Post-Graduation

[enthused]

I am now in my second to last semester of university, and I've started thinking about what the heck I'm gonna do when I graduate.

Since I will most likely not have any jobs relating to my degree lined up (a French degree will do that to you... ) I think I'll probably end up traveling. I haven't decided where yet, but I think its time to start thinking and saving up some money.

I'm curious though, what did you guys do when you graduated?

Did you jump right into your career? If so, do you regret doing so?

Or did you travel? Where did you go? Anything you'd do differently?

And for those who are in the same boat as me, approaching graduation, any plans yet?

[JiriHrdina]

I kept working at my part-time job for about 6 months - and just enjoyed a bit of a break from any stress. Just worked, hung out, and de-compressed.

[Tyler]

I made the choice to travel during the summers in between years in university, so I could jump right into the workforce after school.

[Phanuthier]

I graduated last year (BSc) and I remember as my last semester, I had a mini mid-life crisis / mini panic attack that I had no idea what I wanted to do as a career. In the end, to prolong my school life and because my field required it, here I am back in school for a masters. I don't want to go for a PhD, but if the economy continues to suck, maybe I will.

After I graduated, I did a 2 month trip to Yugaslavia, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and Russia. I do alot of travelling and I knew once I started working, I'd be tied down to 2 weeks per year, so in that sense, I'd definitely travel.

I finish my masters in 2 semester (hopefully) and I'm hoping to travel in between the 2 semesters and after to maximize travel opportunities, but I guess given the economy right now, if I get a job, I'm taking it.

[Locke]

It hasnt happened yet, but if I graduate on time, I'm going to hit up a South American beach for a few weeks, and get drunk and smoke cigars for as long as I can afford it.

Gotta get the stench of university off of me before I immerse myself into a life of slavery and pain.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Moved from Calgary to Van, started looking for jobs in 2-3 industries of interest, and was considering more schooling.
Found a job I liked and Real Estate, and now feel pretty confident I want to make my career in it. Been almost 2 years and I feel pretty lucky to have a mental path planned out for the foreseeable future at a fairly young age.

I've considered taking time off to travel, but never did. I don't regret it, but the travel would have been nice and I'd still like to fit more in without stalling my career development.

[JohnnyB]

I took out extra student loan in my last semester and used it to spend a whole summer just hanging out, reading, drinking wine, hiking and swimming in Penticton. Then I went to Taiwan, and now I live in China combining my career with travel and immersing myself in Chinese while also doing my masters by distance through the UofT. Options seem really limited when you're coming up on the end of uni, but it's only a matter of perspective. You gotta get out and explore what opportunities there really are for you in the world, then you find the world has many, many opportunities for you. And I graduated with majors in philosophy and linguistics, so I know what it's like.

[calf]

I jumped right into my degree...I didn't regret doing so because I wanted to build up some savings to travel...I also knew I had more schooling ahead of me (doing a post-degree designation right away), so it didn't feel like I had finished and needed to celebrate. I did, however, go travelling after I finished my final exam and don't regret that idea at all. If you feel like you're done for a little while, go travel.

I don't regret jumping right into my career...I managed to get to where I wanted to go a bit faster. Can't say, back then in that situation, that I would do anything differently.

[Winsor_Pilates]

I would also say that if you want to travel, just do it. You have the rest of your life to work. I jumped straight into work, but in the grand scheme of things, starting work 6 months later wouldn't mean anything. It's a drop in the bucket, and the travel experience could stay with you a lifetime.

[Muta]

I graduated, and then worked a menial job for 5 months, then traveled the South Pacific for six months.

Two years later, I'm working a job that isn't in any way related to my career, I'm postponing writing my GMAT because I'm lazy, and I'm taking off to backpack in Japan in three weeks.

Have I mentioned I haven't even started my career yet? Ahahaha....

[Ozy_Flame]

I travelled, worked abroad, and then came home and started working again. It's been two years since I got back and I now own a place and have a high-end job.

That said, I told myself f*** this - I took a leave of absence and am going back to Japan for two months in a few weeks. It's been three years since I graduated university and I still can't buy into the whole working thing yet.

