6 Things To Do Before You Graduate From College
I finished my last college class this past Tuesday. 5 years, 3 co-ops, countless organizations, friends, and experiences - all culminated in hitting the “Leave Meeting” button on Zoom. A litttttttle anticlimactic.
Nevertheless, this period has me thinking, reflecting, and mourning (the loss of my senior year due to COVID) and my entire college experience. I feel like I am missing something. Sure, there are email reminders about taking a composite photo for the yearbook, or notifications to apply for graduation, but I keep asking myself, “What else is there to do before I close out this chapter and start the next?” I googled this question and the answers were “Join a club” or “Travel,” but these are things you should have done in college, not things you need to know before you graduate. I was wondering about the stuff nobody tells you to do - how to let your internship manager from 2 years ago know you’re graduating, how to tell your favorite professor that he or she impacted your choice of major, how to stay in contact with peers, especially during the remote COVID times we are living in. I found no helpful tips in my search, so I decided to write my own.
Here are 6 Things I think you should do in your final semester before you graduate from college:
Get Connected with Others on LinkedIn
I’ve previously stressed on the blog how important and effective of a tool LinkedIn is. This is especially true for people ages 18-35. Those who fall in this age category are typically establishing themselves as professionals, networking to land a job, networking to find a new job, or networking to succeed in a position. It’s integral to maintain contact with the individuals in your network by connecting with them on LinkedIn. Before you graduate college, peruse the “People You May Know Section.” Add friends or classmates you haven’t connected with.
Think about professors who made a positive impact that you’d like to keep in touch with. Add them and include a personal note to let them know that. Adding the network you’ve built in college on LinkedIn is the easiest way to create a virtual contact book of your connections. While you’re at it, make sure your LinkedIn is updated.
2. Send Thank-You Notes
I’ve also previously talked on the blog about the power of handwritten thank you notes. In a non-COVID era, I would recommend writing personal thank you notes to the people or faculty who have impacted or helped you in your college career. Drop them in the faculty’s mailboxes, or give them to your favorite former teaching assistants or peer leaders in person. Although this is more personal, in the COVID-era we are living in, send emails out showing your thanks. You’d be shocked how long of a way this will go. Showing genuine appreciation to the people who’ve helped you make it to where you are is not only nice for them but a great exercise in gratitude as you reflect on the chapter that was your college experience.
3. Ask for Letters of Recommendation
Before you leave college, think of any professor, administrator, co-op/internship manager, or colleague with whom you developed a close, positive relationship and ask for a letter of recommendation. You may not need it now, but a letter of recommendation could prove useful in your job search or serve as a nice addition to your LinkedIn profile. Keep a folder on your computer of recommendations that you can pull from at a moment’s notice.
4. Update Your Resume
Graduation is the perfect time to update your resume. Whether you’ve landed a job pre-graduation, or are about to begin applying, you’ll need to update at least your graduation date and add any senior year experiences that could make you stand out.
5. Conduct a Personal Social Media Audit
Imagine landing a killer job post-grad only to have your offer rescinded because your employer finds an inappropriate tweet from nine years ago. An employer punishing you for something nine years ago when you were a pre-teen sounds intense, but it happened to a close friend of mine. Graduating, or preparing to graduate college signals a great shift in a young person’s life. If you are in school, about to graduate, or have recently graduated, reflect on how much you’ve changed in just four short years. Now think about nine. Considering how much you’ve grown and possibly changed as a person, ask yourself if your old tweets/posts/photos represent who you are today. Are they reflective of how you would want to be seen by friends, family, and potential employers?
In this period of change from one chapter to the next, look closely at your social media profiles. Spring clean the crap out of them. No one needs to see posts from 2011. No one needs to see you drinking alcohol in a fraternity basement. Make sure what’s on your profile is reflective of the best version of you.
6. Join Your School’s Alumni Organizations
Before you leave campus for the final time, make it a point to research what alumni resources your school has to offer. In what ways can you stay connected? For example, in addition to researching the resources of my college’s alumni office, I joined a LinkedIn group specific to graduates of my business school. Forums like these are a great space for alumni to keep in contact with one another, to get information about job postings and opportunities, and to keep up with alumni engagement events.
Just A Few…
I’m positive that these aren’t all of the things you should do. I could have made this the “25 Things To Do Before You Graduate From College,” but these are the items that stuck out to me. There is no playbook for this period. Frankly, no one really talks about the transition. Although exciting, it can be scary, especially in the job market we are currently facing with a year of pandemic and Zoom exhaustion looming over so many.
The thing to remember is that 2020 and 2021 graduates are not alone. We share the same experiences and will continue to tell the stories in future interviews about how we tackled an internship completely remote, still made the honor roll in “Zoom university” and despite the circumstances, preserved. In this way, I think our classes will be the most adaptable, proactive, and ready candidates on the job market, and at work. As spring rolls around, more vaccines are distributed, and graduation (almost) happens, there is, and should be an immense sense of hope for the future. Move forward in this new chapter knowing you are ready. Celebrate (safely) with friends and family. You made it. And you earned it.
