In preparation to answer this question, I also thought it would be beneficial to call on some young professionals. A call went out on Facebook. I'll share some of their advice, which is very direct in some cases.
Whenever I'm asked a question for this column, I always do some research because I don't want to give you the same old advice that you can find through a Web search. In my research, I came across survey results of "college graduates' perceptions of the differences between college and work." The results were shared in a book called The Senior Year Experience by John N. Gardner, Gretchen Van der Veer and associates. Although the copyright on the book is 1998, the comparisons are still timely and help to organize my comments.
Here are what I think are the most relevant "senior year" comparisons. The comments after each set of comparisons are mine. If they are from young professionals, the information is attributed and quoted.
Frequent, quick and concrete feedback (e.g., grades, etc.) in college vs. Infrequent and less precise feedback in the workplace
Bosses always intend to give their employees feedback and know that offering praise for good work is very important to the motivation of their employees, but when there are so many projects that need attention and meetings to attend, it's feedback, especially positive feedback, that seems to disappear from some work environments. The worse case scenario is that you might receive feedback from your boss only during your annual performance review.
It is said of millennials, your generation, that you need a lot of feedback and reassurance. I hope you have a boss who will give you some regular feedback, but asking your boss for feedback too frequently might make you look insecure. To avoid this, you might want to find a mentor who can discuss your work with you once a month or quarterly. Even meeting with a mentor and your boss, though, probably won't provide you with the same level of feedback you received on your work in college.
In the end, you'll have to learn to assess your own work so that you can do better with each assignment and increase your ability to work independently or in groups.
Highly structured curriculum and programs with lots of direction in college vs. Highly unstructured environment and tasks with few directions in the workplace
In college you're learning so directions come with your assignments. In fact, that's how professors can fairly evaluate your work. Did you follow instructions and how well did you execute? In the professional world, your boss will give you some general guidance and give you a deadline.
Your boss, unlike your professors, also won't tell you to take notes when they're talking with you. Take notes whenever you're getting a new assignment. You'll remember what you were told and avoid annoying your boss later when you ask him or her to repeat what he or she just told you. In fact, take notes all the time.
Finally your boss should give you a deadline for your work. If not, ask for one. When a deadline is given, note it, and don't expect your boss to remind you of the deadline. I had a professional recently complain to me about what a new college graduate said to him when he missed a deadline. The conversation went like this – Boss: Why did you miss the deadline? New graduate: You didn't remind me. Again, don't expect to be reminded about deadlines.
Flexible schedule in college vs. Structured schedule in the workplace
College students' schedules are jam-packed with a great variety of activities, but as a college student you picked and chose what you wanted to do – even whether you'd go to class.
When you go to work, you'll be expected to be at work for at least 40 hours a week. You also will work a regular set of hours, e.g., 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. or 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. – plus more than 40 hours some weeks. You might even work some weekends, depending on the demands of a project or your job. Any day you miss work is tracked.
In school, some days started later than others, or the whole day might have been free. And unless you had professors who penalized you for absences, you were free to come and go as you wished.
Adjusting to a 40-hour week can be a challenge. As one student once said to me, "College didn't prepare me to work 40 hours a week."
Frequent breaks and time off in college vs. Limited time off in the workplace
You'll have some of the same holidays off that you had in college, but no more semester breaks, summer breaks, fall breaks or spring breaks. In a job you might receive a week's worth of vacation after six months and two weeks after a year. You might not be able to take any time off for the first six months unless you negotiated it at the time of your hiring. Then when you've been on the job for three to five years or more, you might get a third week off for vacation. The other option is that you might have so many personal days that are used for sickness, doctors' appointments and vacation.
In college, even if you went to summer school, you probably still had about eight weeks away from classes.
Next, you might not get to take your vacation when you want to. Your boss might tell you no. Bosses have that option. When you want to go on vacation, try to keep in mind that you need to ask your boss's permission to take vacation. It's not wise to just tell your boss you will be on vacation such-and-such week. It doesn't always go over well.
Use common sense, too, when you ask for vacation. Think about what's happening in your department or company when you might be gone. It might not be a good time to take vacation.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you probably won't be able to have extra time off around the holidays every year. One year you might have time off at the end of the year, but the next year, it will be another co-worker's turn.
Finally, don't say in an interview how you took time off after college graduation because you were tired. Also, avoid saying that you need to take a vacation before you start work because college wore you out. When I have a student make such a comment to me, I say: "If you think you were busy in college, wait until you go to work."
