Congrats! Now what?
March 19, 2018 7:47 AM   Subscribe

I, a gainfully employed person, just completed my bachelor's degree. What now? When I google all I get is advice for finding a job. I am more looking for new goals or things I can work towards. Looking for anything from small, (get a CPR certificate) to big (get a SCUBA diving certificate).

What have you done that has brought you a sense of accomplishment?

Also interested in non-certificate things, like running a 5k, or organizing a sock drawer.
posted by MadMadam to Education (14 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Learn a new language? Pick one spoken in a region where you'd like to travel, and then make it your goal to go there and speak as little English as possible!
posted by btfreek at 7:57 AM on March 19, 2018


Learn to be able to do nothing for a while. If you're anything like me, that's a lot harder than it sounds.
posted by pipeski at 8:03 AM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


If you like anything outdoors, get a Wilderness First Aid certification.

It covers all the usual stuff but with the much more information and an attitude of problem solving and improvisation. And if you want CPR, do a BLS class instead. That's the same thing but from the medical side of things.

And also doing nothing for a while is good. I recall when I finished, for about 6 months I was always trying to remember if I needed to be studying for some... LOL

SandPine
posted by sandpine at 8:36 AM on March 19, 2018


I get a big sense of accomplishment from sewing. My personal thing is quilting. So for little projects I make potholders or tea cozies (even smaller: coasters), and for big projects I make full quilts. In the winter when I am inside anyway I calculate how many weddings and housewarmings I'll be attending in the coming year and make one set of potholders as a gift for each.

I am SCUBA certified and I did enjoy that process, but I can't afford to dive or travel to a good place to dive so it feels a little silly to have it now. At least I got to see those little sharks that one time!

If you are in a larger city there may be a children's hospital with a Ronald McDonald house that needs meals prepared. That requires a lot of planning and execution and I would feel very accomplished to have pulled that off.

I like the idea of being certified for wilderness first aid. Maybe I will do that one!
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:40 AM on March 19, 2018


I've gotten a sense of accomplishment from checking off some of the "adult" stuff:
-- Figuring out how to create a budget for myself (and sticking to it)
-- Figuring out how to set up and fund retirement investment accounts
-- Putting together a will and healthcare power of attorney
-- Creating a system for things like grocery shopping and cooking so they are as efficient as possible and take up as little time and mental energy as possible
posted by mcduff at 8:47 AM on March 19, 2018




If there are any professional certifications in your field that you ever plan to take, start studying for them now while your good study habits are still ingrained.
posted by DoubleLune at 9:30 AM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


I went through a phase like this a few years ago, and I ended up getting certified as a notary public. In my state this was pretty cheap and really easy: about $40 for a couple hours' online training, a perfunctory (open-book) online test, getting the test results and application notarized and sent to the secretary of state, and $30 or so for materials (which you don't even really need if you just want the certification and don't intend to practice).

This may even be of use to your employer depending on what you do. Every small business I've seen of 6-20 people has someone in a notarial capacity. My own practice has been limited to just random stuff for friends (and by "random" I mean "cool": someone's paperwork and signature sheets when he ran for elected office, someone's title transfer when the company bought her Volkswagen back because of the recall, someone's power of attorney as a board member of a foreign-domiciled corporation). But it was just fun to go through the certification procedure; it felt a lot like being in school again, albeit just for an afternoon.

This might be more expensive/difficult depending on where you are. Check with your secretary of state (if you're ex-US, this answer might not apply). But I've found it to be rewarding.
posted by 7segment at 9:55 AM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


Learn to make something. Knitting was intensely satisfying for me because I could take a material and make a useful, beautiful thing. I was able to give gifts that I had created, myself. So: knitting, pottery, something along those lines.
posted by Smearcase at 10:20 AM on March 19, 2018


Does your workplace offer training you can take advantage of? I had a job where you could win small prizes for reading books from the company library and writing a short book review.

A lot of libraries supply free access to adult ed resources, such as learning to code and language learning. Peruse the website and see if anything strikes your fancy. I used to attend a foreign policy discussion group at a library ("Great Decisions" materials) - you can see if there's something already going on or start a group on a topic that interests you.
posted by momus_window at 10:35 AM on March 19, 2018


If you want levels, SCUBA is the way to go. PADI has a byzantine tree of certifications in various disciplines, including rescue, instruction, cave/wreck diving, etc. Of course, each class costs a lot of money, when you factor equipment, travel, and something like $25 as an instructor fee for each dive. But it is really neat.

Cub Scouts is also great for this sort of thing, there are several levels of training and it can be hard to get people to sign up for them. It helps to have a child in scouting (they accept girls now) but I'm not sure it's technically required.
posted by wnissen at 11:13 AM on March 19, 2018


Around here, a big thing in the hiking community is peak bagging. I'm working (not very hard) on my New Hampshire 48, which involves summiting all 48 mountains in New Hampshire that are 4,000 feet high or higher. There are other lists too, like the New England 67 (all the 4,000-footers in New England), the New England Hundred Highest (the 100 highest peaks, but defined a little differently than the NH48 and NE67), and the 52 With a View (52 mountains that are less than 4,000 feet tall but have good views).

Plenty of others. There's the Trailwrights 72, the New England 50 Finest, the Terrifying 25—and then you can get a different patch (YES you can earn patches) for most of those lists if you do all the peaks in the winter.

I don't know where you live or if you are outdoorsy, but it's a ton of fun and a great excuse to go out and do some hiking. If this sounds at all fun to you, check out the Peak Bagging List of Lists and see what's in your area!

Oh, and get that Wilderness First Aid certification that was mentioned upthread! You can do the Wilderness First Responder if you're feeling more ambitious, or even get your Wilderness EMT which includes everything in the standard EMT-Basic curriculum (you end up certified as an EMT) plus a bunch of advanced wilderness medicine as well. The WEMT was a one-month intensive (40 hours/week) course when I did it and it was super fun.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 3:14 PM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


get your motorcycle license!
posted by ghostbikes at 6:40 PM on March 19, 2018


Get an infant/child CPR certification. Park employees with that certification saved my son's life. I enrolled in the very next class.

Also Master Gardener certification is hella fun, and I made close friends I still have 13 years later!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:39 PM on March 19, 2018


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