As September is slowly creeping up (to end my beloved summer months), I’ve been thinking more and more about life after graduation. This will be my last year of University (thank God) and with the end in sight I’ve been contemplating my next move as a university graduate.

I’ve been working every year since I started high school and have even spent some summers working up to 3 jobs (the ‘careerist’ slant to this blog is no coincidence). A self-described work-o-holic, my friends have labeled me ‘crazy’. But the truth is, I actually enjoy working. And I’ve worked all kinds of jobs, too. It’s safe to say that I haven’t discriminated against any job, from shady grocery stores to government agency work. I’ve covered some ground, and busted my rump in the past few years… So I was thinking that once I graduate in the spring, I might take a break from work to do some traveling (original, I know).

But is it really okay to take a break?

The whole ‘university education’ thing was supposed to ensure that I actually GOT a job when I graduated, but knowing the ever-increasing competitive nature of the workforce for graduates, I wouldn’t want to miss out on an opportunity to land that big job just for a little down time.

I’ve been thinking about how some time off could be perceived by my (hopeful) future employer. Maybe they would see the need for an extended break as indicating a lack of drive or direction, that’s not me. I am convinced however, that whatever you decide to do after graduation, the ‘spin’ you put on the story is what makes or breaks the deal in an interview. The difference between: “I was just like, tired of all the work, y’know?” and “I took some time off to collect my thoughts and refocus on my long-term objectives” could mean the difference in employment status.

You could even try spinning a temporary insanity story… though I wouldn’t recommend it.

Regardless, the right spin is only part of the equation; taking time off usually means taking a risk that the job you want might not be available to you when you decide to jump back into the job market.

I know having a gap of unemployment on your resume is a little risky, but if I jump into a career right away I could find myself working until retirement without any serious time off!

Is it ever okay to take a break?

Two weeks ago, I was among hundreds of my peers dressed in blue robes. As we proceeded around the courtyard at my school, I’ll admit that it felt like a scene from Harry Potter, but it was—obviously—a little less magical and—sadly—a little less dangerous.

As I sat through my commencement ceremony, I thought about the position that my fellow graduates and I were in: a period of great change. For many of us, this time of change may last a long while.

I was reminded of this after the ceremony while at the reception for my faculty. Having been out of school for two months now, there was a lot of catching up to do with my classmates and instructors. I was asked many times what I was now “doing”. The questions felt a lot like an interview, which is good practice for most of us because we’ll be trying to survive interviews in the years to come. Here’s a blog that can help me and any others graduating this year ace any interview.

Some people talked of their dislike for their current job. I have always been torn between whether one should take a job because it pays well, but perhaps doesn’t fulfill a dream or a mediocre-paying job that you love. The more I read, I find writers reinforcing the idea that you’ve got to follow your heart. Without happiness in one’s job, one will not be happy in life. I will keep this in mind for all future endeavors.

I’m currently pretty happy with my job. I’ve written about how I’m working for an environmental organization and have suggested some ways that students can go green in a thrifty way. Well, here’s a blog that has some tips for recent grads — Don’t worry, I think students can use these ideas, too.

I’ve sort of been on a search for life-tips, recently. Over at poorerthanyou.com, it’s suggested that a grad continue to read and write. A grad should never stop learning and communicating. Not only because it can make for a more well-rounded person, but you never know when something may come up in an interview or needed in the workplace.

And here’s blog that has an entire post with tips for the “newly independent”. The site has suggestions on ways to save money on groceries to how to find an inexpensive apartment.

But my most favourite tip has been to not be afraid at something I’m pretty good at: failing. Jeff Nickles at My Super Charged Life says that fear of failure is what often holds people back in life. “My regret usually comes from the things I did not try, not from trying and failing,” Mr. Nickles writes.

This advice is echoed in the words of J.K. Rowling’s recent speech, delivered at a Harvard Graduation. Ms. Rowling says that, while it’s important to strive for success, it’s important to embrace the failure you will inevitably encounter along the way:

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.

Ms. Rowling may have enjoyed my convocation because, the entire time, I couldn’t help but think that the President of my school had a very Dumbledore-esque vibe going on. I thought about mentioning that to him as I shook his hand when I crossed the stage—but my notes from this post reminded me that first impressions are everything. Maybe I’ll say something the next time I see him…

I am. But maybe I’m the only one.

