First #Jobs After Graduation Don't Matter: Find Out Why!!!

If you’re one of the thousands of new graduates who have claimed their diplomas and set their sights on life after college this spring, job hunting is more than likely at the top of your priority list. As you polish your resume and take those first halting steps toward creating a LinkedIn profile, you probably have certain expectations around what your first real career job will look like.
I’m here to shatter those.

The first job you land out of college doesn’t matter. It matters that you find work, of course, but the nature of the work isn’t of particular consequence at this stage in your life. Here’s why:

Your degree likely won’t be necessary.
The subject you spent four years studying may have absolutely no bearing on what you end up doing immediately after graduation. While 88% of the Class of 2016 expected to land a job in their field of study, only 65% of their peers who completed their education in 2014 and 2015 report that they’ve been able to do so in the time since they graduated. As is consistent with recent labor market trends, it’s possible that you’ll end up underemployed (working in a job that doesn’t require a college degree, working fewer hours than you want), as 51% of 2015 grads reported in that same survey reported they are. Starting your working life in a career-focused role is becoming the exception to the rule. A stint at Starbucks or the mall while you work on networking and next steps isn’t a black mark to signal a post-graduation slacker, it’s now the new normal. Take whatever comfort you can in that.

You’ll switch jobs and careers many times.
Research projects that you’ll hop jobs at least four times in your first post-college decade. In some cases, you’ll be switching careers entirely. If you kept up the same pace for the 30 working years after that, you’d add another 12 roles to your resume. Your career will be a long one (probably longer than you even anticipate) and how you began it will eventually become a speck in the rearview mirror that you’ll think of with the same sense of vague nostalgia reserved for your high school prom date or a particularly pretentious Comparative Lit professor.

It’s about socialization, not substance.
Unless you’re waltzing into a red-hot job market with a highly-coveted degree (hello, software engineering prodigies in Silicon Valley), your entry-level role likely won’t be one that allows you to make a unique contribution to the company. To a certain degree, project assistants, account associates, admin assistants and junior whatevers are interchangeable. The hiring manager knows this and you’ll soon come to know this too. Beyond a paycheck, what your generic first job offers is the opportunity to understand what being part of a team day in and day out is like, to improve your ability to read people, to absorb the norms of a given workplace and figure out if they’re ones you can live with. You can do that just as well at Company A as Company B.

While you may have visions of a dream job dancing in your head, don’t let  unrealistic expectations keep you on the sidelines of the labor market waiting for the perfect opportunity to come your way. For better or worse, your first post-college  job is a learning experience and the best learning is hands-on.