“How did this happen?”. That is the question I kept asking myself as I sat at my desk at my corporate job, just a few short years after graduating college. I was actually asking two questions at the same time. I was trying to figure out how I ended up in a job that did not fit my goals and why so many of my co-workers seemed to be feeling the same way.
I am the founder of an educational coaching and services company designed to prepare today’s students for the real world that awaits them. I am also a youth motivational speaker, published book author, student success coach, and online teacher. So, you could say that I am “all-in” on this mission to prepare students for the next steps in life.
However, my calling wasn’t always so clear. I was stuck for years working behind a desk, amongst co-workers who were as seemingly as miserable as I was. That is what prompted me to begin asking: “How did this happen?”.
What I discovered was that the main reason so many people feel this way is that they were not prepared for the real world. They did not understand what it was going to be like to be an adult and work full-time. Most of them had developed a “figure it out later” attitude, and when later finally arrived, they were thrown into a world they knew nothing about, forced to take a job they did not want and ended up living a life they never intended on living.
My journey for this self-discovery, allowed me to conduct well over one hundred surveys and interviews with college graduates. I asked a variety of questions regarding what they regretted about their time as a student and what they would do differently if they could do it all over again.
Here are the top 5 regrets graduates have about their time in college.
#1 – Not Caring Enough About School
Struggling to get a student to care about school work and studying for tests is not a new issue. However, it should be noted how many graduates point to this issue when it comes to placing blame for how they ended up in the situation they are in. The reason this is important is that they claim had they known the direct correlation between school and their future, they would have tried harder.
Put it another way. When students are in school, they tend to view the entire process as tedious and boring. Most even treat it as a social hour and consider the actual learning part as secondary or optional. They are under the belief that these years will come and go and it is the future or “adult years” that are the important ones.
The issue then becomes that by the time they enter those later years, they are essentially less prepared to deal with the demands of full time work or they might end up working in an uninspiring job. They then realize that they should have paid attention a lot sooner.
#2 – Not Taking The Time To Understand Student Loans
This may be the second regret listed, but it is one of the ones I hear the most. When I ask a graduate what they would do differently if they could, they almost always mention something about student loans. It is essential to note the specifics of this regret. It’s not so much that they regret taking out loans; it was that they did not understand what they were signing up for. They applied for the money they thought they needed, and they were blindsided by the amount of money they were being asked to pay back every month.
College can be expensive, and often, some sort of loan or financial support is necessary. The issue here is that many students do not understand the long term ramifications of their choices at this age. When they select a college, they do not adequately research if that college is worth the price tag. The result can be a massive sum of debt that prevents them from completing various life tasks, like moving out and buying a car.
3 – Not Spending More Time Researching Colleges and Majors
Another regret with long term consequences was that many graduates did not take the time out to review all the majors open to them. They did not spend enough time reviewing the different majors and career options in order to see if they are a fit with their skills and interests.
Specifically, many graduates stated that they should have spent more time researching what the college they were applying to had to offer in terms of internships, networking opportunities, workforce readiness resources, and job placement partnerships. By choosing a major without understanding the career path attached to it, some ended up working in jobs and careers that were not a good fit for them.
#4 – Putting More Effort Into Networking and Internships
There is an old saying: “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.”. This is not entirely true. If you do not know how to produce at your job and perform what is expected, you will be replaced by someone who will. That being said, there is a tremendous value in building a network of working professionals. You can for example build a network by going to event gatherings and working in several internship opportunities.
A network is valuable because it gives you a list of people to call on throughout your college years, and when you enter the workforce. You can call on these people for things such as advice, references, recommendations, and support if you are applying to a job at their company or similar positions. Graduates tend to not understand the inner workings of networking and therefore, do not understand this value. They wait until they graduate to start building their network. By working to build a network of professionals during college years, it is believed that they would have made better decisions regarding their careers and had more job opportunities open to them.
#5 – Having A “Figure It Out Later” Attitude
I will figure it out later. We have all said this at some point in our life. This is easy to say when we are faced with a complicated challenge that we do not want to think about at the moment. In the case of college graduates, this type of thinking allowed them to continue pushing off the difficult choices of life further down the road rather than taking the time to make plans and calculated decisions. They decided to postpone learning about the real world, discovering their passions, figuring out what they were looking for in a college, increasing their financial literacy and a whole host of other things that could have better prepared them for what was next in life. Instead, they said they would figure it out later.
In conclusion, many graduates wish they could go back in time and re-do college knowing what they know now. Lucky for you, you now know all of this and can begin taking steps to do something about it.
About the author
Kyle Grappone is the founder of To The Next Step, an educational coaching and services company designed to prepare students for the next steps in life including college, entering the workforce and the real world. He offers several student focused services including one on one coaching and on-demand courses. To learn more about college regrets, click here to download the FREE eBook.
