Life After College: Taking it to a New Level
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Posted By: Neil Foote on August 18, 2009 In his latest book, “Tom Joyner Presents How to Prepare for College”, Tom Joyner offers some sage advice on how to make the best of life after college. Here's an excerpt worth checking out: Preparing for Life after College Life after college may seem far away, but the college years zoom by. It’s important to focus on preparing for life after college while on campus. It may seem premature, but begin planning for your life after college in your fresh man year. You can do this by making good choices. Choosing the right major is obviously important, but don’t over look other important decisions. This includes involvement in campus organizations, taking courses that will make you more competitive in the job market or graduate school, and getting work experience while in school such as summer jobs and internships. Real World Experience Students often have to work at least part-time during the semester to cover college expenses. The part-time job to pay the bills may be unrelated to the student’s major, but it’s still job experience, and it’s impossible to over estimate the importance of work experience. It’s very difficult to enter the job market with a freshly printed college diploma with out job experience. Any experience is better than nothing. Having held a job demonstrates to a potential employer that the student has a work ethic and an under standing of the basics of being an employee (such as get ting to work on time, completing job tasks, and accepting directions from supervisors). Graduate School Depending on your career goals, graduate or professional school may be a great option after completing under grad u ate study. In some fields, grad u ate school is required (for example, medicine or law to name two). In other fields (such as journalism or business) it is not required, but even if it’s not required additional training will almost always provide a career advantage. One of the author’s (Wil LaVeist) obtained a master’s in journalism, though he had taken journalism courses as part of earning a bachelor’s in English. The professional net work he developed through his graduate school professors led to intern ships and his first newspaper job after graduation. An example is, being a public school teacher with a master’s degree in education or an executive with a master’s in business administration (MBA) will significantly raise your earning potential. So, how do you know if grad u ate school is the way to go? Unlike your undergraduate experience, graduate school students will immediately focus specifically on the subject of interest and gain the necessary training to continue with a career in that particular field. Rather than taking a lot of university required courses unrelated to your field, in graduate school you will focus on a field that you love to study. Graduate school gives students the opportunity to further develop their knowledge in that area and pre pare them for further career goals. In other words, students become “masters” in their fields of study. Entrepreneurship Students should seriously consider entrepreneur ship as an option, but first things first. They should graduate with a bachelor’s degree or higher and they should, at least, get intern ships in the field of the business they are interested in starting. There are cases where people have dropped out of college to start a business and become successful. How ever, those success stories are as few as high school basket ball players who have become successful in the NBA with out attending college. … As you’re gaining experience working for some one else, it’s still advisable that you consider developing a side business that generates another revenue stream with out detracting from your day job. You’ll also need to make sure you under stand your primary employer’s conflict of interest/non competition requirements to avoid get ting reprimanded or fired. Being an entrepreneur gives you control of your own des tiny. You can go to levels and reach goals that you may not have been able to in corporate America. You can determine how much money you make, how many hours you work and who you hire. Want to learn more about what you can do after college? Go to http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=promo/70... to order your book today or check with your local book store. (Tom Joyner Presents: How to Prepare for College," By Thomas LaVeist and Wil LaVeist and foreword written by Tom Joyner, Tom Joyner Foundation and Amber Books Inc., $15, 131 pp. If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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Neil Foote
Presidenti & CEO, Tom Joyner Foundation Member Since January 2008 |
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