The (relatively) carefree days of college life are over, and you’re in full-time work. For many graduates, the transition can be a shock to the system.
As the years roll on, with caring responsibilities and financial pressures mounting, it only gets more complex.
So how do people cope emotionally, mentally, physically and financially?
Navigating the early days of your career
“There’s so much to take in and it can feel a little overwhelming, but it’s important to remember that navigating a new world of work will be a bit like a marathon so you need to approach it with the same sense of preparation to avoid burning out and ending up exhausted,” says John McCall, LinkedIn’s head of talent attraction for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Career psychologist Sinéad Brady says there is an adjustment – even an apprenticeship – on entering the world of work. “When you get in there, talk to people and do really practical things like asking: what is the tempo and rhythm of the work?” Brady says.
“Graduates are often expected to be in five days a week, and to adhere to basics. Be on time, every time: 9am means 9am. And it doesn’t really matter how long it took you to get there because everyone has stuff going on outside of work.”
Even the routine of 9am starts can be tough, especially for the estimated 15-30 per cent of the population who are night owls, whose bedtime and waking time is naturally later.
Brady advises graduates to “minimise your morning”, meaning that you have as much as possible ready the night before, including what you will wear, your lunch and even something as simple as leaving your keys and wallet in the same spot so you’re not frantically searching for them in the morning.
Career psychologist Sinéad Brady Set professional boundaries
Brady says graduates should be careful about oversharing in a professional environment. “Colleagues are not your friends, so be careful of oversharing or being extremely vulnerable,” she says.
“Bring your best self, not your whole self, to work. Don’t go in and be vulnerable, as this is not a place where you expose vulnerabilities.”
Focus on impact over visibility
For graduates eager to make an impression, Brady says the focus should be on substance over visibility. “Contribute not for contribution’s sake, but for impact,” she says.
“Graduates can have a fear around visibility, but your impact is how you become visible. You are looking to learn, and so ask yourself, for 30 days, what are the core things I want to understand?”
Think critically (without AI shortcuts)
Brady urges graduates not to cut corners with technology.
“Don’t use AI for shortcuts. If you sub out your intellectual signature to AI, it will be picked up in seconds,” she says. “How you think, and the scope of your impact and influence, will determine your longevity in a role.”
John McCall, LinkedIn’s head of talent attraction for EMEA
Mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing
On the emotional side, McCall says the most useful thing a graduate can do early on is find a mentor. “Someone you can think out loud with and turn to when you doubt yourself,” he says.
“This could be a colleague in a more senior position, or a manager of a similar team, but a good mentor helps you figure out the things you can change from the things you cannot, as well as how to establish your professional brand and build your reputation, which is half the battle in those first few years.”
Physical and mental wellbeing are part of the same picture, McCall says. “You’d be surprised how much a short walk at lunch, or simply getting away from the desk, can do for your focus and your mood. Building in a few of those habits early pays off far more than any single grand gesture.”
Performative perfection is common on Instagram and TikTok, but it is not real life, Brady says. “‘Why not just get up at 5am and then swim and do a cacao ceremony?’ That’s not a reality for the majority of people.”
Ask yourself what you want from your financial and professional life, she suggests. Do you want more money, but less focus on other parts of your life, or is it enough to be at a certain salaray level, but to have the flexibility you want?
Christiana Brennan, a career coach with TU Dublin, says such a shift in priorities is reflected in the graduates she works with. “One [thing] that comes up again and again is work-life balance – this generation are well clued in,” she says. “If that is an important value for someone, they should follow it.” If you are going to be unhappy in a job with very heavy hours, then that is not something that is going to work for you.
“The worst thing is to stay in a job that is not right. It is your every day, your Sunday night – it affects so much of your life. You don’t have to be stuck. People can change.”
Build financial options and safety nets
Both McCall and Brady say good financial habits should start immediately. “It is worth getting into good habits sooner rather than later, because the decisions you make at the start, including beginning to save, starting a pension and planning early, give you more freedom further down the line,” says McCall.
“Investing a little time in your own financial education buys you options later into your career, whether that is taking a career break or going back to study or pivot into something new.”
A financial safety net matters. “There is the importance of putting a fund in place so that if you do decide to take time off, that you have some support in place for yourself,” says Brady. “If you’re living month to month with nothing left over, don’t let it become a habit. Take a percentage of your wage and get it saved, as soon as the paycheck comes.”
Changing priorities across life stages
On average, people in their 20s will have more energy and fewer caring responsibilities, so there’s often time to invest in your career while still having a social life. This may change in your 30s, however, when children come along and parents get older – and often the bulk of the unpaid work involved falls on women who are just as invested in building their career as their male colleagues.
“From a personal perspective, life is a managed mayhem,” Brady says. “The maths doesn’t work [but] you want and need your career.
“I could not manage if I was not self-employed; women in this season of life are the fastest-growing bracket of self-employed globally.”
She says it can take time to realise that, capable and ambitious though you might be, “you can do anything – but not everything”.
Long-term resilience and growth
Brady also says it is important to engage with viewpoints you disagree with, both for personal growth and workplace harmony. “You can’t sit in an echo chamber,” she says. “We have to tolerate differences of opinion; it will help in the workplace.”
In McCall’s view, career longevity “now means staying open to change rather than bracing against it – ‘change resilience’ rather than ‘change management’.
“We know we’re at the start of a major shift in much of how we understand the world of work, and the more AI takes on the routine and repetitive tasks, the more space it creates for the parts of work that energise us – the curiosity, the creativity and the human connections that make a long career sustainable in the first place,” he says.
“Building the routines that keep you learning and keeps you well will set you up not just to cope but to thrive and progress.”
Take a holistic approach
For McCall, the key is to see your professional development holistically.
“That is why it pays to treat your own professional development like a training regime right from the start, looking after the emotional, mental, physical and financial sides of your working life in small, regular ways.”