Preparing for life after GC

The transition after college can be both exciting and challenging. If your next stop is the working world, the key to a positive transition is recognizing the differences between school and work and being prepared to accept the changes. Even if your next stop is not full-time employment, you’ll still find that many “life skills” are not taught in the academic classroom.

Career Services has developed the Career Countdown Series to assist you in a smooth transition. Through a series of events, you will write a resume and cover letter, practice interviewing, learn about personal finances, and more!

Web sites for the transition after college

Table of contents:

Relocating, renting, purchasing first home

  • Sperling’s Best Places – Moving out of Goshen, but not sure where you’re going? Learn about the cost of living, housing, climate, and crime rate in hundreds of US cities.
  • Apartments.com – Search for rentals by majors cities. Resources for after you move in Apartment Living section
  • ApartmentList.com -Over 1.8 million listings nationwide, each city  is broken down into neighborhoods, highlighting pricing, noise level, nearby attractions, restaurants, shopping, etc.
  • Move.com – Search millions of real estate listings (for rent and for sale) from all over the United States
  • MyCheapApartments.com – efficiently find cheap apartments for rent using the “Cheap Scale ®”
  • Let Someone Else Pay Half Your Bills – Renting with a roommate is a good way to lower your monthly expenses, but it can also be a recipe for financial disaster. Read Money.com’s advice.
  • How-to Guide: How to Buy Your First Home – Are you considering purchasing a home? Not sure where to start? Browse this guide from Move.com. Articles include
    - Costs Associated with a Home Loan
    - Buying vs. Renting?
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Personal finance

  • CashCourse – Great resource from the National Endowment for Financial Education. Learn how to create a budget, manage student loans, finance grad school, and much more.
  • 10 Steps to Financial Success for New Grads - Ten suggestions from MSN Money to make sure you’re headed in the right direction financially.
  • Money 101 – Very thorough guide from CNN Money on everything related to personal finance, including creating a budget, managing debt, investing, and insurance.
  • Budgeting, Insurance & Investing- Tip sheet from Auburn University Career Center
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Job offers and negotiating salaries

  • Salary Guides and Guidance – The Riley Guide links to several online salary calculators and offers advice for evaluating the information from those calculators. Also, suggestions for handling salary history requests from potential employers.
  • Job Offer Negotiation – Several articles from CollegeGrad.com. Learn how to handle offers, negotiate salary, and understand your benefits package.
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Transition to the professional working world

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Cooking

  • The Food Network – New cooks will find the “Cooking” and “Quick & Easy” tabs to be most helpful.
  • Allrecipes.com – Over 40,000 recipes! Read reviews and suggestions from other cooks.
  • Cooking Light – Thousands of recipes with an emphasis on healthy meals and snacks.
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Other topics

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