Pre-Final Year Feels

First of all, WTF? It feels like not so long ago that I wrote my first post on this blog when I started my degree: My Move-In Week. Now the looming threat of Real Adult Life is getting harder to ignore and I'm afraid it's time to face the truth... I probably only have 8 months of university classes left.

Mathison Hall Matcha

After thinking deeply about this disturbing fact, I decided to take this blog post as a chance to share some mindsets for my final year and reflect on the one before.

My most obvious priorities are applying for new graduate jobs, applying for grad schools and scholarships, and studying so that I will actually graduate. These will be taking up the bulk of my time, and although it's summer, I feel like I'm already being bombarded with ads and advice posts for tech jobs, award competitions, and grad school prep.

Accurate representation of how I feel about application season

Though I am a strong advocate for allocating a lot of time to apply for jobs - after all, most of us will spend a huge amount of time working - I feel jaded by most "career influencers" who act as if their opinions and paths are the absolute correct ones. Though their basic advice is often good, the way it's presented makes you feel inadequate for not hustling 24/7 in every possible way.

So the first mindset I'm taking into my last year is to apply widely but always keep in mind a couple of 80/20 rules to guide my job search:

• Yes, I will have to spend time networking, going to career fairs, and even cold emailing. This is only doable for less than 20% of jobs, but ~80% of successful applications will come from that 20%
• Yes, there will be amazing opportunities that I will miss because I didn't spend enough time looking for them or had to take a break. That's OK because that ~20% of opportunities would have taken ~80% more time to find

With that in mind, it's hit me that it will always be job application season, but I may never be ingrained in an environment that brings together so many young, passionate, and diverse individuals again.

Most of the time, when I had the right combination of courage and opportunity to talk to somebody new, I ended up with something positive, whether it was a funny story, an acquaintance to joke about linear algebra with, or an amazing friend to spend time with outside of class.

That's why a goal of mine is to rely less on opportunity and more on courage when meeting new people, and to take initiative to grow new relationships and maintain old ones. Taking those initiatives is so much easier on campus when there's always something to do, like a squash court to play on. Hopefully, I'll leave my last year of university with a few more meaningful friendships, because I know they'll be harder to come by afterwards.

Here's to more beers and quality meals at The Den

Apart from meeting people, I want to check off some UCalgary bucket list experiences: running a (cheese) club, joining an intramural, maybe even watching a Dinos game. I haven't even studied in TFDL yet! I'm unironically scheduling these in my calendar to make sure I do them.

To end off (for now), even though I generally feel good about how things are gonna go, I'm still quite conflicted about many things.

• Should I be specializing more in one area of computer science?
• I have limited time and too many opportunities; how do I choose between committing to clubs and pursuing personal projects?
• What do I value in a workplace?
• Where do I want to live?

Luckily, I don't feel too stressed about these conflicts; whatever I choose should have a decent outcome. At least for me, the important thing isn't to obsess over making the right choice but to maintain momentum by trying things, staying curious, and putting yourself out there even though it won't always work out.

If you're also nearing graduation or looking back on it, I'd love to hear about how you're navigating it, or even the questions/confusions you're sitting with yourself. Surely I'm not the only one?

Until next time,

Ana :)