College graduation is, for many, the first time people have the freedom to do whatever they want. Growing up, children do what their parents tell them to, and then they graduate high school and go straight to college.
After graduation, students are no longer in school and they have a greater opportunity to explore. But exploring isn’t cheap and neither is college. Loans need to be paid off and money needs to start flowing in. Despite this need, many people may have to take some time to just live. Many graduates realize the responsibilities of the real world and anticipate the work that is needed to succeed. Because of these reasons, college graduates need to consider the pros and cons of landing a job right off the bat or taking some time off to travel.
Lucy Lybbert, a senior from University Place, Wash., is ready to take responsibility and start work.
“Post-graduation, I’m excited to join the working world,” Lybbert said. “I want to go out and make my education matter.”
But all post-graduates have a different situation. They each need to consider what direction they should take.
Mckenzie Lawyer Davies, a career counselor at the University Career Services, shared some pros and cons of traveling verses obtaining a job.
“If you’re going through a recruiting season, with big organizations for example, sometimes they’ll hire you, but you won’t have a starting date until mid-July or October or something, but it really depends,” Lawyer Davies said. “In an economy such as ours today, if you have a job offer, great. When I was in graduate school I had a job offer which overlapped a week. I started my job a week before I graduated from graduate school. Because it was so important for me to have a job, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t wasting any time. So it depends on how much time you have in terms of your flexibility.”
Lawyer Davies personally jumped straight into her career without even a week’s break, but she admits that traveling would have been nice.
“If you have the flexibility to travel or to do something fun after graduation, take the time to kind of live — you’re a college graduate,” Davies said. “But if it’s a liability for your marketability, that’s important to consider.”
