After completing what may seem like the most tedious three to four years of your life, adjusting to life outside university can be tough. While graduation signifies an end to an important chapter in your life, many students are often left dazed, confused and wondering, ‘what’s next?’. There are various paths which you can take once completing your degree, and remember, everyone’s journey will be different.

If you’re still wondering what you should do after completing your degree, there are 5 options we have outlined below for you to choose from.

1. Obtain a graduate job

As soon as graduates receive their official degree transcripts, they begin to look for employment. Finding a job straight out of university is no walk in the park. It requires a fair amount of proactiveness. You should try different approaches, remain positive, learn from any possible set-back and continuously improve your CV until you succeed. This can be extremely taxing on your mental health, but if you’re adamant to land yourself that dream job after you graduate, it’s best you keep at it and not give up.

In addition, there are various corporates that offer graduate programmes which set you up with a job once you complete the programme. Before graduating, you should consider looking into these corporate companies and see which programme best suits what you would like to do.

2. Become self-employed

Easier said than done, but you need to start thinking outside the box. With the 4^th Industrial Revolution coming into play, you need to be prepared for the changes in the workplace and how you can easily adapt to change. An easy way to deal with this is becoming self-employed. If you’re unable to find your dream job, why not start your own company? Perhaps you have great entrepreneurial skills and entrepreneurship is what is currently taking this country by storm. So, find a niche and fill it to the best of your ability.

3. Pursue a postgraduate degree

A common choice is returning to university to study at postgraduate level, a route that many find rewarding, but also extremely tiring. However, studying for a Masters degree takes time and money, so make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons and not because you were trapped by the comfort of being in a familiar place or a bursary scheme. Whatever you do, do not take on a Masters degree to stall for time, as courses are exorbitantly priced and unnecessary for certain jobs.

4. Take a gap year

If you want to travel, following the COVID-19 pandemic, learn a new language, experience different cultures and meet new people before entering the working world, you should consider a gap year. Travel experience makes you an interesting candidate and can improve employability in the long run. Taking a year to weigh out your options, decide what’s most important to you and ‘find yourself’, helps you make more informed decisions in your life. If this sounds like something you would like to do, you’ll need to have a plan of action upon returning as you can’t expect a job to be waiting for you when you return to the real world.

5. Study another degree

After studying for three, long years, this option is not everyone’s cuppa tea. However, there are many people who study to obtain a degree to get a job but are actually passionate to learn about something else, like the environment. Having two different qualifications on your CV can also be very rewarding as you have an abundance of knowledge on various topics.

We hope that these suggestions help you and all the best on your journey after graduation!