A Year After College: Here’s What I Wish I Knew Before Graduation

FemmeFluenceCareer

Sep 10

By Isabella Capponi

“I’m so excited to announce…,” “I’m pleased to say…,” and “I’ll be starting at…” flooded my LinkedIn feed. I was one month into senior year, and it seemed like everybody but me already had a job lined up after graduation. Not to mention the constant questions from friends and relatives: What are you doing after graduation? Where are you living? Do you have a job? Are you going to grad school? Now that I’m a year out of college, I think it’s unreasonable to expect a college senior to have everything figured out. It can be one of the hardest years of college, with theses and final projects, while also being the daunting year when you’re expected to become a real adult.

If you’re in your senior year, ignore the anxiety-inducing questions from your peers and family. Trust me: you don’t need to have your entire life figured out before you graduate.

The Comparison Trap Is Real

My first bit of advice would honestly be to stop reading your LinkedIn feed. However, in order to find a job nowadays, you unfortunately have to read LinkedIn like the Bible. It can be hard and, frankly, annoying to see the dumbest person from your high school announce they’ve accepted a role at McKinsey, JPMorgan…or Gucci. But you don’t know what support, connections, or circumstances helped them get there. Instead of comparing yourself with people who already have jobs lined up, focus on the experience and opportunities you can build for yourself.

Experience Changes Everything

So how do you actually find a job? My biggest piece of advice is to get internship experience if you can. I completed more than five internships throughout college, beginning in my freshman year, and that experience helped me secure a full-time offer after graduation. Even when an internship doesn’t lead directly to a job, it strengthens your resume and gives you practical experience. Internships aren’t only for current students, either. Many people I know completed them after graduation while interviewing for full-time roles. And remember: the experience doesn’t have to match your dream career perfectly to be valuable.

Build Your Portfolio and Network

If you’re entering a creative or marketing field, a website or portfolio is essential. When I interview candidates, their portfolio is the #1 thing I look for in their application because it lets me understand their abilities before we even meet. Today, it’s easier than ever to build a portfolio. Use Canva to create a simple portfolio, or ask Claude to help you plan a basic website, and add your strongest, most impressive school and passion projects. Voila! You have a professional-looking portfolio.

You also need to be on LinkedIn. Use a good headshot and a strong headline, keep your experience accurate and up to date, and add the portfolio you just created. Start connecting with classmates, professors, old high school contacts, and basically anyone you’ve had a meaningful conversation with. You need to reach those 500+ connections somehow. From there, explore what people in your network are doing. Don’t limit yourself to one type of role or put all your eggs in one basket. If something seems even remotely interesting, apply. It’s free! You can also contact alumni from your school who work in industries that interest you and ask for a quick 15-minute call. During those calls, ask about their career journey: where they started, where they are now, and what advice they would give someone beginning a similar path. At the very least, the conversation may inspire you, and it could even lead to a job opportunity. Don’t immediately ask for a job. Start by asking for advice.

Your First Job Isn’t Forever

A large part of senior-year job-search anxiety comes from the fear that you’ll be stuck if you accept a job you don’t like. Your first job doesn’t determine the rest of your career. The number of people I’ve met who started as lawyers and became fashion designers, or started as bankers and are now creative directors, shows that you can change direction throughout your career. This also reinforces the importance of applying to different roles and industries: you may take a job and discover a skill you didn’t know you had. Your first job is truly about learning what you like, what you don’t like, and what you’re good at. The same goes for experience requirements. Even if a role requests three to five years of experience, you can still apply and count relevant internship and part-time experience, provided you describe it accurately.

Apply Before You Feel Ready

The key takeaway is to apply even when you don’t meet every requirement. You never know exactly what an employer is looking for. Look at it this way: let’s say there’s a role open at Ralph Lauren. Your three years of internship experience with a small clothing brand might be more relevant than someone else’s three years of full-time experience at an unrelated company.

If you’re still in college and trying to figure out what to do next, may I suggest applying for an Exhibit Archives fellowship?

I started working as an intern for Exhibit Archives four years ago, and I can proudly say it has opened so many doors for me and helped me get where I am today. An Exhibit Archives fellowship can offer creative freedom, opportunities to write about topics you’re passionate about, travel opportunities, portfolio-building experience, and the chance to work alongside people in the marketing, editorial, and fashion industries. So if you’re a senior and you’re freaking out, I promise you’re not behind. Opportunities are still out there. You may simply need to broaden your horizon.

A year ago, I thought I needed to know exactly where my life was going. Now I realize I just needed to take the next step.