DON'T GET STUCK THINKING YOUR STUCK. It's never too late to travel.

[JohnnyB]

I often think it's a little sad that people see travel as a kind of timeout from their life paths instead of opening up whole new possible life paths. Too many people think of travel as "get out of Canada for a bit, party and then come back to the 'real world'". There's no reason that you should look at life in your home town, or where you went to university, or Canada or even North America as the 'real world' and where you're bound to. If your thinking is a little more open to the possibilities the world has on offer, and you can be interested in exploring them you can find a life full of friends, rich experience, success, fun and travel all wrapped together, but you need to think bigger than what most people around you in any given place are thinking. Possibilities seem distant until you take a few chances, then you realize the risks you took were actually small and you discover a broader range of options than you had before. You've got a degree from a university in a respected Western country, and you speak one of the biggest languages in the world. Don't doubt that opportunities exist, even if they're not immediately apparent.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

DON'T GET STUCK THINKING YOUR STUCK. It's never too late to travel.

So true!

[enthused]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

I often think it's a little sad that people see travel as a kind of timeout from their life paths instead of opening up whole new possible life paths. Too many people think of travel as "get out of Canada for a bit, party and then come back to the 'real world'". There's no reason that you should look at life in your home town, or where you went to university, or Canada or even North America as the 'real world' and where you're bound to. If your thinking is a little more open to the possibilities the world has on offer, and you can be interested in exploring them you can find a life full of friends, rich experience, success, fun and travel all wrapped together, but you need to think bigger than what most people around you in any given place are thinking. Possibilities seem distant until you take a few chances, then you realize the risks you took were actually small and you discover a broader range of options than you had before. You've got a degree from a university in a respected Western country, and you speak one of the biggest languages in the world. Don't doubt that opportunities exist, even if they're not immediately apparent.

You're totally right. I'm certainly hoping that I will eventually be able to put my French degree to use, hopefully abroad! I've also been studying Spanish and Italian as well, and am open to learning as many languages as possible. I'm hoping that traveling after graduation will expose me to some of the possibilities out there to put my languages to use!

[MaxPower]

[green]What a bunch of hippies in this thread![/green]

I went straight to work, no regrets, I guess, starving would have been worse. Given a choice though, I probably would have travelled for a month or so.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by MaxPower

[green]What a bunch of hippies in this thread![/green]

Ahahaha... I was wondering how long it would take for someone to make a crack like that. But seriously, if you think about it, how is one a hippie if they travel?

Hippies have no money to do so.

[octothorp]

Well, just don't do what I did. After graduation, I went back to live with my parents for a while, and while attending one of their parties, I drove home one of their friends, and she seduced me. We had an ongoing thing where we'd meet at a hotel. And my parents kept bugging me to get a job and would wonder what I was doing with my time, and so I spent a lot of time just swimming around under water in our pool in the backyard. What made it complicated was that I actually really liked her daughter, who was sort of pressuring me for a date. So I took her out to a strip club, to try to make her think that I didn't like her. Eventually, I told her that I was having an affair with her mother, and she got predictably pissed off. I found out later she was getting married, and decided I really liked her and didn't want her to marry some other guy, so I ended up driving up to her wedding (except my car died - boy, did all the track that I ran in college come in handy), and interrupted her wedding. Anyway, she ran away with me, and we got on a passing bus. And I don't know, I felt so distant and detached from everything when I was sitting there in the back of the bus with her...

[fredr123]

I was working about 30 hours per week during my last semester of university. When classes were finally done, I increased that to between 50 and 60. Traveling would have been nice but starving would have been worse.

[CaptainCrunch]

I went to school down in Texas, and the intent was to hang out for a week. However basically the week before, we got a call from INS reminding us that our student visa's were going to expire, and they'd really like it if we went back to our side of the border post haste.

We decided to blow off our graduation ceremony, who cares they mailed us our degrees anyways. We got in the car and drove to Vegas spend a week of debauchery, realized that we basically had enough money to cover gas home and drove home. They we found jobs that we totally hated, and the rest is history.

[troutman]

I went to South America for 5 months. One of the best things I ever did. You will probably never get another chance in your life to take a long trip like that.