The past couple of days have been made up of a lot of looking back. Looking back on all I’ve accomplished. Looking back wondering whether I’ve learned enough. Looking back to make sure the roomies don’t mistakenly pack something of mine as their own. (The move is going well, if you’re wondering…)

I suppose my retrospection isn’t going unnoticed because my boss and friend passed along an interesting post. It comes from another blog run by an English prof south of the border. In her post, she suggests the idea of mandatory introductory finance classes for university students. In fact, she says that the class could be more beneficial than those introductory classes already in place:

But a personal finance course would benefit almost every student who took it. And it would benefit the society at large: widespread formal training in personal finance skills would reduce indebtedness and improve savings rates.

Keeping in mind that this is an American site, I tried to see whether any Canadian Universities offer a mandatory class such as that described. My search turned up empty. I know my University didn’t require that kind of class.

So, I tend to agree with her suggestion. I look back—or rather, try to look back—at many of my first year classes and remember just what it was I took away from them. The answer is: not much.

I turned to a friend to see what she thought of the idea. Her response surprised me: “I don’t think it’s my school’s job to provide that,” she said. “I go to get academic training and I don’t think that my personal finances have anything to do with that.”

Instead, she suggests voluntary workshops offered by student unions or within residence communities. I know my school offers a tax clinic during tax season and I imagine other schools offer similar programs, but what about something more?

I then asked her whether she thought that this type of course could work in a high school setting. In Ontario we have a mandatory class that sees every student gain an introduction to career options within Canadian society. She suggests that within the class, “Career Studies”, finance classes could be taught and would possibly be more beneficial than those lessons currently taught within that class. She remains hesitant, however, because personal finance is “not as relevant at this point in your life.”

An article appearing late last year in the Toronto Star, emphasizes the benefits of implementing mandatory classes earlier in life:

We should immediately establish a mandatory series of high school courses centered on money. After all what's the point of going out into the work force or on to college or university if you don't understand and can't manage your money.

Early on in the money curriculum students would keep a register of all their incomes and expenditures. What's important here is not the amount of money involved but how it is spent.

To test this idea, I went to someone who may know best: my 15-year-old niece. Initially she seemed opposed to the idea of a mandatory class. “I’d be angry she told me because I’m not very good at math,” she told me. But as we discussed whether or not she was sufficiently financially informed as is, her opposition seemed to ease up a little.

I think the important item to note is that there is a clear misrepresentation of adequate financial training for my generation. I didn’t know much about money until this year—and it’s a little late, if you ask me.

So, should money management classes be mandatory in post-secondary school?

Last week I finished something I’ve been looking forward to finishing for four years. The schedule said it would take me until 11 to finish the exam, but my eagerness and lack of knowledge pushed that estimation up a half hour. I put down my pen, picked up my paper and handed in that final test.

So, it was at 10:30 on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 that I completed my Undergraduate degree.

I’ve been asked a couple times lately if there was anything that I know now that I wish I had known before I started out at RyeHigh. I guess university acceptances are coming in and a whole new set of first years is anticipating next fall. Conveniently enough, all my suggestions have had to do with money:

Scholarships are out there waiting for you.

Bursaries are out there waiting for you.

Take advantage of them because I didn’t.

The biggest mistake that I made during my time in University was not applying for bursaries through my school. Firstly, I didn’t know how much they really existed until third year. In fourth, I was silly not to apply. So, I’ve picked three schools from across Canada to show you they’re out there. If your school wasn’t one of my picks, I apologize—but you should still go look for yourself!

University of Saskatchewan

Red River College in Manitoba

Dalhousie University

There are also many awards outside the walls of your school. Two websites that friends have told me they have used are studentawards.com and scholarshipscanada.com. The sites organize the scholarships and bursaries into categories making it easier to find what you’re looking for. You can even set up a personal profile and let the site provide you with bursary suggestions.

One of the sites offers a great page of tips on how to prepare your applications. I think the guy that wrote it may be a Ryerson Journalism grad, but that in no way influenced my decision to share this with you. It’s a helpful page, I swear.

Many corporations offer scholarships to students, as well. RBC has several bursaries for hard working students. They’ve got money for entrepreneurs and newcomers to the country, amongst others.

I don’t want to leave this post without informing you that I did apply for one bursary this year. Notice that the application deadline was after I got this job/when I started to get serious my money. I’ll update you when I hear back.

In the meantime, does anyone know of any other scholarship resources? I know, letting people in on your info increases the number of people trying to get at your money, BUT someone could end up helping you out, too…

I have a love hate relationship with April. Love it because its my birthday (the 28th, thank you very much). I hate it because its exam season.

