I Went to College for This?: How to Turn Your Entry Level Job Into a Career You Love

So Now What? explains how to navigate the sometimes tricky and often confusing career path for those who are just breaking into the real world. More often than not, college graduates will accept a first or early job offer that does not reflect their degree and training, or, if it does, they may be able to secure only an entry-level position. With these truths in mind, the author guides twenty-somethings through how to make the most of their early positions and use their first jobs as incremental hops to career happiness. So Now What? is unique in that it doesn’t tell a person how to get a job through a fabulous resume or an impressive interview, but instead teaches the reader how to use their first job – and the skills and experience acquired in that job – as an actual stepping-stone to bigger and better things. Topics include: networking; making menial jobs important; gaining respect from superiors; how to ask for a promotion, more responsibility, or more visibility; recognizing when it’s time to look for a new job and much more. Written in breezy twenty-something language by a 27-year-old career columnist at The Washington Post, the book contains real-life anecdotes of other post grads that will both inspire and inform the reader. The author tells the reader how to cultivate the career you want out of the job you have. Early career rules include: no.1 - Nothing’s Too Small For a Recent Grad (but make those small things count big…); no.2 - Freak Your Parents Out; no.3 - Okay, Now You Can Say No; no.4 - Make the Right Friends; no.5 - Office Romance is not Off-Base…But Should be Off-Campus; no.6 - Leave. Git. Skedaddle. Take Off. no.7 - Just Ask. Carefully. no.8 - Be Open, Think Hard