An Honest Letter to Students with Lessons about Real Life - CareerEnlightenment.com

Don’t take this too hard. Everyone goes through it. You are in the process of defining your professional self. In my case, it took nine years!Ask your elders for advice. Anyone who’s been out of college as long as I have can probably help you through the rough times.Remember to celebrate what you’ve already accomplished. This is one I still struggle to incorporate in my life. Hey, after all, I went to Brown, one of the hardest colleges to get into. That should say something.Find your guardian angels. No one wins alone. No wealthy person ever became a millionaire through just their own efforts (unless they won at poker). Find a mentor who will advocate for you when you need it.The faster you can accept the realities of post-college life, the sooner you will find success in life.If I had read this letter sooner, my life may have taken a very different tack. But even after struggling for 9 years to find my professional self, I still did it, and I consider myself successful. So the good news is that it’s never too late.If there is just one piece of advice I would add to this letter it would be this. Your career isn’t going to fall in your lap just because you graduated school. If you know what you want, do whatever it takes to get there. If you don’t know, do whatever it takes to find clarity, even if that means trying something out for a while.