If you travel after graduation, stress how you wanted to learn more about other cultures or see other parts of the United States, how the travel helped to build your character and how it was a great way to wrap up your college career.
If you get a job offer, you have to pull yourself together and start when the company wants you. A graduate student I know had been living in Indiana for two years, was from Iowa, but got a job offer on a Friday and had to be in Washington, D.C., to start work the next Monday. He did it!
Personal control over time, classes and interests in college vs. Responding to others' directions and interests in the workplace
In college you were your own boss. For the most part, you decided what you would do when. In the workplace, there will always be a part of any position where you are doing what you are asked to do and responding to others' needs. And you'll usually have to negotiate with others about deadlines. You won't have total control over what needs to be done or when work is presented.
As you progress in your career and if you want more control over the projects you work on, you'll learn to make proposals for projects that interest you. If you can sell your boss on your ideas, then you'll get to work on those projects vs. other people's projects.
Another point is that some of your projects will take much longer to complete than your projects in college. You will no longer measure projects by the length of a quarter or semester. You just have to keep working on a project until it is completed to everyone's satisfaction – whether it takes days, weeks, months or more than a year.
Choose your performance level (A, B, and so on) in college vs. A-level work required all the time in the workplace
In college you might decide a course isn't worth going for an A. OK, that's your choice, and maybe that worked for you. In your career, however, you always will want to do your best work at all times.
If you hand sloppy work to your boss, thinking that he or she will clean it up and tell you what more needs to be done, you might get away with this a couple of times, but the boss will eventually tell you that your work is not acceptable and toss it back to you to fix. If the boss has to keep doing this, he or she might ask, Why did I hire this person?
On the other hand, if you were an A student in college, heed this alumna's advice: "I'd encourage new grads to be respectful of all and to seek advice from mentors. They will need to 'get over' being an A student. No one cares on the job!"
I would add that the grades you earned in college are important and will open doors for you should you decide to go to graduate school, but grades from college are not always predictors of success in the workplace. School and work are different environments as you are learning.
Focus on your development and growth in college vs. Focus on getting results for the organization in the workplace
Businesses don't have the luxury that they once did to train people on the job. With tight budgets and competitive environments, they now need to hire people who know what they are doing and can get results immediately. Learning now will be primarily on your own time.
Learning never stops. Among the responses I received from young alumni, one young professional said, "... I took it upon myself to learn the skills that have made me an invaluable part of my team. I learned Final Cut Pro, Dreamweaver and a couple of other programs by renting books from the library and checking out free tutorial sites like www.tutvid.com."
Another good Web site to learn software programs is http://www.lynda.com. There is a small fee to access online tutorials.
Another young professional said, "Take the time to learn and re-learn any and every obscure thing you can do in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. I don't know how many times my boss and HER boss have asked me to do things ...." Make yourself a valuable member of the team.
You also might consider taking continuing education classes at a local university to supplement your knowledge. Reading trade publications about your career helps, too. Reading in general is important. Read about trends, public policy issues and biographies of successful people.
Maintaining a professional membership in the American Marketing Association and other professional organizations is a good way to continue your education. If you're lucky, maybe your company will pay your membership dues and/or help you attend regional and/or national conferences. Try to negotiate such perks at the time you are hired.
"Right" answers in college vs. Few "right" answers in the workplace
When there are problems to solve in the workplace, there are usually several options.
There may be few right answers, only best answers. How problems are solved in the workplace involve input from a lot of different people at different levels of the organization. As a result, arriving at a best answer can take hours, days or weeks. When you've just graduated college, this process can be painful, and the decisions puzzling. In school, solutions for the most part are right or wrong, and you know after your professor reviews your work – usually just once.
Another aspect of the concept of "few 'right' answers" in the workplace is that each business has its own way of operating. I remind students before they go on their internships that there are many different ways to achieve the same or similar results. So when they are on their internships, I hope they don't say: Well, that's not how we did it at school. Such comments usually don't go over well.
Remember, there can be a multitude of ethical and effective ways to achieve the same results.
Independence of ideas and thinking in college vs. Do it the organization's way in the workplace
You start your first professional job, and you think you have some really good ideas, but when you discuss them with your boss, you're told that is not how things are done here.
Ugh! I think all professionals hate that statement, but it still gets used. How can you deal with this? You need patience. First, you need to prove that you are a capable young professional so people will listen better to your ideas, which always need to be well supported. Next, you need to stay with the company long enough so you can be present when policies are reviewed. At this point, maybe you can change how something is done.
