From Campus to Career: Essential Tips for New Grads (Part 3)

Congratulations, you’ve made it to the last installation of our “Campus to Career” series. If you missed our first two blogs, find them here and learn about 10 essential tips for new graduates. For the last part of our series, I asked some highly successful friends and family to share their best piece of advice with someone transitioning from college/university to the “real” world. Here’s what they had to say:

  • Ashton Newhall, Partner at Stepstone Group and Co-Founder of Greenspring Associates: “Focus on building meaningful long-term relationships that are not transactional in nature.”

  • Christy Budnick, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, shares a quote from one of her business partners Tom Petway: “There’s no such thing as a shortcut, not in life or in business. Do the hard work and the results will follow.”

  • Vince Bagni, President at BVE Ventures, LLC: “Don’t focus on results, but focus on what you control, which is your activity. If you do this, the results will take care of themselves.”

  • Richard Waugaman, MD in addition to being my uncle is Georgetown Professor, Training and Supervising Analyst Emeritus for the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, and shares wisdom for those moving on to postgraduate studies: “I should have figured it out for myself, but it might have helped if someone warned me the first year of medical school would be completely unlike my last year of college. A sudden increase from 12 to 40 hours per week of classes, including Saturday morning, plus lots of studying. It required a major shift in my identity. It was part of becoming a medical professional. But it’s been well worth it, getting to spend the last 50 years as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.” Come to think of it, this advice is highly relevant also for those entering the working world!

  • Jessica Bohner, Broker-Owner of Premier Realty Group shares a quote about taking care of yourself in order to best take care of others: “Don’t set yourself on fire to keep others warm.”

  • Thomas Reber, Area Sales Manager for Planet Home Lending: “To have meaningful conversations interview everyone and provide 100% presence during the dialogue. The more interviews, the more opportunities will come your way”

I could write a book about this—and actually, I did. I created a personal development journey for those interested in building better habits early in life. It offers a deeper dive into these topics and 14 others along the way.

Some of these will resonate differently for different people, as we each have unique capacities, strengths, weaknesses, and definitions of success. Get clear on what your idea of success is with an understanding that it may change over time and that’s OK. The earlier you get clarity on what it is for this season will allow you to be proactive and in the direction that will serve you no matter what your goals evolve into.

Thank you for reading, and I hope this is all helpful. I want BIG things for you!


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