What You Learn After the Degree
College teaches you some important lessons, most of which help leverage you in the field you want to be in after you graduate. But some things can't be learned in a classroom—they're learned by doing, by experiencing them yourself. From how to handle money to realizing that the real world kind of sucks, here are 20 hard life lessons a degree won't teach you.
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1. How to Handle Money
College doesn't teach you practical skills, like how to handle money in the real world. Even if you take classes that touch on these subjects, such as business or economics, you'll often realize that it's much more challenging to manage your finances in practical situations.
2. Your Dream Job Might Not Be What You Envisioned
You might have a dream job heading into college—or after graduating—that you've envisioned for a while. While some people may reach those goals and score a position at their dream company, many may realize that the career path they chose isn't exactly the right one for them, which can make starting over seem all the more daunting.
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3. Friends Aren't Always Forever
Even if you went into college with friends you knew from high school, you likely later realized that it takes serious work to continue cultivating these friendships when you're no longer taking the same classes every day. As hard as it is to admit, friends aren't always forever, and you'll inevitably drift apart with some of them.
4. You Can Do Everything Right and Still Fail
School is all about grades: the better you study, the better you'll do on your exams, and the better your marks end up being. In the real world, though, it's not so clear-cut. You might do everything right—the right connections, the right positions, the right workplaces—and still feel like everything's wrong. You might still fail; you might still not meet your goals.
5. Networking Is Crucial
You might have heard of networking events in college and you might have even attended some. But the truth is, most of the time, you're not told about just how important it is to find professional (and non-professional) connections until you're thrust into the real world, expected to know how to get your foot in the door. And once you've missed your chance, it can feel a lot like riding a bicycle for the first time.
6. You Won't Get Anywhere If You Don't Put in the Work
College isn't like high school, and that's a realization you'll likely come to during your freshman year. In high school, you might skimp on studying and still get a decent mark. In college and beyond? You won't get anywhere without putting in the work. In a way, college might teach you this, but you're probably too busy partying to take it seriously.
7. Most People Aren't Thinking About You
When you're young, whether you'd like to admit it or not, you're probably worried about what others think of you. You're worried about what they think about the people you're friends with, the clothes you wear, the career you have. In college, this feeling is amplified. What you don't realize until much later in life, though, is that most people aren't thinking about you at all. Like you, they're only worried about themselves.
8. Rejection Is a Part of the Process
Rejection hurts. Just as it might have hurt to not get into the college you wanted, it hurts to not get into your dream company or succeed in your dream job. In school, you're often taught that failing is a type of finality: if you fail a class, you're not moving on. But more often than not, failure and rejection aren't signs that you should give up—just that you should reframe, learn from your mistakes, and work harder.
9. Your Degree Might Not Be What Your Career Ends Up Being
You might put all your work into your degree—only to realize later down the line that it led to a career that you didn't really want. Or you might end up in a career that you love, but your four years of college were technically wasted because your degree doesn't come into play in your current job. Either way, sometimes things don't go the way you imagined they would.
10. Imposter Syndrome
Technically, you might experience this during internships in college, but no one really brings up the fact that most people get imposter syndrome during the initial years of their career (or even beyond then). But it's a very real feeling, and one that might make you question whether or not the path and degree you've chosen were the right picks.
11. You're Not Always Going to Be the Same Person
During your college days, you might have been an extrovert, the kind of person who took initiative, tried different things, and put themselves out there. You might have also thought you'd always have that sort of enthusiasm and ambition. But then you graduate, and a few years go by, and you're a completely different person. No matter how much you think you're never going to change, you will—and that's either a comforting thought or a frightening one.
12. Your Mental & Physical Health Are Super Important
College pushes you to your limits, and rarely does it ever give you a chance to take a breather. You probably experienced burnout more times than you could count, but you weren't taught how to give yourself a break or even how to properly take care of yourself. It's not until later that you realize just how important your mental and physical health are, and how fragile they can be.
13. You Might Start Over at 50
You might think that college is your rite of passage: you graduate, get your degree, and come out to pursue the career you signed up for. Then, you continue working in that field until you retire. But what school doesn't teach you is that sometimes, your goals change. Your interests change. You might be 30 years into your career before you realize it actually isn't the right one for you, and you need to start over.
14. You Might Never Find "the One"
Many people believe that they find "the one" in college. After all, you're surrounded by students who are around your age, and if you share classes together, you're almost always in close proximity. But the truth is, you might never find your soulmate there. You might find them after you graduate, after you move out, after you change careers. Love shows up in unexpected places sometimes, and college isn't the only chance you have.
15. Your Five-Year (or 10-Year) Plan Might Not Work Out
The five-year or 10-year plan you might have envisioned before heading into college or even after graduating may never work out, and it's not until later that you realize that that's okay. Things don't need to follow a set timeline, and it's fine if you don't achieve your goals right away.
16. The Constant Comparison Never Stops
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the constant comparison you did in college—comparing grades, comparing career paths, comparing personal lives, friendships, relationships—never stops. You might always be analyzing how you match up against others, how much more they've done than you. The only thing you can do is to not let it bring you down.
17. Work Isn't Worth It
College gives you the skills and knowledge you need to pursue your career path successfully, but it doesn't teach you that your jobs don't really care about you. Work isn't more important than your mental and physical well-being, and it's not worth getting burned out over.
18. The Real World Sucks
College is almost a safety blanket. You have a set day planned: your classes, your extracurriculars, your hobbies. But once you graduate and you're on your own, you quickly realize that the real world sucks. It's not as glamorous as the movies or TV shows make it out to be, and you might even wish you were a student again.
19. No One Has It All Figured Out
No one has it all figured out. Yup—not even your parents. College might teach you how to navigate life and your career paths, but truthfully, the world will still be as unfamiliar as it was before. No matter how old you get, that feeling will stay. All of us are just figuring things out as we go.
20. Life Is Unpredictable
College doesn't teach you how unpredictable life is. You might have a plan that never follows through, a career change at 50, your life cut short before then. College prepares you for the field you want to pursue, but it doesn't prepare you for how cruel the world may end up being, and how it waits for no one.
