Tori Randolph Terhune - Life After College: Ten Steps to Build a Life You Love

Praise for Life after College

Life after College offers a balanced, sensible approach to life as a young adult in America. The book is compassionate in its approach and conversational in tone as it guides readers through the transition from college student to working professional. Its about personal branding. Its about health and well-being. Its about equanimityfinding that balance between who you are and who you want to become. The narrative is accompanied by great stories of life lessons, told in an endearing way. Whereas Tori and Betsys Land Your Dream Career ought to be read by every college sophomore, Life after College ought to be read by every college senior. It opens the door to the many joys in life that college students want to realize.

Douglas J. Swanson, California State University, Fullerton

Once again, Tori and Betsy have provided millennials with a practical, real, and sometimes humorous roadmap to success. The transition from college student to professional is a difficult one. Life after College provides tools and strategies for not only making it through this transition but also thriving during this often tumultuous time.

Timothy M. Stearns, Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship, executive director, Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, California State University, Fresno

I found Life after College to be a well-organized and witty read, relevant to adults in all stages of life. The Story sections, in which the authors share real-life experiences, were a nice touch. I could appreciate the authors different experiences and journeys for each idea or lesson. Well done, Tori and Betsy.

Edgar Blunt, co-founder of Career Pillar

Life after College

Ten Steps to Build a Life You Love

Tori Randolph Terhune and Betsy A. Hays

Rowman & Littlefield

Lanham Boulder New York Toronto Plymouth, UK

Published by Rowman & Littlefield

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

www.rowman.com

10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP, United Kingdom

Copyright 2014 by Tori Randolph Terhune and Betsy A. Hays

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Terhune, Tori Randolph.

Life after college : ten steps to build a life you love / Tori Randolph Terhune and Betsy A. Hays.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-4422-2597-8 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4422-2598-5 (electronic) 1. College graduatesEmployment. 2. Career development. 3. Life skills. 4. Success. I. Hays, Betsy A. II. Title.

HD6277.T463 2014

650.1dc23

2014003499

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Acknowledgments

T his book is dedicated to the amazing Christy Patron, who inspired this book over lunch at the delicious Dog House Grill. Thank you, Christy!

And so many other folks to thank! Thank you to our fabulous agent, Anne Devlin, and everyone at our publisher, Rowman & Littlefield. Toris husband, David, puppy, Koda, and kitten, Hunter; and Betsys husband, Brad, daughters Sam and Jackie, and her faithful writing companion and dog, Max.

Wed like to thank Toris family of editors: Carolyn Randolph, Melanie Randolph, John Randolph, Taylor Terhune, Mari Terhune, Dave Terhune, and Betsys family, Nancy Tucker and Monica Barron.

Other amazing people who shared their support and wisdom: Jim Randolph, Jan Edwards, Roberta Asahina, Kim Mooney, Angie Tarr, Merrilee Montgomery, Megan Lerma, Reganie Smith-Love, Carson Best, Anne McClintic, and Kimberlee Peyret.

And so much thanks to those who helped specifically with chapter 2, Eric Martin, CFP, of Martin, Wardin & Eissner Financial Group (mwe financial.com); and chapter 4, Amy Brogan, EdD, certified health coach and college nutrition professor (agapenutritionandfitness.com).

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Tori and Betsy

Introduction

W hether employed or not upon completing their college degree, most people experience a significant culture shock while transitioning from student to professional life. We know we did, and so did everyone we know. (Hence, why we wrote this book!)

As you now know, there is so much more to being a successful postcollege human than getting a job. This book walks you, the recent (or not-so-recent) college graduate, through easily conquering ALL parts of this significant transition. From friends and dating to alarm clocks and getting promoted, this book provides the blueprint, including dealing with still sitting at the kids table at holiday meals, becoming a problem solver (not identifier), the magic of mentoring, key generational differences, and the millennial validation vacuum.

We picked up where we left off with our first book, Land Your Dream Career: Eleven Steps to Take in College to provide you with an honest, humorous, and practical guide to thriving in postcollege life.

By writing this book together (a successful recent graduate and a more seasoned college professor), we are able to provide you with both real-time advice and experience-based knowledgea combination that we hope will serve you well. At the end of each chapter we have once again included Cheat Sheets for either preview or review as you work your way through the book.

Enjoy!

Chapter One

Time and Sleep Management

Betsy

O ne of the biggest challenges postgraduation is that your life isnt as fragmented as it has been for the last several years. As a student, you got used to rushing from work to school to your internship to your club meeting and back to school. So you would think that your time management now would be easier, but you may have found that it isnt. You may spend most of your day in one or two places, but that doesnt make distractions or temptations disappear, and those distractions can steer you away from what you should be doing. There is also that darn office candy bowl calling your name (but advice about the candy bowl is in chapter 4!).

Effective time and sleep management can help you build and protect your professional brand (the impression people have of you as a new professional). Your brand is best built by using consistent, positive behaviors that reinforce what YOU want the world to think about you (especially when you are not in the room, which is where true feelings are often revealed!). In our work, Tori and I talk to people a lot about brand builders and brand killers. Brand builders are things that help you solidify your brand and accomplish your goals, and brand killers are things that harm your brand and deter you from your goals. Everything in this book can be a brand builder for you.

To get you in the proper frame of mind, here is what you need to do in order to have effective time management:

• Gain focus.
• Have a system.
• Be flexible within your structure.
• Prioritize your workload.

Well go over each of these in depth now.

Gain Focus

There is a lot of great information out there regarding awesome time-management systems and maximizing productivity. In fact, there are actually gurus in this area, and we encourage you to check them out if you are really into this. See the notes at the end of this chapter for references and resources!