A young professional wrote to me: "Tell the new grads to: 1) stop being so darned 'me first' oriented and 2) stop expecting to start at the top and 3) be humble and willing to do 'whatever it takes' to be honest and ethical and to help others on the job."
Less initiative required in college vs.Lots of initiative required in the workplace
Besides always performing at your best level, your boss won't tell you every move to make. You need to make sure that you consistently contribute to the operations of your department or company. Instead of waiting to receive an assignment from your boss as you would from a professor, you need to volunteer for work or ask how you can help.
If you aren't working eight hours a day and need something more to do, you need to tell your boss. You also might use some of the time you aren't on a deadline to write a proposal for a project you'd like to take responsibility for. If it's part of the corporate culture, maybe you can spend some time each week reading materials and trade publications, such as those available from the AMA, that will help you in your job. If not, read on your own time.
More advice for the workplace
Some other issues that alumni have sent me messages about are as follows:
–Be flexible. A major in marketing or advertising qualifies you for a broad range of opportunities, e.g., public relations. A young professional who majored in journalism shared she hasn't set foot in a newsroom. She's been part of communication staffs in political campaigns since graduation.
–Set goals for yourself. Another young professional said: "When you're younger, you have pre-set goals set out for you. Do well in high school so you can get into a good college. Do well in college so you can get a good job. Do well in your job so you can ... retire? Setting goals give you that sense of accomplishment you need to keep your sanity. Without it, you just start to feel like you're stuck, possibly doing something you don't love, forever. ... Take the time at your current job to figure out what you do and don't like about your job. You don't need to know 100% what you want to do with your life, but use that time to start making a list of the things you like and strengthen those skills to find your 'dream job.'"
–Assess how well you interact with strangers or clients on the phone and in person. A recent college graduate was described by her boss as not being comfortable interacting on the phone or in person with clients. This new professional told her boss that when she was in school, she was always with a group when she worked on a project or with a client. Now she's on her own. While you were in college, did you let others do the work that you didn't like to do? Now you'll have to get those experiences on the job
–Avoid saying, I'm so busy. Everyone is busy. Try: I know you're busy, and I'm really busy, too ....
–Stop using pens to write important information on your hand or arm. Use your pens to write on paper, and take them wherever you go so you're always prepare to take notes.
–Don't flirt. Some new graduates go into this mode because they've done it with their professors and others forever.
–Check how loud you talk. It can be too loud. I recently had a student tell me that her interviewers told her that she talked too loud during their interview.
–Talk, but not too much, especially to co-workers. Work is a place for work, and some new graduates socialize too much in the workplace. Save it for lunch or after work get-togethers. Avoid talking about your private life.
–Be a good listener, too.
–Leave your college social life on campus. Don't let your guard down at company social events. Conduct yourself as though you are still in the office. Even outside of the office, it can be a small world, and you never know who might see you acting unprofessionally. Leaving your college social life behind also means developing a regular sleep pattern. Some professors are leniently about letting students sleep or dose in class. People who sleep on the job or dose through meetings are good candidates to be fired.
–In connection with talking, the slang you use with your friends and how you address your friends should not be used in the workplace, e.g., "I feel ya" (Just say: I understand.), "Thanks, dude," or "Thanks, man." (Just say: Thanks.). Saying one word over and over, such as "awesome," also might be perceived as immature or inappropriate.
–Ask for a copy of the workplace dress code if one hasn't been shared with you. More than likely you'll have to buy some new clothes for work. You probably can't wear what you wore to class or the college bars.
–Ask about the use of cell phones and iPods in the workplace. If you are allowed to use your iPod in the workplace, avoid "ear spray." Others should not be able to hear what you're listening to.
–Review dining etiquette. There are videos at your local library you can watch, as well as a number of books you can consult. You're going to find yourself attending business lunches or business outings that will require you to exhibit good manners. We're all victims of fast food.
–Join LinkedIn, a professional networking site. You can promote yourself, make professional connections, join groups and more.
My final piece of advice is to encourage you to stay in touch with your department and university after you graduate. We like to follow your career. We like for you to visit and share your experiences with us.
If you want more information on this topic, put these keywords, "college to work transition" or "twenty-something" blogs, in your favorite search engine.
I also encourage you to read Robert L. Dilenschneider's book, The Critical 14 Years of Your Professional Life. Even though Dilenschneider is a leader in the field of public relations, his words of wisdom are sound advice for all new college graduates beginning their professional careers.
Finally, thanks to the young professionals who shared their words of wisdom with me – and you.