In
my last article we’ve discussed what influences
our happiness how the transition from studying
to working often ends up in a decreased level
of happiness. Ideally you finish your studies
exactly the way you wanted and get exactly
the great job you dreamt of.
There’s
several ways to find out the answer to the
question "What am I going to do after
I graduate". The most convenient way
to answer is to let yourself surprise and
react to whatever the future holds for you
when you graduate. A more result-oriented
way, usually associated with much higher benefits
and personal satisfaction, is to shape your
future pro-actively from the start of your
studies. You can do this by formulating a
vision statement and developing a strategy
for your studies. This is hugely valuable
and helps you answer the question on what
you’re going to do after your studies much
more accurately. This way you can sleep well,
enjoy the peace of mind and avoid becoming
increasingly nervous towards the end of studies.
Let’s
talk about this vision statement for a second
here. Your statement could be anything and
could sound like “I want to become a Chief
Financial Officer of a Dow Jones listed company”.
The vision statement should be long-term in
nature and as challenging as you like it to
be. You don’t necessarily need a vision to
formulate a strategy. Without a vision, though,
you run the risk that a strategy for your
studies will be ineffective, potentially leading
you in a direction you will regret in the
long-run. If you develop a strategy, for example,
which outcome is not aligned with your overall
vision you might end up developing the wrong
skill set. When I started studying I envisioned
myself to be a successful Chief Executive
Officer of a mid-size company. Every few months
I sit down and revise that vision and the
strategies I put in place to achieve the milestones,
which I need to cover to become that man in
my vision.
Having
set the vision it is now time to formulate
a strategy. A Strategy is basically a formalised
plan of action, encompassing a set of defined
tangible goals that you can track and measure
over time. In my example, I decided that my
major goals were to learn to speak Polish
fluently, finish my Bachelor Degree on time,
don’t fail any subject and have an above average
grade point average. Those were my personal
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which I
kept track of throughout my studies. On top
of that I was assigned additional KPIs specified
by my school, such as you have to finish Business
English Level 3, do 200 hours of practical
work experience related to my course, etc.
About half-way through my degree and after
a few hundred hours of working in a waste
management company, a bank, a utility provider,
and a consulting company, I revised my initial
strategy and its KPIs, raising the bar significantly
– I even added new measures, i.e. Number of
months working in an international job / at
least one completed post-graduate degree/
etc . The main reason for change and modification
was that my strategy and my short term vision
were not aligned anymore. I had changed and
developed a sense on what I want to do in
the future. I realized that my grade point
average and overall job experience was not
sufficient to compete with my peers for the
same job.
So
what can help you determine the right strategy
for your studies? This is usually the question
that students, who are starting to study,
struggle with the most with. Without proper
guidance and actual knowledge on what a certain
type of work actually means it is very hard
to determine the most appropriate strategy.
Here are some activities that, if you complete
them, will help you establish and refine your
study strategy:
- Complete
a few Internships – work experience
will give you real-life feeling regarding
a specific job. Try to get a holistic view
on how companies operate by working in/
across several different departments along
the value chain of a company. This will
enable you to form an accurate assessment
of work you like and dislike. If you finish
your studies and you haven’t worked a day,
nobody is going to be able to tell you if
you want to work in a certain industry/
position/ country/ etc or not.
- Choose
one or more Role-Models – A role
model is probably the best way to determine
a strategy. It’s the simplest way of finding
out what needs to be done and is based on
our basic learning ability to imitate. Research
your role model’s skills, background, achievements
and the chronological order of events that
led him/ her to where he/she is today.
- Actively
see Guidance – Try to network as
much as possible, with people that do a
job that you’re interested in. Seek advise
from them, opinion on their jobs, their
story and how they got the jobs, and/ or
even opportunities to do an internship with
their company.
- Compare
yourself against Peers that Achieve – See
how your peers, co-students, friends are
coping with the preparation for “what comes
after you graduate”. You will notice that
some are doing nothing about it, some will
actively try, but fail, and then there is
a group of
In
the next article we will specifically look into
the topic of work experience. After all it is
one of the biggest contributors to your ability
to successfully determine and adapt any study
strategy you might have.