So I’m a bit distracted these days, as are many (Kudos if you’re even reading this now. I only read what I absolutely need to nowadays), but I’m definitely learning some important, and maybe costly lessons. Don’t lose your dream (does that sound lame?).

I have so many exams in such a short period of time (some of them worth up to 50%) and I just can’t seem to think about anything, anyone or anywhere else but my textbooks. In the middle of all this, I’ve forgotten about the vision I had laid out for the business I’m planning to start up: the potential it has, the excitement it gives me, all of it. It’s kind of brutal, but its something that you ought to know about.

I even had a really dangerous thought the other day that could throw a wrench into things: “Maybe it would be better if I just didn’t do this. It would definitely be a lot easier.” Dang son. Sure it would be easier, but what does easy get you? Don’t let busy get in the way of what you want to get done.

One of my buddies, Dan, is starting a business up this summer. He has a solid business idea (details to come) and is planning on spending a couple of months on this idea alone. It’s going to be a time commitment, but I have to keep in mind that It’s a mental commitment too. In fact, I guess you could call it a mental investment; Dan is always talking about it (which is a good thing) and I’m sure he’s always thinking about it (well, not always).

So what are you supposed to stop this passion drain from happening. It’s called a pen and a piece of paper. Novel, I know. Write down your ideas, your vision (where do you want to take it - and think really big), and other things that will keep you on track. A piece of paper is way better than writing it on the computer, at least for the purpose of not losing the passion. A paper is more pervasive. You can’t just “file-save” it and hide it in some folder. You’ll cherish the paper and put it on your bulletin board, and then when its time to move for the summer you’ll have to look at it and pack it up.

Its in your face.

It’s a bandaid solution though. Ideas are like milk. They just don’t keep very well. You need to use them as you get them. Have you ever had a GREAT idea, and then a week and half later you thought about it and it just sucked? Well, it probably didn’t, it just got stale and you couldn’t hack it.

Study hard (for now) & write down your ideas. But get ready to hit the grindstone, because those ideas shouldn’t be on that piece of paper for long.

This week, I wanted to look into one that might be of particular interest to students. It’s pretty controversial so I’m looking forward to hearing some different perspectives on the subject.

Tuition fees.

I’ll be graduating next year with a Bachelor of Social Science, and lately, I’ve been thinking about: (1) How I’ll ever be able to break into the workforce after graduation and (2) The protests to lower tuition fees. Despite the widely publicized rally to lower tuition fees last year, it’s a topic that I keep hearing about around campus. It appears that a lot of students are still really unhappy about their tuition fees. I wanted to get to the bottom of the issue…

I wanted to get a closer look at just who was behind the campaign to freeze tuition fees. What I found out, was that this social movement is being supported by the Canadian Federation of Students. The CFS boasts a student membership of over 500,000 post-secondary students across Canada. Pretty impressive. I read on about the Principles of the Federation and found that their “ultimate goal – [is] a system of post-secondary education that is accessible to all…” Pretty ambitious.

Stats Can found that between the 1990 and 2005, tuition fees increased at a pace that was 4 times faster than the average rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index. Here’s what that looks like:

The idea of lowering tuition costs is definitely an attractive one to myself and many other students. Granting greater access to education, by freezing tuition fees is an interesting idea that has a lot of people talking. But I’ve been thinking about what the success of this social movement will mean for the value of my degree in the market of undergrads and competition for jobs after graduation.

Will lower tuition fees reduce the value of the undergrad degree?

Instead of simply lowering tuition fees to make post-secondary education “accessible to all”, I’d be in favour of a more merit-based system for granting access to post-secondary institutions. This would give equal opportunity to all prospective students, while making the admission process more competitive.

Finland’s tuition-free universities are a great example of the success of a merit-based system. Finland boasts tuition-free universities that have been ranked by the World Economic Forum as one of the best education systems in the world, as found by the Global Competitiveness Index.

Should Canada be taking a page out of Finland’s book?

Just something on my mind...

If you guys haven't, check out Nick's blog on razor blades. But here's a little something I just found out, drying your blades after you shave will increase the life of your razor by 122%. A shout out goes to Lifehacker with his blog on how to get things done easier and at a better price.

So, a short quick explanation of why we're here!! A little late, but I've had some formatting issues with this video. Enjoy!