How To NOT Have A Graduate Quarter-Life Crisis

Graduation is fast approaching. Or maybe it’s already been and gone. 9am lectures feel like forever ago. An uneasy feeling has settled in your stomach; a feeling your friends can empathise with but your parents can’t seem to.

Welcome to the beginning of your quarter-life crisis, a real-life phenomenon that sees 20-somethings struggling under the pressures of adulthood.

It’s immediately obvious that life after uni doesn’t gift you with that dream job your university’s welcome pack so eagerly promised. Worse still, you apparently can’t get a refund on those three years of education you undertook. While being in your 20s no longer means owning your own house or having a career, there are ways to avoid this cursed quarter-life crisis. Or at least to put it off for a few years.

Make your own experience

Ah! The graduate paradox that insists you need experience to gain a job in your chosen field, but no one will give you that experience. The answer? Make your own, if only to feel productive.

The frustration that comes with not being given the chance to prove yourself may just ease if you occupy your spare time wisely. If you’re a writer, finally make a start on that novel. If you’re a photographer, take five photos a day. Start up a blog where you consistently write about your chosen field. Keep your mind occupied – and your hands too!

No pub trips allowed (well… fewer pub trips)

After a few weeks of getting your five a day (beverages, that is), it’s easy to feel unproductive. For the sake of your bank account, your productivity and your goals, the binge drinking has to stop. It’s time to find other ways to socialise.

Rally your friends together for a daytime BBQ. Declare a movie night. Have a picnic or spend an evening at the cinema. It sounds oh so Enid Blyton, but your 20s are not an age to develop an alcohol dependency.

Maintain one of those adult routines they speak of

A routine can be beneficial when trying to avoid the will-I-ever-get-a-job blues. You’re probably back at home, your parents questioning why you’re wandering around the house eating cereal at midnight. Get to bed earlier and wake up between seven and nine three or four times a week. When you do get a job, you’ll be grateful for the discipline.

Practice the skills you’re supposed to have gained at uni

Offer to cook dinner twice a week for your family, do your own washing and clean your room. You might think moving back in with your parents is a step backwards but they might also need to adjust. A quarter-life crisis can be kept at bay by actually acting like an adult, not a belligerent teen.

Don’t make applying for jobs a dragged out chore

Avoiding the quarter-life crisis naturally means applying for jobs. Email companies and hand out CVs. Allocate a whole morning or a whole afternoon five days a week to this task. Add a playlist of your favourite songs to the mix and the job’s a good’un.

It’s easy to become absorbed with post-university stress when you haven’t got a job lined up. If the process is structured and devoid of too much panic, applying for jobs shouldn’t appear so hopeless that you just want to give up.

Put pen to paper

There’s nothing more fulfilling than offloading the million tasks you need to do by 6pm onto a piece of paper. Write a manageable and practical list so that you don’t feel like a failure when 6pm does roll about. According to psychologist Dr David Cohen, lists are the answer to figuring out what needs to be done and feeling less anxious about the plethora of to-dos.

Cross off tasks

What’s more fulfilling than writing a list? Completing it. A quarter-life crisis feeds off the feeling of being unproductive. Tasks that have been crossed off allow for feelings of accomplishment and motivation.

Get those endorphins

Going for a run or going to a workout class will distract your mind from obsessing over not having a job. Starting the day with a few lengths at the local swimming pool will improve your sleep, thereby easily benefiting your energy when it comes to waking up to job applications. When you’re surrounded by expectations regarding your life, those endorphins will give you the boost your family and friends might not be providing you with.

Almost as soon as you become a fully-fledged graduate, you’ll realise there really is such a thing as too much TV. Coupled with the fact that your student discount has been so unfairly snatched away from you, a quarter-life crisis is a terrifying possibility – and one that’s ready and waiting to pounce on every graduate.

So chin up, my friend. Another day of rain may greet you as you wake. But the one thing you needn’t feel cloudy about is your future.

Kathryn ─ known as Kat even though she prefers Kath ─ studied English Language at Cardiff University and now wants to finally write that book she’s always been meaning to write. Check out her Twitter, Instagram and blog to delve into her mind further.

Inspiring Interns is a graduate recruitment agency which specialises in sourcing candidates for marketing internship roles and giving out graduate careers advice. To browse graduate jobs and graduate jobs Manchester, visit their website.