Posts
Survival tips
for
graduates…
1. WORLD OF ADULT. Once
you have graduated, you will enter the world of adult, a world that is full of
colours, expectations and etc. As you spent about 3-4 years trying to master
the subject that you had chosen, it is time for application. However, the adult
world requires more than your first degree. As you enter the adult world, you
have no choice but to let go your status as a student who depended on your
parents or the government as long as financial assistance is concerned. You
have to have the desire to learn to be independent because it is your turn now
to please the ones who have helped you. Trying to escape from that
responsibility will cause you a lot of disasters because our parents are the
sources of our blessings after God.
2. THE WORLD BEYOND YOUR FIRST
DEGREE. Perhaps some might get a job upon graduation, while some
have to struggle very hard looking for their dream job. Your first degree may
not help you much in getting the job you desired because God’s plan can be very
unpredictable and sometimes can be very annoying. Some might consider it as a blessing
in disguise. Reduce your expectation because it might hurt you so much. Look at
the river. Try to follow the flow because perhaps there might be something that
might pop up throughout the flow to test your capabilities, patience and
wisdom.
3. LIFELONG LEARNING. Some graduates
have a very wrong mindset as they believe that they should stop learning as
they already have a degree that can support them in the future. This mindset
can be very destructive because great companies are looking for graduates who
have more than their beautiful first degree. The first thing that they look for
is your ability to speak multiple languages because great companies speak good
English while small companies speak ordinary language. That really depends on
which company that you want to work for. Spending some time reading about the
job that you are looking for can really help because you will have a lot of
remarkable things to say during the interview. Secondly, they want to know
about your attitude. They are not interested in individuals who behave like a
king due to the straight A’s on paper because the employer’s expectations can
be very different. Therefore, do not be afraid to be different. If everyone is
the same, nothing will be created every day. Thirdly, the employers are looking
for graduates who can speak their mind. My point is, try your best to be the
asset of the company instead of being a liability. In other words, try to be
someone who is very important in that company through lifelong learning. Try
your best to be extremely very good in your own field. Otherwise, if there is
nothing special about you, the employers may quickly show the front door to
you. Understand your job through lifelong learning. Stay focus on how you can
be very good at it because great companies or great government is interested in
individuals who are extraordinary. Another challenge is the senior workers or
officers at your workplace. They can either break or make you. Stay with the
positive ones, and be patient with the annoying ones because you need at least
three years to make yourself very good in your own field. Once you have become
an expert, the concept of seniority will disappear because they know that you
are as good as them or better than them.
4. LEARN ABOUT MONEY OR ECONOMY. Most of
the time, young graduates can’t wait to buy sports car to please their loved
ones. There is nothing wrong with that if you come from a rich family or you
have no one that you will support financially especially your siblings. If you
come from a poor family, this is what you should do to improve your financial
status. On average, the price of a house increases by 20,000-30,000 a year
depending on the area. Let say you graduate at the age of 24. As you need a
car, try your best to finish paying the car when you reach 30 years old because
the banks will carefully look at your pay slip later when you buy a house. If
your pay slip is “clean”, you will have a greater chance to have your housing
loan approved. However, if you have so many commitments on that pay slip, it is
extremely difficult for you to get your housing loan approved. As the old saying goes, everybody can make
money. Only a few can save money. As you graduate, try to make financial
independence as your long term objective. There are so many ways to achieve
this. One of them is by reading a lot of books about money and personal
investment. Don’t be afraid to be rich because you can do a lot of good things
if you have a lot of money because love and money should get along well. Love
is indeed very important but you need money to express your love. If the world
is full of free things, then you don’t need to have money. However, it still
depends on your intention, your ability to control your lust and how you want
to spend the money. In terms of personal investment, visit any banks and ask
them about the options that you have as a personal investor. There are many
types of investment out there. Most of the time, people choose the investment
that offers risk that they can control or predict such as ASB, ASN, Mutual Fund
and etc. Don’t ask me more questions on this because you have to experience the
beauty of asking the bankers about personal investment. Do not be afraid to
enter the unknown world because the knowledge that you get will help you to
help yourself financially and the best part is you can help others too. If you
become an expert, you can choose to open up a company. That means you become
the boss. Don’t you want to be the boss? Should you be a servant forever if you
can be the boss? You make the decision.
