So you have graduated, now what? Perhaps you are interested in graduate school and taking your education further. Perhaps you need a job. If you are not a citizen you may be on an F-1 VISA and need to get going with a job of some sort to continue your VISA through the OPT training program. Over the years I have spoken and worked with many students (and been in your position about what to do next). Completing undergraduate education, one is in a unique position. You have been very focused on fulfilling one requirement after another toward the goal of the degree. Suddenly you have it and the school sort of sends you out the door. You have to figure out where to go from here. First, take heart! You have so much potential ahead, so many possibilities. While that can be daunting, it's also exciting and interesting.
I'll be adding to this over time.
Of course, these are only suggestions and thoughts. Please take or ignore the advice here at your own risk, there are no guarantees expressed or implied. The hope is that there is some helpful information here.
Reach out to companies, faculty, other graduate and undergraduate students. Attend your local university job fair. I casually attended while a graduate student regularly and almost every time had at least one company attempt to recruit me or at the very least found useful links. Boldly chat with every representative you can. Relax and be yourself (professional self of course). Don't put too much pressure on the situation, consider it practice for interviewing.
Spend time carefully crafting a CV that can be sent quickly out. You might need a few different ones if you are interdisciplinary like me. I have a Robotics one, a Design one, a Control Theory one, a Data Science one, a Machine Learning one, etc. But start with a single general CV you refine to have just enough information that is laid out well, clean, and get feedback from a professional, career services, etc.
Practice your interview skills. Practice your body posture, don't fidget, learn how to express yourself clearly. Practice telling about yourself professionally and your goals - a five minute, one minute and 30-second version (also do this with your research if you are a graduate student).
Each time you put something out in the world, pay attention to the feedback. When you interview, if it does not succeed, spend a little time analyzing what happened, try to get some feedback from the other person if possible, but also think back - did I clearly express myself, did I not answer a question well, was I unprepared, how did I dress (t-shirt and shorts not appropriate for an interview for example)? Do not stress yourself out but always strive to gain some knowledge and then each experience will help you.
If it works out, great. If not, it is important to be polite. Thank the interviewer, send a letter thanking them for the opportunity to interview with them. You never know if that will lead to something but being negative or harsh at the company will only be harmful for your reputation. It's best to keep negative judgments to yourself (this can be difficult, but you can do it!). Spend some time reading about politeness, polite gestures, polite postures, polite eating (in case they take you for lunch), etc. You want to demonstrate that you are going to be an asset and a pleasure to have around, and that you will enhance the company not the other way around. Negative things have a way of coming back at you, so be careful about bad mouthing, criticizing etc. You can always see the negative in any situation but that means you can also see the positive.
Be mindful of red flags that may appear when seeking employment. In my experience, any time a company, university, or individual acts as if you are lucky they are considering you, they are planning on not treating you well or otherwise taking advantage of you. Sometimes it is not easy to observe at the time of a discussion, but later when you think back upon it, if you hear those kinds of statements - "This is really your only option" or "You are really lucky, this is very competitive" or "Everybody starts at the bottom" or "We will start with this low salary/temporary position and once you prove yourself we will pay you more or offer a longterm contract" or similar, it's not a positive sign from them. Be very very careful in such situations. Just because a place is a large company, is prestigious, is a university, or otherwise has a good reputation it does NOT mean they intend to treat you well. I do not believe in publicly criticizing so I will not make specific statements regarding these experiences of who or where, but I have at times been very suprised at the behavior of institutions I had supported for many years at times. With experience you will get better at spotting these sorts of issues. Again when you have an experience, good or bad, think back on all that transpired and learn everything you can. Avoid bitterness as that just harms you and holds you back.
Trust your instincts, even if it does not seem logical. You'll get better at having and noticing your inner response to the situation over time and with experience. I have definitely had times where logically a particular job seemed like the right thing to accept or pursue and my inner self was screaming at me, but I attributed it to being unsure. Now I pay closer attention to my inner response and feeling while going through the process of connecting with a new client/job/situation.
This seems like it would be unrelated to success with your career, but if you take care of your physical and mental health, you will find tremendous advantage. A healthy mind - as in work through inner conflicts, depression, anxiety or other issues - allows you to more accurately gauge professional situations without projecting your inner issues. Additinally, when you are under stress and have to perform, if you have inner conflicts those will come up and interfere with your work, your interviewing, etc. Similarly if you eat well and exercise, take care of your body, you'll find your brain will function better (this is well researched), you'll have more energy, and can handle physical demands when another person might not. When I taught in 2023 at UCSD, I was given nearly no preparation time (a matter of a few days before the class started they made me an offer), there was a TA strike, it was a holiday leading up to the class and campus was closed as were the administrative departments, the administration of the department was changing people so nobody could answer my questions, the DataHub system was not functioning correctly, they didn't create my access until some time into the quarter, and there were other challenges. I also had 800+ students, so as you can imagine I had tremendous physical and psychological demands. I not only was creating slides and structuring my courses as I went, but was also meeting students morning till as late as 1am. I also had two small children depending on me to be present for them. But working on my health - mind and body, I was able to meet the demand. At times I had to sleep two hours a night for a week to make it work, but for the short term I could do that due to my overall health. I took on that demand to help the students bacause it was meaningful for me. Over the longterm one should of course sleep properly and work in a balanced way, but one has demand cycles where one needs to meet the challenges one is faced with.
I also suggest avoiding smoking, alcohol and drugs as these things ultimately become a distraction and damage your health as well as those around you. You will also find you can be uninhibited when appropriate, find your relaxation and relieve stress in other ways that are healthier. Seek an inner center, not an external crutch, external crutches are illusions.
Additionally the healthier you are mind/body/spirit the better your inner intuition will be - the more accurate and the less you'll be projecting from inside onto the situation. Your decisions will be more clear.
It is a lifelong process and habit to get into to seek a healthy mind and body but it's worth it many times over. Many people who did not resolve these issues had potential in history to do much more, but self-destructed in various ways. Do not be another like that.