Making the transition from late night pizza runs at CU Boulder to early morning coffee runs for new coworkers is an eye-opening one that is equal parts exciting, stressful, rewarding, and enlightening. As I sat in Folsom Field in my cap and gown last May, I reminisced about the accomplishments, friendships, and all that I had learned from the past 4 years. But I also found myself worrying. They say college is the best 4 years of your life, so what’s next? What would I choose to do with my days? How do I adult? Were there even karaoke nights and half-priced pitchers in the real world? My fellow grads and I were about to dive head first into the unknown, bracing ourselves with only a degree and a couple of freshly ironed shirts Grandma sent for a graduation gift. As I approach the 1-year mark of my own post-grad journey, I had the opportunity to reflect on what this year has taught me.

1. Search far and wide for the best fit, you never know where you could end up – and find a company that believes in you and your skill-set. Beginning my job search as the school year winded down, I didn’t really know what to expect or where I’d be living and working. I fired off resume after resume to companies in cities I didn’t even know existed, thinking I’d move far, far away. Never leave any stone left unturned and make sure you are using all of your resources while job-hunting, you never know where you’ll find the connection that leads to your first job. In my case, it was my mother’s coworker’s bowling league partner… and the location? Not even a mile from the house I grew up in… who woulda thought?
2. Look for a company that shares your values. Make sure you are in alignment with the mission that your company is working towards and that you have a team of good people around you (basically, you are going to be spending a lot of time with these folks, so make sure they don’t smell bad). But actually, everyone at Get Found Fast is working towards the same mission: to help our clients achieve their goals. It seems obvious, but at the heart of everything we do on a day-to-day basis, that underlying goal sets the tone for everything we do for our clients. In life and in business, there are always going to be bad people. Having met with and formed relationships with clients coming to us from bad relationships with their previous SEO and digital marketing companies, it is a much better feeling to be on the other side of that conversation and help show that there are trustworthy companies who want to see their clients succeed.
3. Size matters. By this I mean, do you want to work at the big, national, corporate agency with hundreds of people, or do you prefer working in close quarters with a smaller, local team of digital marketing experts? For me, it was the latter (and not just because of the BBQ’s and the ping pong table). Get Found Fast is a smaller, local, full-service digital marketing agency with a team of people who are damn good at what they do. I can’t speak to the big agency experience, but working at a smaller agency has given me the opportunity to wear all sorts of different hats in my day-to-day and has allowed me to learn from and get to know the people in each department. This is also a huge benefit to our clients because they are meeting and strategizing with the very same people who touch their account every single day.
4. Expect and embrace the growing pains. Coming out of college, you might think you know everything, like how to put a filter on a set of data or how to put a new roll of paper towels into the dispenser, but you don’t. There are going to being growing pains, so just accept that there will be a learning curve with everything you are doing at your new agency. Your coworkers are there to help you, so ask questions, get new podcast suggestions, take notes, research things you’ve never heard of, and just soak in everything you are learning. Don’t shy away from learning about things that are scary like API keys and A-records from your web development team, or learn how to write a blog like this one and make it into Google-food for search engine optimization.
5. Have fun with it. The last piece of advice I have from this year is to enjoy it. There is going to be a lot of hard work ahead, the transition is not an easy one, but when you take a step back and enjoy the process, it will be a heckuva lot easier. The real world isn’t so scary after all. It is a time and a place to do some learning about yourself, prioritizing and learning all of the things that college can’t teach you. And yes, it turns out there are still karaoke nights and half-priced pitchers in the real world. Cheers and best of luck finding the agency for you!

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