I'm Lost. Just Graduated College & Turned 22. Next Steps?

Hey guys, fairly new to this forum. I apologize in advance if this post is funky. 

I recently graduated from a non-target state school with a B.S. in Financial Analysis. Throughout my whole college career, I knew I wanted to study Finance, however, I was not certain about what I wanted to end up doing. I pretty much studied it because it was interesting to me. I had nothing figured out and thought Finance would be the way to go.

Fast forward 4 years. Just graduated with a 3.8 and turned 22 a couple of days ago. 

I've been extremely stressed because I feel like I don't have shit figured out. Although I've been a pretty focused guy my whole life in school, my technical skills are not the best due to certain distractions in my personal life (Females) that kinda just allowed me to get a good GPA but not actually learn and perfect these skills. I'm sure this is a common issue for a lot of college students. 

Now, I've begun to settle down. I've always cared about my future but was not really aware of how hard it would be in the real world. 

As far as my professional life, as I said above, I'd like to end up working in Finance. My ultimate goal (I'm sure everyone's) is to make that Finance salary and build capital to move onto different personal sources of income. 

As you can probably see, I have a blurry vision of the bigger picture, but obviously needs to become more detailed in order to create a pathway.

I'm lost on what to do next. Graduate school? Job? No idea.

I am now regretting not putting more effort into this when I was in college. I should've known just graduating wasn't going to cut it.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

4 Comments
 

A 3.8 at a non-target may not get those “top” jobs people discuss a lot here, but you have a respectable gpa in a hireable major from a university that isn’t SNHU. Don’t think about more school this early, it is rarely the optimal solution and is kicking the can.  Graduate degrees will always be there later in your career.  Take a few hours this week with pen and paper. Write down what you see yourself doing day to day, what team sizes and environments you like, what type of roles you’d thrive in (sales, research, management etc.).  Relax for a bit, and when you narrow down what you’re seeking pound the pavement with networking and informational meetings. You’ll land on your feet. 

 

"As far as my professional life, as I said above, I'd like to end up working in Finance. My ultimate goal (I'm sure everyone's) is to make that Finance salary and build capital to move onto different personal sources of income." 

Listen to yourself man. What the fuck does that even mean? You have been studying finance for four years but cannot even give us a basic description of what it is you'd actually like to do?? SMH. 

Your statement could mean anything from FP&A, to risk management to working at Apollo lmao. 

Do your basic due dilligence then come back to us. Because it seems like you really have no idea what you want. 

 

"As far as my professional life, as I said above, I'd like to end up working in Finance.

You're in asset management as a first year analyst - isn't that finance?

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

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