"The Best Advice I Could Give You"

Those of you who have been joining me for our Women's Forum already know what a wonderful time we have had learning from the faculty and staff each week. This last week's theme was "Life After Loma." We heard from several faculty members, including Dr. Lindsey Lupo, a Poli Sci professor. When asked, "What is the best advice you could give the young women sitting in this room about life after graduation?" she pulled out a sheet of paper. She had asked this question to her five closest friends. Here is what they said:

Kenna - go get the most intensive, hardest, gnarliest (as said in the surf industry) experience you can with your first job. For instance, starting out at an agency (for marketing) is the best training there is. You work hard and get paid hardly anything. But when it came time for me to interview at an outside company, they knew that I had the right training and I stood out above the rest. Luckily I fell into this path, but had I not, I might be marketing consumer electronics right now.

Ninia - I wish someone had told me to get roommates after college to spread out your money. I wish someone had told me to look at the industry as carefully as I was looking at the job. I wish someone had told me that it would be the hardest year of my life.

Shealan - I wish that someone would have told me not to be afraid to take the leap into the larger world (whatever that meant). I wish I would have gone farther away from home, I wish I would have taken more risk and I wish I knew that home was always a great safety net but I would never have known that unless I had gone further away.

Jeannie - Use every resource available... People in your network and out. Using connections is imperative and definitely not a sign of weakness(which I thought at the time I graduated). Your network is what gets you in the door, after that you create your successes/failures on you own... I figured this out eventually- after graduating, I knew that I wanted to get into pharmaceutical sales. After exhausting every recruiter & website, I gave in and contacted the dad of a friend of mine from high school. He told me to check back with him after I had gotten some sales experience... He turned out to be the key reason why was hired with Pfizer, helped me lateral back to Portland from San Jose and eventually hired me into my
first promotion.

Monica - The truth is, a college grad knows so very little. Wisdom is attained over time and experience...get some! After college, the world becomes one great big opportunity...and it should be treated as such. Remember that there is time to travel before locking into the next phase of academia of adulthood...possibly work abroad. Consider grad school, but realize how much more an applicant will have to offer after giving the real world a run. All experiences build character...it's a fact!