What’s Your Move When Your College Degree Will Not Prepare You for the Workplace?

I learned the hard way.

Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash

I think it’s a common millennial lament that, at its bare bones, college doesn’t really “prepare” you for the real motions of the everyday workplace. Sure, there are group projects that foster a sense that you’ll have to demonstrate this same teamwork in company meetings (if you go the corporate route), and your professors can be seen as surrogate bosses who dictate your “workload” on a daily basis.

But you’re pretty much on your own after you graduate. The job hunt in the weeks after you get your degree can be pretty demoralizing, especially if you feel you’ve just been thrown into the deep end of the pool without learning how to swim. Your school may offer pre-graduation seminars covering job interviews and resume building, but a lot of that advice is nothing if it’s not readily put into practice or tempered into your habits when faced with hiring managers. And that’s if your resume catches the attention of a hiring manager.

I’m no expert — I’ve just been in this rodeo for about a year now — but here are some of the things I wish I’d known in the time leading up to my graduation.

Research internships, especially if you’re still in school, and take…