For the new graduates who’ve recently added me on LinkedIn, this is for you.

First of all, congratulations on accomplishing the first step towards a wonderful career. You’re entering into the unknown at a very unstable time but when life gives you lemons, you should use your degree to make something really cool.

As you enter into this new world, know that there are no rules, no goals, and no goalposts. You make the rules and you have more freedom than you think. Here’s some tips I’ve gathered that I either took advantage of or wished I knew throughout my career.

If you haven’t gotten a job, don’t worry

Today’s landscape is unusual but people still get hired. The great thing about the food industry is that people still have to eat. This means you have a better chance than most to get a job related to your field.

The most important thing is to take your time. One of my biggest regrets is getting a job right after college. It wasn’t my favorite job and all I cared about was getting a job before graduating because I didn’t want anyone to view me as a failure. Ego took a hold of me and I got angrier and more frustrated as peers I didn’t like got decent jobs and wouldn’t stop talking about it. Though my first job was vital to my success as a food scientist and sparked my interest in entrepreneurship, I wish I would have waited. My friends who have waited got to choose the job they wanted and because they didn’t have school or finals, they could pick and choose easier.

Though it seems like every day without a job is painful, sometimes it’s ok to take your time and enjoy freedom for a while. It’s very hard because at the time of writing this, you can’t travel but you can take the time to learn new skills. There are plenty of skills on the internet.

In fact, My Food Job Rocks has articles that can help you get a job:

Resume Tips for Beginning Food Scientists

Cover Letter Tips for Beginning Food Scientists

Interview Tips for Beginning Food Scientists

Actual interview Questions from Actual Companies

My best recommendation if you are not getting hits is to track every job application. If you are not getting phone interviews, your resume needs work. If you are not getting “in person” or “long zoom call interviews” your phone interview skills need work.

Time Will Go Slower and Faster at the Same Time

College is a timeline. There’s 4 years where you have a  goal of getting your degree and the way to get there is pretty much spelled out to you. You have to take classes, stress over credits, and do everything you can in a 4-year timespan.

When you’re outside of college, there are no rules. Instead of a 4-year timeline, there’s a 40-year timeline but there are no goals in that 40-year timeline. Instead, you can choose a pathway you’d like to take. You can focus on family, career, anything you want. You can get married, get divorced, get a job or change careers any time you want. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Except now you have to worry about money. Though some people in college are lucky to have some sort of stipend, in the working world, you now have money that you can either save or spend. Your first paycheck will be amazing. Your 100^th will be a lifeline.

In a snap, you’ll realize that time goes by really fast. I’m fortunate to have had the ability to capture great moments by writing about them but pictures and experiences are also very valuable.

When you look back at memories, it’s about cherishing the moments rather than looking through the whole timeline. Life feels longer when you cherish the memories.

Invest In Yourself

People stop learning. Some believe they are too busy to learn more or that college is all they need. College is really just the tip of the ice berg when it comes to being an adult. There is plenty of literature that will teach you pretty much anything but you actually do have to invest the time to learn.

So there’s two different types of investments I’d like to talk about: financial and personal.

Financial Investments (note: some links give me money)

Financial advice is one of the vital skills that schools don’t teach you but in my opinion, those that complain that schools don’t teach you the skills haven’t utilized the myriad of free resources available just on youtube.

You’ll probably make a lot of mistakes but that’s the point of life. Here are a few tips I’d recommend as you start accumulating income.

• Track your income and spending: I used to use an excel spreadsheet but now I use Personal Capital, a digital platform that links your credit cards, investments, mortgage loans, etc into a system and charts out your income. (its free). Personal Capital also updates investments and loan payments which saves time. If you just have credit cards and student loans, excel works. Once you have multiple streams, then personal capital is better to track.
• Look up FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early): When I was young, I was obsessed with this concept because I didn’t like my job. Now, I really don’t want to retire because the work I do is meaningful and life is more rewarding when you strive to make an impact than wasting your prime years relaxing on the beach. That’s my opinion, but you’ll figure it out eventually. FIRE is great to motivate you to take income tracking seriously and realize that there’s a lot you can do with the income you have. It will put you into the mindset to spend less and save more. Most of their tactics are extreme so please adjust accordingly. Overall, my opinions have changed in terms of FIRE. I really like what I do and I know how to build businesses. FIRE people don’t. But I do thank them for introducing me to financing.
• Stock market and Bitcoin: I don’t touch this stuff because it’s stressful. These types of investments are psychologically very damaging because you are always looking at factors you can’t control. Investing into them especially as a new investor can be extremely taxing and you will waste a lot of time worrying that you lost money every single day. Instead invest in index funds where someone does it for you. I suggest Betterment.com personally.

Personal Investment 

Most people stop learning after school. You can choose to continue educating yourself or not. There’s plenty of information out there, but you just have to be active and want to seek knowledge available. Now we have this information at a click of a button and there is no excuse to start educating yourself.

• How to be an expert: If you’re interested in becoming an expert in a specific topic, read ten books on that subject. Nobody really reads ten books on any subject so doing that puts you pretty high up there. The great thing about reading books on a specific subject is that you can understand the network of that specific subject. Most experts know and respect each other. Once you’ve absorbed enough knowledge, it’s very easy to reach out to a specific expert and ask them questions. Ideally you should impress them with the knowledge of the subject, and they should help you out. Being an expert is a lonely field. Experts don’t like to talk to anyone unless they show a genuine interest and pose unique points of views. That’s why I do a podcast.
• Consume different forms of media: I read articles, watch videos, listen to books and consume podcasts. All of these types of media when combined allow me to stay up to date while also filling out some background. Articles, videos and podcasts are examples of information that is reflective of our current world but things such as books or even old movies allow you to have a more in-depth advantage on pretty much anything. That’s because books take at least 6 months to spit out (and they go through an intense editing process) and therefore the knowledge is more refined. A tweet takes seconds to jot down, articles take a day to write, a podcast takes a week to produce, and books take months so the timeliness of knowledge has its advantage.
• A long term investment: subject matter expertise is a long term gain. Eventually, the lessons that each piece of media gives you permeates into your daily life and you won’t realize that you’ll do things differently and think of outcomes differently. It’s very hard to explain, but books have really changed the way I think even though I don’t feel like there was one time I actually applied what I learned right off the bat.
• No excuses: I hate reading books because I can’t sit still and read a physical object. I buy books when I can’t get the audio version but I don’t even read them. My favorite method is listening to them while walking, driving, or whatever. However, I’m not like everyone and you probably aren’t too. Some people love the feel of books, or the ease of the kindle, or the ability o multi-task with audio. Each method has its pros and cons but what matters is that you’re being exposed to the content. After all, the good stuff sticks.