If you’ve just graduated or you’re soon to graduate, you might be freaking out a little. Everyone warns you about how hard and scary the “real world” is, but they often don’t tell you how awesome post-uni life is. Both good and bad, these are the realities of the real world that you should know about.

You have to make big life decisions like work vs travel

And the crazy thing is, for the first time in your life, you’ll have to think beyond just one year in advance. You’ll need to consider the next few years of your life – do you want to live overseas and work at a bar or get a job based on what you studied? Or do you just want to live like a nomad and explore for a while? Whether you want to settle down and work full-time or think about your options elsewhere, it will take a lot of research and consideration of factors that you may not know yet.

Grades really don’t matter that much

Much like when you started uni and no one cared about what ATAR you got, the same goes for the marks you got at uni. Most jobs won’t ask for a transcript, particularly if you’re working in a creative industry. The important thing is to build up a portfolio or a resume that brags of all your work experience. If you’re worrying doing an internship will affect your marks, think again. It’s much more important to get that real world experience and who knows – it might even help you land your post-uni job.

Sometimes good timing and luck can also help you get a job

You can work your butt off during uni, but sometimes it’s a right place, right time situation. That doesn’t mean you can sit back and let fate do the work – you’ll still need to search for jobs. But you might have made a connection over the years who happens to know someone who’s hiring, or you might be searching for jobs at a time when not many other people are. Be sure to check beyond the usual job sites and keep in contact with anyone you know in the industry, just in case.

Searching for jobs will be a full-time job in itself

If you’re looking to land a full-time job straight away, you probably won’t have much of a break from uni at all. Unfortunately, it will be straight from exam mode into job-search mode. And if you haven’t started looking yet – be warned that it takes a lot of effort. If you want employers to consider you, it means writing a lot of unique cover letters so you can answer the exact criteria the job is asking for. Keeping track of all the jobs you’ve applied for and jobs you need to apply for will feel like you’re back in assignment mode again, locked inside your bedroom glued to your laptop.

You’ll learn skills that no internship or uni subject ever taught you

In most cases, you might not be doing the exact job your degree lined up for you. If so, it’s a blessing in disguise because you’ll learn so much more. There’s also some things you may not care to know, but it’s just a part of the boring admin involved in any job. There’s a lot more processes and paper work that you might not consider to be important in the scheme of things. Unfortuantely, it’s just a part of any job and has to be done.

It’s a HUGE transition

You were probably told over and over how big the transition would be when you left high school and entered uni. Yet somehow, most people neglect to mention that leaving uni is an even bigger transition. After irregular uni hours that sometimes meant sleep-ins and only three days a week, the nine to five slog five days a week is actually a bit of a shock to the system.

But despite all the tough parts of the real world, it will also be so great. You’ll finally feel like a proper adult and all your friends will be going through it with you at similar stages, so you won’t be alone during this big, exciting change.