When you spend your whole life leading up to getting a good qualification for your career, it can out a lot of pressure on what happens after you finally graduate from your degree. Graduating is a right of passage for young adults, and once you have made it over that hurdle you are ready to take on an adult life fully. The only thing is, what should you do after graduation?

1. Get a job

The most obvious thing you can do once you have graduated is to get a job. You can look for the best graduate schemes in your area and then join your chosen career path. It is important to remember that when you do join a team within your industry, you will still have things to learn.

You are qualified, but you will still need to learn how to apply your skills to the job and work your way up in the company. It will be great getting into the real world because you will finally get to apply your skills to the real world.

If you haven’t yet decided the job role you want to be doing, try out a few different things. Now is the perfect time to experiment with your career and try everything you can before you settle down. If a certain role doesn’t work out for you, don’t panic. You are young and you have plenty of time to try something else.

2. Self-employment

If you really don’t know what you want to do, or you simply can’t find the right place to work: why not try to go it alone?

In the last few years, there has been a spike in startups and you can be one of the people who carve a career path for themselves. Find your passion, think outside the box and don’t be afraid to start working for yourself. You could find that within the next few years you have to build a successful business for yourself and you are the one hiring graduates,

3. Keep studying

If you still feel as if you have something to learn or a particular subject you would love to specialize in, then look into studying further at your chosen college or university. It is always good to go further with learning so if you have the opportunity to learn more about a certain subject it’s definitely worth doing.

Think about staying on as a researcher or even traveling somewhere new to learn a different aspect of your subject.

4. Take a gap year

When you are done it’s studying, you might want to take one last hoorah before settling down into your adult life. When we are young, it is the perfect time to explore new things and experience everything we possibly can in our lives.

If you aren’t ready to start working yet and you still need time to figure out what you want to be, take the year to travel, work, volunteer and try new things. A gap year can give you the chance to let go and refresh your head ready for adult life.  

This post has been contributed by Ryan Gatt, it may contain affiliate links.