Thursday Thirteen: Oh, The Places You'll Apply For Jobs!

Scroll down to find rules on this giveaway.  Remember, to enter this contest you must leave me a comment with your best piece of advice for a college freshman.

Here is the last installment of my three week series of book reviews.  This week's book is How To Survive The Real World and man, I need to read this book cover to cover and sleep with it under my pillow and shred copies of it into my salads because I'm 40-mumble and still not sure how to survive in the real world.

How To Survive The Real World is published by Hundreds of Heads, the folks who also publish How To Survive Your Freshman Year (reviewed here), How To Get A's In College (reviewed here), and even a book called How To Survive Your In-Laws; I suppose a key hint there is that if you do away with your in-laws you've survived them.  Somehow, though, I think that's beside the point.

In any case, I found some of the advice in How To Survive The Real World particularly poignant, since it has to do with striking out on your own for what might be the first time.  There's lots of advice on how to build and maintain new relationships with your family and parents on an adult level, along with some advice that is simultaneously useful and silly (see below: Snickers Bar).  Again, all the information in How To Survive The Real World comes from young people who have made the transition from the make-believe adulthood of college to the like-it-or-not reality of first job, first home, first car and all that comes with them.

Do you want to win my treasured copy of How To Survive The Real World?  Leave me a comment on this post giving the best piece of advice you'd give a new college freshman.  I'll draw one name at random for each book on July 31st.

Adult Life: What's That?

• "We're inundated with Hollywood images about how our first love, our first job, and our life will look as adults.  In a way, we're set up to reach for things that may not be realistic.  Finding your way takes time, and it helps to know others feel this way too."

Oh, The Places You'll Go!  On Traveling & Settling

• "On apartmentratings.com, current and former tenants of complexes nationwide share their experiences living in particular places.  The site is pretty accurate, too."

Dealing With Others: Your Parents, Your Roommates

• "When living with someone, make sure they know that the Snickers bar in the fridge is yours."

You're Hired: Finding Your First Real Job

• "You are a fungible worker bee.  Get over your pride and use your connections.  "Referred by so-and-so's tennis partner" scrawled by the HR person at the top of your resume may be the only thing separating you from the other fungible worker bees."

Climbing To The Top: Do's & Don'ts In The Workforce

• "I treated my first jobs was if they were just like my early "jobs" -- being a student.  I thought that if I did exactly what was asked of me I'd get a good mark and be "promoted" to the next level.  Boy, does it ever not work like that!"

Back To School: Opting For Graduate Work

• "I got my doctorate because I needed to be taken seriously as a woman in a field that is very male-dominated.  I would never be as financially secure and as professionally respected if I hadn't done it."

Basic Survival Skills:  Cooking, Adult Etiquette & More

• "I often send somebody an article on a subject that I think would interest the person.  This really shows that I paid attention to what they were saying and took the time to show I care."

• "If someone contacts you in any way -- letter, email, phone call, whatever -- reply to them.  This is how adults operate."

Old Friends, New Friends: Making (and Keeping) Connections

• "Be warned: you no longer live in a dorm and, sad and harsh as it may seem, not everyone may be trying to become insta-best friends with you in time for homecoming.  Reserve the intimate details of your home life or love life for friends who really have earned your trust ans demonstrated authentic interest ... Also respect other people's choice to do the same without feeling dissed."

Looking For Love: Romance (and Loneliness) After College

• "The main thing that's different for me and dating is that my opening line -- 'So, are you in a sorority?' -- no longer works."

Red Alert: Cars, Credit Cards & Other Money Matters

• "Buying those boots before your trip to New York City is not an emergency!"

The Inner You: On Health & Spirituality

• "Quit smoking now.  You won't do it later.  This is true for cigarettes and marijuana.  They can be youthful indiscretions only so long as you're young.  After that, they will control your budget and your social life in ways you don't realize."

More Wisdom:  Good Stuff That Doesn't Fit Anywhere Else

• "If you find yourself counting among you accomplishments your high score on "Doom," you are not yet living in the real world, and perhaps you should take a break from  your computer.  There's a whole life out there waiting for you."

Do you want to win my treasured copy of How To Survive The Real World?  Leave me a comment on this post giving the best piece of advice you'd give a new college freshman.  I'll draw one name at random for each book on July 31st.

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