Moving into the Workforce
By: Jesse Macbeth
Here are 5 of the most common issues you will run into as you leave school and transition into adulthood:
More pressure to have it all figured out
Comparing your job status to others you know
Parents asking when they will meet a significant other
Relationships becoming more serious
The painful transition from being cool to being wise
Whether internal or external, you will most likely face some kind of pressure once you leave school and enter the workforce. You are expected to have your life together and you might feel like you are supposed to have everything in your life figured out. In many ways this new expectation can help you rise to the challenge and become better with time management and organization. However, there are also a variety of responsibilities that often come along with your newfound role as a fully-fledged adult. People will expect you to be certain of your career path and have a general understanding of what your life will look like 5-10 years from now. As much as it might be a relief to know the future, it is important to remember that nothing is set in stone. You might change your career path two or three times, you might date a few people seriously, make new friends, move to a new city, it’s just impossible to know how everything will shake out. A lot of your life is still up in the air, and it is crucial to remember that you don’t have to have it all figured out and that sometimes not knowing is more than ok.
One of your friends may get a job right out of school and immediately enter into a tax bracket you may not even sniff for another 15 years. Or maybe you stayed in school a few more years and got a late start on your career trajectory as a result. While buying a new Mercedes might be an attainable goal for celebrities on social media, it is important to remind yourself that you should not judge your achievements and stature based on what others have. Focus on yourself and your accomplishments and take pride in the work you put it, regardless of how well you see your friends or former high school classmates doing.
If your parents are anything like mine, they’ve been subtlety talking about their dreams of becoming grandparents for a few years now. Some of you may have been getting hints like this for more than just a few years, but the fact remains the same. Your family is going to start to ask you when you might settle down and start taking things “seriously.” While this is understandable to a degree, this also adds pressure in a part of your life that can already be nerve-wracking enough. Remember to focus on yourself and be happy as an individual living life on your own. If you love yourself fully, it will that be obvious to potential partners and it will make it that much easier for any person you are interested in to love you too.
Once you are out of school there is also a good chance that your relationships will get much more serious. When you are in the 25-27-year-old range, most people you consider dating are going to want to know where the relationship is going. While this is a totally fair thing to wonder when you are dating someone, the added pressure of knowing you must make this decision rather quickly early on in the relationship can make things more daunting. Make sure you are open and honest with your partner and don’t shy away from communicating about more deep and significant aspects of your relationship. As long as you and your partner understand one another you are much more likely to be on the same page about your relationship and remain on good terms.
Finally, one of the hardest things about life after school is that you have significantly less time to keep up with what might be cool. But worse than that you’re also not quite full of wisdom yet. You still have a lot to learn, personally, professionally, emotionally and so on. But you probably missed out on the TikTok phase and you may not catch onto the next big thing all that quickly either. Part of this will be due to your newfound lack of free time but partially you’re also going to stop caring about keeping up with things that don’t interest you wholly. Your focus will begin to shift into the aspects of your life that you are really passionate about. Keep your mind on the positives and grow in every way that you can, reminding yourself that failure is the best way to learn. In the eyes of those under the age of 20 you are now most assuredly old, but as long as you don’t start sharing stories on Facebook the way that your grandparents do you should be fine.
Philadelphia Career Counselor and therapist
Jesse Macbeth is a Career Counselor and master's level marriage and family therapist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He serves clients online through our simple to use HIPAA compliant platform and in person at our comfortable Center City, Philadelphia office. Jesse offers career counseling to individuals that want to make a career change. He also offer individual and couples therapy and couples intensives for those couples that feel like they are in crisis. He supports people that are debating a change in their career. To schedule an appointment click here.