This week, in passing we mentioned that at the end of the aSweatLife summer intern’s time with us we would sit down and tell her everything we had to learn the hard way after college graduation. Then we realized that we should probably record it as it’s hot on our minds and is really the only thing we can think about this week.

Ever since we had the conversation as a team, I thought about the things that I learned through whisper networks or by falling on my face. They were innumerable. So, we’re not going to gatekeep it.

Julia had good questions for us:

Work related

• How should I go about getting a job? 
• What’s the best advice you could give to someone interviewing for a job? 
• What are your musts when it comes to looking for a job?

Personal

• What’s one thing you would like your senior college self to know? 
• How should a 20 year old come about looking for friends after college? 
• How would you advice a 20 year old to get used to a 9-5pm 
• What do you guys think about a hobby as a career?

And we prepared a little advice for her:

• At work -
• if someone says something IMPORTANT to you with just their voice, follow up with an email asking them to confirm. Get shit in writing.
• It's okay to quit a job if you don't have another job lined up AND find mentors
• Our advice on life:
• Ask questions.
• Have the best time with your friends - go out, go to restaurants, travel - do all the things
• Our advice as old married ladies
• Jeana: In my early 20s, I spent so much time wondering and worrying about whether the person I had been on one or two dates with liked me and very little time on whether I liked them. As soon as I started asking that question, “Do I like them? Have they earned my mindspace?” Things shifted for me. 
• Kelly: I wish I would have dated MORE And live on your own

And the aSweatLife Ambassadors shared some guidance:

Honestly, this was my favorite part: sourcing guidance from this group of really unique humans. Here's what they said:

• "Staying in a crappy job too long can let some good jobs get away from you, and can be detrimental to your self esteem." - Mariah B.
• "Know your worth and don’t be afraid to negotiate your salary! I was too scared to right out of college and was basically slapped with minimum wage wrapped up as a “salary” because I thought I couldn’t ask for anything else." -Sydney M.
• "More for personal life, but do what you want to do, even if it means going for it solo! I spent some years thinking I just wouldn’t do things bc my friends weren’t also interested in doing them, but now have embraced just going for it. I’ve gone to things solo and left with acquaintances with the same interests. Or just left solo with a great experience lol." -Sarah S.
• "Work is not who you are, and is not everything. You can always change things if they aren’t for you, you can always reinvent yourself, you can always advocate for yourself. Nothing has to be a linear path to the top." - CC
• "Two things ... One of them is from the Olsen twins… 1. No is a full sentence. (thanks Olsen twins). 2. You don't have to have things figured out. Like ever. There is no point in life at which you need to have the perfect job or be married or have kids or it's too late." -Tahnee L.
• "If you can afford to - you can take vacation even if you don't have paid time off available / used up." -Amy G.
• "2 bits of career advice learned the hard way. 1) Sometimes not getting the job has nothing to do with you. You met the qualifications, you interviewed well, it felt like a fit. There’s too many unknowns to you. The company culture, the culture of the team you’d be joining, internal candidates, etc. I spent a lot of time being hard on myself and it wasn’t until I became a hiring manager that I realized I could’ve saved myself some heartache by accounting for the unknowns. 2) At every job you will ever have, even if you own your own business, you are replaceable. It may not be done the same way, or as well even but, there are people who can do what you do to some degree. Keep that mindset and perhaps it’ll save you some serious abuse of work/life boundaries and burnout early in your career that I learned the hard way." -Alexis R.

Resources:

• Ladies Get Paid
• Ask a Manager is a great resource for any question for your career
• Questions that Julia sourced from the Internet
• January.ai