to achieve; so I truly know its significance.  If your income is too low to have extra money for saving, then you may have to re-ponder your current income source, then think of possible ways to improve yourself for a higher income stream.

As fresh graduate, you need to open yourself to numerous possibilities which can be switched into a learning experience. Don’t be too contented in your comfort zone. During your very first job, you need to be willing to work for the experience sake even if it’s not your dream job. Simultaneously, keep enhancing your personal knowledge and horizon by reading more books and networking with knowledgeable people. Wisely managing your own finance will ensure you leading a more fulfilling life in the future. Be a happy and savvy fresh graduate!