Top 10 College-Life Skills That Impact Career Success

10. Networking
From fraternities to sororities, RSO’s to study groups, athletics and occasionally the bars, the people you have met here and there are your life long contacts. Facebook might just be useful in the post-college real world after all.

9. Multitasking
Cellphone, IM, away messages, writing a paper, facebooking, conference calling, emails and having to be at two places at the same time. These and many more define you as a multitasking pro. Now in the real world try to multitask without the need to facebook or gmail every 1.32 seconds and turn these skills into career builders.

8. Scheduling
Remember the countless hours you spent creating the perfect semester schedule. Don’t deny it. You spent every waking moment trying to figure out how to get out of 8AMs and start every day at 11. Take these skills to the next level in the work place. You’ll never have scheduling conflicts again.

7. Teamwork
Eww! How many times have you dreaded working on a group project with a cast full of characters that you just didn’t get along with? Welcome to real life where you might have to see these same people everyday. The horror! So don’t get rid of that faux smile you worked on for the last four years just yet. Keep it in your back pocket.

6. Budgeting
From Ramen noodles to $1 burger night at the local campus pub, you had to learn how to work that dollar. Just think of being able to budget $35,000+ a year. Ahh, refreshing.

5. All-Nighters
How many countless hours were spent in the lab working on a design or project? Between this and managing caffeine intake an extra hour or two at the office during the weekday is child’s play compared to those 4ams you used to pull the night before a paper was due.

4. Credit
Maybe you were good, or maybe you were bad. If you were bad with your credit then hopefully you are figuring out the difference between a 6.5% interest rate versus 11.5%. If you managed your credit well, then you just might get a sick rate on your new vehicle purchase.

3. Cooking
Coming out of college we all should be master chefs. Who knew tuna and pickle juice could taste good. Or that Chewy Chips Ahoy with some peanut butter on top melted in the microwave could make for dessert. Let your culinary skills shine now that you don’t have to work strictly with the aforementioned Ramen noodles.

2. Body and Fitness
Don’t think that all those intramural flag football and basketball are over just yet. You have the competitive world of intramurals in the working world. Maybe your company has memberships to a health club with organized sports. Keep on keeping on and sign up.

1. Independence
By the end of college, it’s finally time to get away from asking Mom and Dad every miniscule question you can muster. Nope! You can’t even keep them on hold. It’s time to put down the phone and move on. Take all the college independence you learned and start doing something with it. Make your own decisions, finance your own situation, get things rolling. It’s all you now! 

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