Career Starters vs. Grad Students

In the first years out of college, a great divide—and often some envy—loom between those who take jobs and those who head for grad school

by Lindsey Gerdes

In the first years out of college, a great divide—and often some envy—loom between those who take jobs and those who head for grad school

This past summer one of my closest friends moved just a few blocks away on the Upper West Side. We envisioned meeting up for frequent dinners at local haunts and taking regular walks in Riverside Park. Six months have passed, and we've seen each other a grand total of once—and that was for a rushed, last-minute meal—although there has been no falling out or fight.

I've been baffled by this—even though I know at least half the fault is mine—and have been trying to figure out how a friendship that survived different high school cliques as well as colleges on opposite coasts could somehow stall when seeing each other only means walking two blocks down the street.

People have suggested that the frenetic pace of New York City may be partially to blame, but I think it's more likely a result of the different paths we've taken. A student at Columbia's MFA program, my friend is often working on an assignment over the weekend when I want to go out, and she is ready to unwind on a Tuesday night when I'm already in bed because of an early-morning meeting the next day.

Self vs. the Company

In fact, I've come to believe that in the first few years after college, the greatest divider isn't different interests or the number of zeroes on one's paycheck. It's based on the decision to start a career or go back to academia for another degree and the different mindsets that accompany those decisions.

There are certain, almost inevitable, changes in one's thought process and approach when he or she is now paid to complete a task rather than paying to receive an education. Also, days are often much more regimented, and consistency becomes more important than the ability to cram.

Young hires are almost always beholden to company policy above all else. The end goal is less about self-actualization than about selfless action on behalf of the company.

Students, on the other hand, generally have at least some say in choosing their classes and/or the time of day and surroundings in which they prefer to do their work. So students, with more power over their day-to-day destinies, have it great by comparison, correct?

It's easy for someone like me to think so, but of course that's not necessarily the case. This was pointed out to me when I got to comparing situations with an NYU graduate student who spent two years working in the nonprofit world before starting at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service last year.

Time Management Differences

"The challenge is remembering how to deal with so much unstructured time," she says, citing the unexpected challenges in making the transition from a task-oriented workplace to a classroom where assignments are doled out days in advance. "You have so much time. You putz around and you're not productive."

A master procrastinator myself, I definitely learned how to be a more strategic planner when I joined the workforce. I didn't have a choice. In college, my last-minute scrambling might have resulted in a mediocre grade on a paper. But I realize that in working at a well-regarded national publication like BusinessWeek, a single instance of careless fact-checking could translate into a glaring mistake.

I have to confess that more than once, I've fallen into the trap of thinking my grad student friends must be coasting, based on my sometimes selective and rose-colored recollections of my own college years. Meaningful—at least at the time—4 a.m. discussions, spontaneous road trips, and attending afternoon lectures clad in pajama pants are all that I seem to remember of college.