By Caitríona Ní Chonaill
You’ve received your results from your degree – congratulations! You’ve put the work in and you have the numbers on the piece of paper to prove it. But what now? With your relatives asking you “what’s next?” and the existential dread creeping in, here’s how you can try stave off the dip that comes post university.
Don’t worry if you don’t walk into a job
Anybody who’s sent their CV to a hundred different companies, and even gotten a few interviews but ultimately been told that you’re not what they’re looking for. There are many more like you and there will be well into the future. You are not alone on this job search, believe me, there are many more searching Indeed and LinkedIn alongside you while they live at home with their parents, dreaming of the day they can move out.
Let go of what you have imagined your life is going to look like
The life you imagined you’d be living when you were 10 unfortunately doesn’t exist, but there’s no shame in making the decision to go in a different direction than the one you thought you were going in. Whether you use your degree or end up in a completely unrelated field, you are carving out a living for yourself regardless.
Make an effort to keep in touch with your friends
With the possible exception of your friends from your home town, your university or college friends are now scattered all across the country and the globe. Gone are the days of being able to nip over to someone’s apartment for prinks, or just camping there during exam season. Your friendship will now need a concerted effort from all of you, and to be ble to plan and execute a meetup is an operation of almost military proportions. But you will see each other again, and when you do, it will be as if no time has passed since you were encouraging them to drink way more than was good for them, all in the name of the craic.
There are many many graduates feeling the same way as you in their first summer after graduating, and you are not alone!