17 Things You Learn In Your First Year After Graduation

Welcome to grown-up land!

1. Finding a job is really, really hard.

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You can have the best degree in the world, and it can still feel like it means nothing. Entry level jobs seem to be few and far between, and those that do pop up are fiercely competitive.

2. Everything seems to require a load of work experience, most of which seems to be unpaid.

3. Being unemployed sucks.

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Having nothing to do all day can sound like the dream when you're deep in finals stress. But then you realise that also involves having no money, probably having to move back in with your parents, and actually having to apply for jobs 24/7.

4. When you do eventually get a job, you'll realise it's not that different from school.

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There will be just as much gossip and bitching. But this time you'll get paid for it.

5. You don't have to slip into your perfect career straight away.

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It's OK to do a job you don't like for a while, or realise that what you thought was your dream job actually kind of sucks.

6. The couples you thought would last forever will break up, and those two you weren't quite sure about will make it.

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Just like when you leave school, after uni there is another wave of break-ups.

Relationships are easy when you all live within walking distance and have as much free time as you do in uni, but when you've both got jobs, or have to do the long distance thing, then the cracks will show.

7. And dating after university is suddenly a lot more complicated.

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At university you meet people all the time, you're surrounded by people your own age, with similar interests, and you're drunk a lot of the time.

In real life you see the same people every day, most of who you probably shouldn't get with, but you're probably still drunk a lot of the time.

8. You definitely didn't make the most out of those long summers when you had them.

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Now that you have to make every little day of holiday count, that week/month where you did nothing apart from sit on the sofa and watch daytime cooking programs seems like a bit of a wasted opportunity.

9. You probably won't pay off your student loan until you're 45.

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But also, that doesn't really matter.

10. People don't wear fancy dress half as much in the real world as they do at university.

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In fact, they don't tend to at all.

11. You were so much younger at 18 than you thought you were.

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Looking at 18-year-olds now is like looking at children, however grown-up you thought you were, you probably weren't.

12. Some people will still treat you like a child.

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And it's infuriating.

13. If you thought fitting exercise around lectures was hard, keeping it up while in a full-time job is nearly impossible.

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14. However much you get along with your parents, if you have to move back in with them it will be hard.

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It's hard to get used to having to tell someone when you'll be home every night.

15. And you won't have done as much as your parents had done by your age, and that's OK.

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Things happen slower these days. There is no point thinking about the fact that your parents were probably married with three kids at your age.

16. Your friends getting married and having babies will never not be weird.

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"But I remember when you downed three VKs in a row!!!"

17. No one ever feels like a grown-up.

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You can have moved out of your parents house, have a job, eat vegetables on a regular basis, and still you won't feel like you know what the fuck you're doing. And the big secret is that no one does.