If I knew then what I know now...

Matthew Yu
BComm/BA'07, Business and Economics

The first thing I would say is go on vacation because once you start working it’s really hard to take vacations so make sure you take some time off and relax, enjoy life before you start gong into the real world

Second thing is everything you learn in school doesn’t necessarily apply to work. A lot of things you learn don’t really matter. I notice there are a lot of people who come into the workforce and they follow the text book, the text book way isn’t always the practical way of doing things.

And the last thing, I’ve learned that if you get a 85 per cent at school you are an A student, congratulations. But at work, if you perform 85 per cent you’re basically a piece of crap. It’s not good enough.

Sylvia Lole
BComm'07, Accounting

Now that I am working, I realize that I did really enjoy school compared to work. Also I think I should have thought more about looking for career that had more work/life balance.

Joanna Pesta
BA'08, Sociology

Travel! I definitely took the advantage of travelling for a few months which I really enjoyed. And, don’t be surprised if people are confused about a degree in Sociology. They say “Oh you’re in social work” when they’re completely different faculties!. It’s frustrating explaining to people what my degree is and what my skills are.

Sarah Chui
BSc'08, Civil Engineering

Take some time for yourself, be it traveling or just taking a few weeks to relax before diving into your career. It's a great opportunity to relax and reflect on what it is you want to do with the tools – that is the newly minted degree -- you now have.

And, keep in touch with your classmates. It's always good to have friends in the same industry so that you can stay tuned into the big picture and be aware of the different opportunities available to you, etc.

Fiona Bensler
BA'08, Communication and Culture

I think that going to university is a great thing, and education is powerful, but the environment is a lot different outside of it and it is important to know the worth of your own degree and be able to be proud of what you have accomplished.

I think that it would be helpful to the almost graduating student to somehow find the time in between studying (and possibly working) to do some soul searching and begin to sketch out a career path, or to know what kind of work he or she would like to do once school is over. I wish I had done this kind of thinking while I was still doing classes, but I found myself too much in the headspace of school, to think about possible future jobs using my degree.

David Kopp
BSc'08, Electrical Engineering

Not much wisdom gained yet other than: try to be very, very flexible about that first job and keep applying until you find the one that you think is right for you. Work your connections to get your first job and keep trying.

Ryan Smith
BA'08, Economics

I wish I knew that I needed some experience to get a job in my field. So I really wish I had done an internship or started working at a student job during university, or just doing more office sort of things that were related to my degree.

Michelle (Bergeron) Fatica
BMus'01, BEd'03

(Specifically for teachers-in-training) Don't be too picky when you get hired by a board - take the first job offered to you and be happy with it. After you gain a year or two of experience then you can apply for more personally pleasing position and be more picky. Whether you have elementary/middle or senior high experience, teaching kids is the same regardless of age. Get your permanent certificate before you start getting picky with particular jobs. Enjoy teaching - it is wonderfully rewarding, even if it is extremely hard work.

Ella Stinson
BA'06

I graduated from UofC in April 2006, and the best advice I ever received was don’t enter the work force right away if you can help it! So I didn’t! School can be hard and stressful, and sometimes you need a break to reward yourself for all your hard work, so I went to South America for a month and backpacked around Brazil and Venezuela and it was great. At the end of that month I didn’t mind starting my new job, and I felt refreshed and full of ideas! It probably sounds cliché telling people to travel, but it’s important to gain perspective and celebrate a milestone like graduation.

Marion Stewart
BA'06

Don’t wait until you are done your courses to work on your thesis research and writing! Believe it when your supervisors tell you that it will be more difficult to do it later (no matter how busy you feel). Once courses are done, it is easy to get busy with all the aspects of life that you have put on hold during your masters (and PhD I expect) and then it is difficult to motivate oneself to sit down and do it! I know. I’m there right now! I was going to do it the summer after courses were done, then the next semester, and now I’m into the winter semester. It goes by before you know it!

Rose Keates
BA'04

If you're lucky enough to know what you want to do, pursue it early and actively. Volunteer in related work, demonstrate interest by attending relevant events, meet and talk to people whose jobs you would want or who you would like to work alongside. After completing a university degree "you can do anything" is still true. Never see your degree as a limit on future opportunities.

Anonymous by request
BComm'02

Network! Sure it sucks, but you’ll get a much better position and will move up faster than you would by just casting the resume net.

Let your relatives get you a job. Don’t let pride or a sense of wanting to “make it on your own” get in the way of getting started. With little to know experience, your relatives may be able to help you get your foot in the door at the fifth floor instead of the mailroom (no offense to people who work in the mailroom – just trying to draw an analogy here, folks).

Don’t worry if you don’t land your dream job right out of school! Much of the time, you’ll find that your “dream” job would have been more of a nightmare anyway. It’s more important to land something that will give you a ton of responsibility and experience. Investing a few years in a job like that will catapult you to senior positions much faster than starting at a slightly higher position that doesn’t challenge you.

When looking for a job, increase your scope and follow your passion. If you majored in marketing, you can leverage that to do many things other than marketing. When searching job sites or networking, don’t be myopic. Consider anything that gets your blood pumping. I majored in finance, but followed one of my passions and am now a video game producer, having more fun and working fewer hours than I would have in a finance job (and I’m probably getting paid just as much too!).

The money will follow. Do what you love, do it well, and the money will come. There’s no need to buy a BMW right out of school. Sure it would be nice, but don’t worry if all your friends are making more money than you. If you do something you love, you will be good at it, you’ll move up the industry faster, and the paychecks will follow. Your friend will probably still be driving that same BMW while you’re jetting off to open a new international branch for the company you founded.

Take risks while you can. Granted, you may have student loans to pay off, but there will come a time when you will have too many obligations to take risks. That’s when you’ll need to settle for something you don’t really like, because you’ll have a mortgage to pay, kids to feed, etc.

If you want to go to post-graduate school, do it sooner rather than later. If you don’t, your options will become limited by financial obligations, relationships, and life in general. If you want to go to post-graduate school but don’t have the grades, don’t fret! Many programs look at all aspects of a candidate, including work history and life experience, and many require some sort of written statement. Be convincing and you‘ll stand a good chance. And look to the US as well – they have much bigger programs (so better odds of being accepted) and offer plenty of scholarship money to international students.

Willemina Stikker-Breemhaar
BA'08, Economics

"Appreciate your schedule! You go to class you do some homework – enjoy the time you spend during the day at home. I procrastinated a lot in university taking two days to think about the paper before I started writing it. If I had actually done it right away I would have had a lot more free time. You can’t procrastinate at work."

Mandy Cookson
BComm'08, Petroleum Land Management

"Once you get into work you think you don’t have any time for events that come about but honestly, it opens up a whole new possibility of different events that you haven’t seen at school. At school, I was always ‘Oh I don’t have time for that, better just push it to the back burner.’ Take part in things in school if you can and when you get out of school don’t just focus on your field. I’m enrolled in kick boxing classes, I’m enrolled in guitar lessons and stuff I’ve always wanted to do and never had the actual time to do it."

Garry Chan
BSc'87

"I wish I had partied more! But seriously, I think I wish I knew that Calgary was a unique place. For some reason I felt I was in the middle of nowhere next to the Rockies and very cold and all that. Looking back over the last 20 years, I came to realize what you guys are trying to do. I should have recognized the sense of self assuredness, the sense of knowing what you are."