Real World: Be Prepared for These Workplace Stressors

Real Grads. Real Advice. Real Stories. Real World
Be Prepared for These Workplace Stressors

Quintessential Careers conducts ongoing research into the job-search experience of new college graduates as they enter "The Real World." Go to the Real World Home Page.

Of course you're stressed out in college. But the Real World brings its own set of brand-new stresses. Recent grads describe the most stressful aspects of their jobs and caution you what to watch out for. Notice that the difficulties of working with other people cause stress for the greatest number of new grads.

"Meeting the demands of the boss in a way that gives you time to do other required work."
-- Anonymous

"Always being under the gun the meet deadlines."
-- Anonymous

"Deadlines, last-minute assignments, being forced to rely on third parties for my job to be complete."
-- political philosophy major

"Job insecurity due to IT contract jobs being outsourced to overseas companies and the company not doing well financially."
-- Anonymous

"The most stressful element of my current job (teaching) is the children."
-- Anonymous

"Dealing with co-workers and the politics involved."
-- general-business major

"I have a manager who is detached and does NOT offer much direction. She gives a directive and then never follows up to see if it's carried out. She has NOT evaluated anyone on the staff."
-- Anonymous

"I have a high level of responsibilities both for the sales goals of my organization as well as for others who work for me."
-- English grad

"I have reentered the job market, so the hardest part for me is to look for alternative sources of employment without letting anyone at work know, which is hard considering there are only four other employees."
-- marketing and Japanese grad

"Not knowing when to say no. I don't want someone to think I am incompetent, so I let people pile tasks high on my desk. I also think deadlines are stressful, but they make me work hard, so they are not too bad."
-- Anne Johnson, economics grad

"Having to take work home sometimes."
-- biology grad

"Working with consultants and the company leadership."
-- Anonymous

"Juggling trainings and workshops."
-- Anonymous

"Not being challenged enough."
-- Anonymous

"Lazy people."
-- marketing grad

"Extremely long hours, extreme distances from home, pitiful pay."
-- history grad

"Trying not to allow family life to interfere with work life and what is expected of me."
-- Anonymous

"Lots of projects at the same time, learning how to prioritize. Also, how to work with lots of different personalities."
-- Anonymous

"Being rushed, a very dusty, dirty environment, some employees not speaking English well."
-- electronic engineering technology grad

"The boredom and the knowledge that I'm not at all interested in continuing in this line of work."
-- anthropology grad

"Depending on other people who are not on the ball and always last-minute with everything."
-- Anonymous

"Administrative crap."
-- English education grad

"Keeping up with the number of things that you have to learn and do. High-tech is especially fast-paced, so constant learning is mandatory."
-- Anonymous

More workplace stressors (from an earlier survey):

Travel

Ineffective management

Lack of internal communication

Multi-tasking

Presentations

Long hours

People who won't try a new way of doing things

Dealing with frustrated customers

Lack of feedback on job performance

Corporate politics

Constant change

Inflated egos

Incompetent co-workers

Lack of common sense

Pressure from management

Back-stabbing

Dealing with mean, bitter people

Inability to be a decision-maker like I was in college

Employer's, clients', and co-workers' expectations of tangible results.

Go back to The Real World Home Page.

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Real Grads. Real Advice. Real Stories. Real World Be Prepared for These Workplace Stressors

Quintessential Careers conducts ongoing research into the job-search experience of new college graduates as they enter "The Real World." Go to the Real World Home Page.

More workplace stressors (from an earlier survey):

Go back to The Real World Home Page.

Maximize your career and job-search knowledge and skills! Take advantage of The Quintessential Careers Content Index, which enables site visitors to locate articles, tutorials, quizzes, and worksheets in 35 career, college, job-search topic areas.

Real Grads. Real Advice. Real Stories. Real World
Be Prepared for These Workplace Stressors