5. MARRIAGE. Most of
the time, some people expect too much from their boyfriends and girlfriends due
to the perfect examples that they see on television and celebrities magazines.
Before we get married, we should ask ourselves what we really want from that
marriage. In my case, I always look for happiness and a marriage that is full
of blessings. I don’t consider MONEY as my main priority because I believe that
the most beautiful woman in this world is a woman who is loyal. I believe that
I will lose all of my money and happiness if I marry a woman who is not loyal.
Now allow me to continue with the subject. If you expect your boyfriend to be
handsome when you yourself are not beautiful, don’t you think it is very
unfair? If you expect your boyfriend or girlfriend to be a good listener when
you yourself are not interested to listen to anything, don’t you think that it
is very unfair? My point is, we should look at ourselves first. In other words,
work hard on improving our weaknesses first. Try our best to build all the good
characters within us. If we expect our boyfriend or girlfriend to be super
perfect, we will never experience happiness. Marriage is not the end of the
story. It is a fresh new beginning as you have to let go some of you in order
to get along well with your partner. If you are not willing to sacrifice the
characters in you that might jeopardize the marriage, please reconsider the
thought of getting married. Educate yourself first. Get to know married couple
who did well in marriage and asked them about how they keep the fire burning
without hurting each other. A marriage that is built based on bad intentions
cannot last long. However, if the marriage is built based on love, the couple
will enjoy all the blessings from God and they will have the power to face all
the challenges in lives because love is their shield. Choose your partner not
because of financial security because security cannot be given by men but God.
Choose a partner that can help you to improve your weaknesses and use your
strengths to improve his or her weaknesses as each of you should learn to
empower each other.
6. PARENTING SKILLS. Some
people get married because others get married. They feel that they are not
normal if they don’t get married. Some get pregnant too early due to their
failure to really understand the pros and cons of having babies. I understand
some will say children are the gift from God. If a child is really a gift,
don’t you think that we should be well prepared mentally, emotionally,
spiritually and financially before the child enters this world? Parenting
skills are all about how we should take care of the child and how we should
educate the child. In terms of monthly spending, we need to spend at least RM
250.00 for a child. Therefore, it is very important to study our income. If it
is not enough, and we really want to have a child, do some part-time work to
improve your economy because parents should give FULL ATTENTION to their
children especially when they are still a kid. Some people take it easy by
allowing their husband or wife to feed the kid with condensed milk, soy bean,
tea, coffee, sweet or junk food. If we want the best from our children, we
should learn to give the best too. Otherwise, it will always be a win-lose
deal. Children should be fed with milk until they are at least 12 years old. If
we feed them with coffee or tea, that will affect their physical growth. If you
wish to know more about this, the information is a click away. Some parents
always say that, “we will teach them to read later because they are still too
young and delicate”. Consequently, the interest to read will disappear because
the children have not been encouraged to read at a very young age. If we want
our children to love reading, we have to be an avid reader first because the
children do not really listen to what we say because they are actually
observing what we do every day. Let me put it this way. Ask yourself this
question. Do you want your kids to be smarter or more successful than you are
or otherwise? If you think you have all the money in this world to finance them
for as long as they live, go ahead then. I wish you all the best. However, if
you understand the fact that money can’t last forever, focus on good education
and good nutrition. Nothing is perfect but it is our main obligation to give our
best despite our long list of weaknesses.
In
conclusion, life upon graduation can be the best moments in our lives. However,
it really depends on how we respond to all the expected and unexpected
circumstances that greet us through the journey of knowing ourselves. Please
don’t think that I am a perfect person when I wrote this article. I am just
sharing everything that others have shared with me and everything that I have
learned through personal experiences. I am not perfect. I am just trying my
best to give the best because that is the only thing that I can do because I
was born as a human being. Good luck. Thank you so much for reading.
Originally written by: Mani Jack
20th/01/2013
