Most of us, at some point of time in our lives must have heard it from our parents, elders or bosses – Abhi mehnat kar lo, fir life asaan hai (Work hard today, to make your future comfortable). So be it during our school, college or in the initial years of our professional life, majority of us have heard these lines. However, the irony of life is that that it never gets smooth, it is rather a dilapidated road with lot of jerks.
We strive for fancy college degrees, to make a bright future for ourselves and that thought process is further exaggerated by our career counselors and parents. It is always good to strive for a tier 1 college or atleast a decent one, if not the topmost, but one should not be ignorant about certain things that are peculiar to life after college and about which nobody tells you specifically.
Fierce competition
The Competition is not only restricted to the college entrance examination or during the college. As you leave your academic institution and enter the professional world, the competition become more intense and on the top of that, you don’t have any mentor or counsellor to guide you. With time, you pull off well with the kind of cut throat competition, but during initial years of life after college, you really need to stay strong and accept the change with courage
To find the right job fitment
For many fresh graduates, it becomes a challenge to find the job of their interest. Many colleges promise 100% placement but hardly are the transparent about the kind of job profiles offered to their students. For students however, it is important to find a job that would do appropriate justice to their degree. Getting stuck in a kind of work which you don’t like and that too for a long time takes away from you those crucial years when you can build your career. So, finding a fulfilling job sometimes become challenging.
Your skills might become obsolete with time
No matter how fancy your college degree is or how good your college’s ranking is, you regularly need to upgrade your skills as the corporate world is very dynamic. What held huge importance back then might not have same importance now; therefore you need to read regularly about new things and learn new skills as much as possible
Soft skills; yes they are inevitable
In India, academic grades hold huge importance and therefore, right from our childhood, it is fed into our minds that low academic grades will take you nowhere because of which we are forced to study hard. However, as a professional, it is our soft skills and people skills that are more important instead of grades. Scoring good grades might give you an edge during college placement but to be a smart professional, you must hone your soft skills gradually during your academic tenure itself, so that you face less hassles in your life post college
Your work might get monotonous
If you are stuck in a 9 to 5 job, after college then there are chances that your work might get monotonous. Fortunately, it is not a mammoth task to overcome this. To make your work more creative, try to pick up task that interests you, look for some creative projects, take some time out of your routine job for some fun activities at work and if all of this doesn’t work then it’s time to CHANGE YOUR JOB……!!
Your hobbies take a back seat
The day has only 24 hours and in that limited time, we are expected to manage multiple tasks. That is when our hobbies take a back seat as we fail to seize enough time from our routine, to devote to them. After you complete your college, you are inevitably caught in the complex daily routine where you have to manage your work life, along with your personal life. However, at the same time, one should try to make time for his/her hobbies as it revives a person and also act as a stress buster
Shoulder more responsibility
As you complete your academic tenure, you are expected to shoulder more responsibility for yourself as well as for your family. As an individual, you are responsible for chalking out a satisfactory career path for yourself which is also rewarding. At the same time, you are also expected to financially support your family, if not entirely then somewhat. Therefore, you should be prepared to take up responsibilities, as well as fulfill them in the long run, but this is nothing to be feared off because you evolve as an individual as you become more responsible
As rightly said by Aamir Khan in Rang De Basanti, College ke gate ke is taraf ham life Ko nachaate hai aur doosri taraf life hamko nachaati hai.
Life after college is challenging indeed but let me tell you folks, it is fun to dance to the beats of life, so face all the life’s challenges with full zeal, to make your life’s journey fun filled and the one with less of impediments.
