I completely agree with this statement. Nowhere in school are you prepared or told that you will have to manage your career, and no one will do it for you. I think that's the biggest thing left off of this list. Schooling is 12+ years of following steps and getting to the next one is an easy, clear, and direct path that's been laid out for you. The real world has no such thing, often the are not clear paths to get up to the next step, you have to figure this out yourself.
I think another big change from school to working life is that it is easy to get stuck in a "rut", in the sense that life is sometimes the same, day in and out, for months or even years. Yes, in school you are busy and frequently work hard, and often don't have all the time you like. But no matter what, in 4 months, everything is going to be different. Different classes with different people in different buildings. You will meet new people and make new friends and do different work. If you're in a social group in college, some people graduate and leave and new people come every year. It keeps things interesting. The real world doesn't change things up that often, and sometimes that sucks. A lot. I think variety is the spice of life, and I thrive on new and evolving friendships and intellectual problems. Being in a static state can be a drag, but is very very common for most workplaces, and that can spread out to the other activities in your life as well.
So I guess the two items I'd add to the list are:
* nobody is going to tell you how to advance, it's up to you to manage your career/future
*Things such as friendships and workloads can/will become more static, learn how to cope with this, or learn how to mitigate it.
I remember when I was in 7th grade and realized that the working world would be like being in one class for 8 hours and it was somewhat of a panic moment.
Well, it's more accurate to say that the classes aren't defined. You have to create the structure by deciding what's important to you, and you may face opposition from managers who think they know better than you do when it comes to what you should be doing.
If I were running a company, the default assumption would be that employees are autonomous and the manager's role would be advisory, as in, "If you don't know what to work on yet, <X> would be a good place to start. I'll introduce you to the team."
I completely agree with this statement. Nowhere in school are you prepared or told that you will have to manage your career, and no one will do it for you. I think that's the biggest thing left off of this list. Schooling is 12+ years of following steps and getting to the next one is an easy, clear, and direct path that's been laid out for you. The real world has no such thing, often the are not clear paths to get up to the next step, you have to figure this out yourself.
I think another big change from school to working life is that it is easy to get stuck in a "rut", in the sense that life is sometimes the same, day in and out, for months or even years. Yes, in school you are busy and frequently work hard, and often don't have all the time you like. But no matter what, in 4 months, everything is going to be different. Different classes with different people in different buildings. You will meet new people and make new friends and do different work. If you're in a social group in college, some people graduate and leave and new people come every year. It keeps things interesting. The real world doesn't change things up that often, and sometimes that sucks. A lot. I think variety is the spice of life, and I thrive on new and evolving friendships and intellectual problems. Being in a static state can be a drag, but is very very common for most workplaces, and that can spread out to the other activities in your life as well.
So I guess the two items I'd add to the list are:
* nobody is going to tell you how to advance, it's up to you to manage your career/future
*Things such as friendships and workloads can/will become more static, learn how to cope with this, or learn how to mitigate it.