Top 10 Success Tips for Graduates – Life After Anderson

Your “Anderson Study & Life Hacks” series

Whether you’re celebrating graduation success, excited to embark on your next adventure, or are in the last stretch and feeling daunted by what comes next, rest assured … This Is Your Moment. As significant as the transition is, as you embrace your first (or second, third …) career, there are those who have tread the path before and their advice is golden. Read, absorb, and take these life and career tips out for a spin as you launch into your new, limitless life.

Your Life After Anderson & Our Top 10 Success Tips for Grads

1.Define Your Passion & Purpose

As a student you know what you love to learn; as a graduate you need to determine how you want to leverage that knowledge for life and career success.

“Understand who you are and what you want. That’s not about money or things, it’s about what’s in your heart,” offers Curt Richardson, Founder of OtterBox.

You need to take a breath after graduating and ask yourself, honestly, what it is you want for yourself, for your family and how do you want to contribute to the world? It may seem, at first, as though you should just leap right in and land a job, but long-term success is determined by how passionate you are about your work and how it aligns with your higher purpose.

2.Research & Explore Your Options

Do your due diligence. Research a variety of work opportunities. Think outside the box. Don’t just look at the job descriptions, but the company itself. If you can, visit the place you’re considering working. Observe how employees get along, how management interacts with the staff. Feel the energy in that place of work and see if you can imagine yourself fitting in there, contributing, being happy. Always trust your instinct; it is often wiser than we give it credit for.

3.Align Your Values with Action & Company

Once you’ve researched your career and company options, be sure to consider if the mission and service it provides, (as well as the connection and camaraderie you may have experienced) align with your core values. As with any relationship, values alignment is key to ensuring a fit for the long haul. And yes, you will often ‘just know’ what is the right fit, so you want to have options to choose from. Being honest about what matters to you will allow you to select a job opportunity that not only fills your bank account, but your heart’s desire.

4.Test the Waters, Dive In with Verve

If you can, take a little time after graduating to test the waters, many waters. Even if you do turn that practicum into a place to work, do as many of the jobs within that organization as you can. Or if you take the first job you find to gain experience, that’s grand! But also consider volunteering for positions that speak to the many sides of you. You are learning to know what you love about the various careers you can have, so be creative in how you look at launching into any given field.

5.Make & Master Your Plan

Once you’ve researched, explored, tested and come up with a vision of what your purpose is and how you can best channel your passion in the work you do, make a plan. Maybe that plan is to land the job with the company you’ve discovered is your ‘perfect fit’, or perhaps it is focused on a career move within the company you’ve chosen. A task that will forever evolve and ensure you always have what you truly want in clear sight, is to build and master the working of a plan.

6.Become a Life-Learner

Although we hope that our lessons will always come from the achievements as a result of hard work, that others will notice and give encouragement and accolades, that is not always reality. But as much, if not more, is learned from the pitfalls and challenges that rise along the way, the times when our work went unnoticed, we were passed over or gossiped about. Learn from it all. We sometimes learn about the kind of colleague, person, we want to be from those who demonstrate the opposite of what we wish to be. They remind us to be steadfast in our ideals. Managers and leaders who do not lead well, teach us about what we don’t want to be, so that we can lead with compassion, wiser and more aware. See everything you face as a gift, a chance to make better, more informed, choices, now and in the future.

7.Speak Truth with Respect

And no matter the situation, the desire to unload the angst when you feel wronged or slighted, resist, forever resist. When truth is needed to be spoken, and speaking truth is so essential in these times particularly, do it always mindfully, with the end in mind and from a place of respect. Consider your words and be that person in the office who sees possibility, finds the good in others and always handles situations in a way that leaves people informed and with their dignity intact.

8.Be R & R

Be both responsible and resilient. These are treasures in enlightened living. Take responsibility for your part in challenging situations. Be honest and of integrity, doing what you say you’ll do, winning with humility and losing (as you sometimes will), with grace. And when it comes to resiliency, do as our latest hero advises, Ted Lasso, “You know what the happiest animal on Earth is? It’s a goldfish. You know why? Got a 10-second memory. Be a goldfish…”

When it comes to getting knocked down, as we all have been and will be, feel it, grieve it and then… take the lesson and leave the rest. (And if you haven’t watched the Ted Lasso show on Apple+, oh there’s a world of life tips n’ tricks to be explored indeed!)

9.Focus on Growth & Gratitude

Could we focus on the bumps and bruises, the times we feel let down, defeated, the losses versus our wins? Oh, you bet. But if I know anything about Anderson College students, about Anderson College graduates, especially after the last 2 years of campaigns on #My2020 Stories and this year’s #MyCourageousMoment , you’ve got #9 mastered. In our lives we will face myriad trials, but the trick is to triumph, to grow. And how do we do this? We focus on the gifts of our lives, our breath, our capabilities, and allow our gratitude to fan the flames of possibility. We’ve got this, as students, as graduates, as those determined to live our best lives!

10.Eagerly Envision, Boldly Advance

You deserve a beautiful, empowered and inspiring life. All along life’s way, you need to keep your eye on the greatest prize you can imagine. Eagerly envision what it is that defines you, ignites you and how your career will serve your vision, the lives of others and the lives of those you love. And then … boldly, daringly advance in the direction of your dreams.

You’ve got this! And as Anderson graduates, we’ve got your back and your best interests at heart. As you know, Career Services are your cheerleaders for life. Reach out if you need support. And if you’re considering Anderson College and any one of our 30+ leading-edge programs, we’ve got an Admissions Advisor who would love to speak with you.

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Quick Links to Fuel Your Success!

We want to make sure you have what you need to succeed! Check out these reference links:
• Career Services – Anderson College | Toronto | Mississauga | Hamilton
• 3 Fundamental Ted Lasso Quotes on Resiliency at Work (workfromhomehappiness.com)
• 10 Pieces Of Practical Career Advice For College Graduates (forbes.com)
• 10 Tips to Help Graduates Succeed in Their First Job (entrepreneur.com)
• 8 successful execs share their best career advice for 20-somethings (cnbc.com)