Navigating the 'Real World' Post College Graduation

Ah, the rush of being handed a college diploma.

A solid shake with the dean – or a likewise higher-up – and suddenly four years of higher education is gone in an instant.

You look up and see your parents, screaming their lungs out or paralyzed with tears of joy, or both. Jittery steps lead you back to your seat among your high-fiving classmates.

I did it, you think, It’s finally over.

One week after earning a bachelor’s degree in history and journalism from the University of Connecticut, Francesco Graziano Jr. says the high of graduating is starting to wear off.

“Sometimes you have to face reality,” says the Torrington resident. “And she can be kind of cold.”

Graziano joins countless other college grads throughout the state and beyond who do not have immediate full-time work after graduation. One option for Graziano – or any recent graduate who does not have a full-time gig – is to go back to school, but this Husky alumnus sees that as backtracking.

“No grad school for me,” says Graziano, whose ideal job would be an anchor on a major sports network. “I want to make some money and start the rest of my life.”

And the opposite of making some money would be spending it.

Joseph Catrino, assistant dean for career services in the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University, says that oftentimes grads will shy away from further education so they do not have to take on additional loans.

“I have a lot of students say they’ll work a year or two then go to grad school,” says Catrino, who himself took almost two years off after graduating from Marist College before being accepted into a University of Hartford master’s program. At Hartford, Catrino worked as an assistant director of admissions so the school offered tuition reimbursement, which he gladly accepted.

“With the current economy, [tuition reinbursement] has been cut back,” says Catrino. “But if you want to go to grad school down the road, the company you work for may have tuition reimbursement.”

Milford resident Melissa Campoli, also a 2011 University of Connecticut graduate, hopes she can be so lucky. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies, Campoli plans on taking a year off before pursuing grad school. She says her ideal job would be a counselor at an elementary school - a position that would require a master’s degree.

“The classes that I took in college have been general,” she says. “A master’s would specialize more with kids … a more in-depth study with more specific theories.”

There are some jobs where grad school is inevitable, says Annalisa Zinn, assistant dean for career services in the College of Arts and Sciences at Quinnipiac University. Zinn says about 67 percent of students in the arts and sciences go directly to graduate school after earning their undergraduate degree.

“Many of them are seeking occupations that require a master’s degree,” she says, such as a lawyer or doctor. Zinn says Quinnipiac’s high grad school acceptance percentage is reflective of the next-step preparation taught during the undergraduate years. And included in that instruction is advocating the pursuit of internships, she says.

Internships are not only useful for getting into grad school, though. They can be a big help in landing that first job.

When companies take on an intern it is a “try before buy” approach, says Jill Ferrall, assistant dean for career services at the Quinnipiac University School of Business. About 70 percent of Qunnipiac business students who have internships receive a full-time job offer from the company he or she is interning at by the end of the internship, Ferrall says.

Most of the time these are “larger companies with a rolling need” for employees, she says.

“An internship in business is crucial,” Ferrall says. “No one wants a student fresh out of college without previous work experience.”

Graziano interned at WFSB Channel 3 last semester. Among other things, he says the internship taught him how to write, shoot and edit postgame interviews, typically involving high school sports. By the end of his tenure at the local news station, an associate producer position was available, but Graziano says he did not jump on it because he was not sure he wanted to “get stuck” at the position.

“Everyone I know that has a job [in broadcasting] is a going to be a producer,” says Graziano, whose dream job once again is to be a sports anchor.

The recent grad says his plan for the summer is to work at a local parks and recreation department, intern gratis for a nearby baseball club and continue to look for jobs on the local sports front. Graziano says if he sees hope of a full-time position in an unpaid internship, he would apply for it. He would rather do that than go to grad school because journalism is, in part, about learning the trade outside the classroom, he says.

“I’ve been told in the business if you don’t have a job or internship then you are showing employees you don’t care about your craft and you aren’t working on it,” he says.