Biggest Myths About Your First Job

So you have finally ditched those sweatpants and decided to swap them for more formal attire. You have written a resume and are waking up before noon to find something to do to earn a living. You are searching for your first job out of college. However, you need to find out what you are good at before you approach venture or manpower agency to decide what kind of job to look for.  At this time, you will have to go back and look in your mark sheet to find out which subject you were good at in school and college. A number of false myths are doing the rounds in employment circles about finding a job fresh out of college. This article will try to bust some of those myths.

Myths about your first job

People will care that you are a part of the Dean’s list

Whether you were a star student or a total burnout will have little consequence to your prospective employers if you do not have the skills they require for doing their job. Your GPA will not matter to them if you do not have the relevant experience to show them. At this time, the skills you picked up while studying in school and college will come to your rescue. If you review these skills, they will show you that you were a multi-tasker or a brown noser. For example, I was very good in essay writing during my school days. Therefore, I started content writing on a commercial basis and I am doing well.

Your new job will fulfil you creatively and intellectually, just like college did.

Your job will not start fulfilling you creatively and intellectually, right from day one. For the first six months/or three months, as per the company policy, you will have to do whatever your reporting authority tells you to do. Remember you have been recruited because they want help to do activities that they do not have time to do. Therefore, until you are on probation, you will have to do those activities and show them that you are committed and sincere. Only then will they start giving you work that is intellectually stimulating. Therefore, if you join a job thinking that they will start fulfilling you creatively right from day one, then that would be a mistake.

Your job will be definitely be in the exact field you studied

You will be surprised to note that this is the most falsely perpetrated myth of the century. More often than not, a fresh graduate does not know what field of work he is suitable for. Therefore, either he bases his decisions about his career on how he does in his first job or the money he gets from it. Additionally, he takes up his first job to start earning after getting a qualification. Very rarely will a fresh graduate take up a job in a field he is suitable for. In that, if the graduate has studied in a field he is not suitable for, then it will complicate matters.

Your financial woes will be over

You survived on a meagre pocket money all your college life. You also learnt how to make a killer sandwich with the condiments stolen from the house fridge. Now, you will have a real pay-check. However, your parents will not let you roll in the money that you get. They might  transfer all your liabilities onto you and ask you to fulfil them in your entry level salary (of course for your benefit!). At such times, you really thank god for your office canteen serving free condiments in the break room. Once you get a job, your financial woes will start. This is if you do not budget your expenses.

Freelance job

This is the job hunt to end all job hunts

Sending resumes continuously to prospective employers and receiving no reply and continuously telling yourself that this will get over very soon, once you get your dream job, seems to be the right thing to do when you need to tide over difficult times. However, choosing a career path is like choosing a major to study in college. This is because you might not know you hate something until you give it a shot. Similarly, you might not know you are not good at something until you do it for the first time. Research has indicated that 80% of all workers in their twenties wish to change careers. This means, this decade will be of job seekers who wish to change their careers as frequently as one changes clothes.

Your parents will get off you back now

As soon as you start earning, you will start feeling independent. You will start feeling that your parents will no longer stop you from dating your favourite guy/girl. In addition, you will be allowed to stay out longer than you used to do in your college days.  However, no such thing will happen if your parents are planning to take your help in fulfilling their duties towards you. In other words, if you parents are likely to ask you to bear your own costs in your meagre salary, then all your ideas of having fun with your first salary will have to be kept on the back burner.