I Just Graduated College – What the F* Do I Do Now? 

Introduction: The Existential Crisis of Graduating College

Graduating college will bring on one of the greatest existential crises you’ll have in your life. And it totally makes sense. You’ve spent the past 20+ years in school where there’s teachers, a syllabus, due dates, and overall a general predictability and routine. 

That all vanishes as soon as you graduate though. Next thing you know, you’re deciding what to do with your life. Not your parents and not your teachers. It solely rests on you. 

This newfound freedom can be amazing, but it can also bring an uncontrollable amount of dread, since change is scary. And graduating and going into the “real world” is one of the scariest things you’ll go through in your 20s.

But have no fear. At Quarter Life Co. we’ve been there, and we’ll talk you through exactly how to navigate this crisis. And come out the other side ready to conquer this new phase of your life. 

Why Graduating Feels Like an Existential Crisis

Your Brain Hates Uncertainty

Let’s first validate the feelings you’re going through right now. You’re probably scared of the future. Anxious you don’t have a job yet. Petrified of the fact you have to get a 9-5 and seemingly work till the day you die. And don’t have the confidence you’ll be able to figure out this thing called life. 

This is so normal to have these feelings of doubts and anxieties for your future, especially after just graduating. And it makes sense. Being an adult is completely new to you. You’ve been a student your whole life. With a set routine, system, and predictability, which your brain loves. But as an adult, all of that washes away. Without that predictability, your brain start to panic, because now it can’t predict the future like it used to be able to. Because being a full fledged adult is so new to it. 

The Post-College Identity Crisis

You’re also going through a bit of an identity crisis. For your whole life thus far, your identity has been as a student and what your parents instilled in you. But now that you’re on your own in the real world, you have to forge your own identity. What does success mean to you? What kind of person do you want to be? What direction do you want your life to go? 

This is what we call the post-grad identity crisis. Here you question your sense of self, purpose, and future. So how do you get through this? You collect data points and experience. As you move through your 20s, your identity will become clearer and solidify as you gain more knowledge of yourself and the world around you. But you must put in the work to collect those experiences. 

Also, what has school prepared you for? It’s ideally prepared you for a career, but it hasn’t prepared you for adulthood. So really you have no training in being an adult. This is all so new, and much like when you were learning a new topic in math class, there’s going to be a lot of growing pains. So at the end of the day, you just graduated college and now you’re a new adult. It’ll take time to settle in. 

The Grief of Leaving College Behind

You may have gained a degree, but the loss that comes with graduation is profound. You’re likely leaving behind close friends. Routines you enjoyed. That Taco Bell Cantina near your college. And this loss can hurt. It might feel like you’re losing your whole world when you graduate. But trust me you’ll go on to make a new world wherever you are. New friends, new routines, and new favorite restaurants. 

So… What Should You Actually Do Now

You Don’t Need To Have Life Figured Out

The first thing to do is understand that you don’t have to have it all figured out. What your 20s really for is to figure it out. Just think about it logically, what in your past experience has given you the expertise to truly know the path you want to go down. School simply won’t prepare you to really find who you want to be and what you want to do. Only the school of life can truly prepare you for that. So the learning you’re going to be able to do in your 20s will be profound, just make sure to take advantage of it. 

So how to take advantage of it exactly. We’ll show you how: 

Experiment Aggressively With Your Life

Don’t settle! Especially so early on in your 20s. During this decade, you want to collect as many data points as possible. This helps you form your identity, and have a clearer of sense of what you want your life to be. Data points in your relationships, career, and hobbies. So travel a ton, try different jobs, meet different people. 

The beauty of being in your 20s is that contrary to what you’re telling yourself, no one expects you to have it all figured out. You can mess up a ton, stumble and it’ll still be acceptable, since you’re a baby adult. So if experimenting with your life causes some failure in your 20s, big deal! 

Here’s some ideas for tangible experiments with your life you can make that could pay off big time:

1. Try two different industries before 26
2. Move to a new city 
3. Go all in on one high-income skill
4. For the whole year go on at least one date a month
5. Train for a marathon 

The point is to do things that push you and get you out of your comfort zone. That’s when you really find out who you are and build yourself as a person. 

Get Financially Stable Early

To add onto the experiment with your life point, it feels much better to do that when you have some financial stability. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy, but a 3 month emergency fund, investing early (check out our article on how to start investing), and building financial discipline like living below your means will make the experimentation with your life less stressful.  

Don’t Wait For The Perfect Job

This happens a lot to fresh grads. They expect to have their dream job right off the bat. The reality is that this goal is misguided. Firstly, it’s hard to know exactly what a dream job is to you straight out of college. You have to start somewhere, and looking for the perfect job will only keep you unemployed longer, losing precious time in developing skills and experience you can leverage in the future. 

Taking imperfect action is better than taking no action at all. Especially in our early 20s, we have a tendency to overthink things. 

Avoid Moving Back Home (If You Can)

After graduation, you want to keep the momentum of life. Moving back home stalls progress, puts you back into old habits and lack of independence that you likely worked so hard at during college. 

It may be tempting to move back home, save money, get home cooked meals. But the growth you’ll experience from living away from family as you grow your early career cannot be understated. 

Chase Skills and Experiences Over Prestige and Money 

You know how you end up 35 in a job you hate, but with golden handcuffs you can’t get out of? It’s by chasing the money in your 20s over the skills you actually want to get good at and make a career from. 

My first job out of college I chased the money. A 6 figure engineering job. But I realized that if I keep at this job, my skills will develop within engineering, which is not the career I wanted. So I took a pay cut to do sales, which was the true skill I wanted to develop and form into a career.  

Sure I gave up money early on, but I was able to develop skills in a career that I wanted, which will enable me to make more money in the future because I have more passion for this career, as well as not pigeon hole me into a path I never really wanted. 

Don’t Jump on The Hamster Wheel Too Early

It’s hard to lose sight of this when you dream of success in your life, but right now you’re so early in the game. 

If an alternative, unconventional path is calling your name right now, jump on it. You’ll never have this much youth, energy, and freedom ever again. 

That backpacking trip you wanted to take, that foreign country you wanted to live in, that business you wanted start. Don’t put all these big dreams on hold because the opportunity might not present itself as well as it is right now. 

What Not To Do After Graduation

Don’t compare yourself to the LinkedIn and Instagram highlight reels. 

Don’t drift for a year just “figuring it out”. Make moves fast.

Don’t be so picky with your first job. That’s how you end up unemployed for months on end. Move cities for the job if you have to.

Don’t chase prestige and money over skill development in an area you care about.

Don’t neglect chasing new experiences while you’re young and have freedom

Conclusion: Graduating College Is Scary

Graduating college will shake your identity. It’s a tough transition. 

You’re stepping into a phase of life where there’s no syllabus, no grades, and no clear rubric for success. And that uncertainty can be terrifying.  

But if you follow the perspective and advice outlined in this article, you’ll come out with a clearer sense of who you are and where you want to go. 

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