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."
-- 2002 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."
-- 2001 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."
-- 1998 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."
-- 2002 marketing and Japanese grad
"Trading ... big-dollar trading ... one mistake and you are done."
-- 1999 finance major
"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, senior corporate relations coordinator, U.S. Chamber
of Commerce, 2002 economics grad from the University of Dallas
"Having to take work home sometimes."
-- 2002 biology grad
"Working with consultants and the company leadership."
-- 1999 grad
"Juggling trainings and workshops."
-- Anonymous
"Not being challenged enough."
-- Anonymous
"Lazy people."
-- 2003 marketing grad
"Extremely long hours, extreme distances from home, pitiful pay."
-- 1999 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."
-- Colleen Holuk, marketing specialist, Stromberg, LLC, 2001 Stetson
University grad
"Being rushed, a very dusty, dirty environment, some employees not
speaking English well."
-- 2003 electronic engineering technology grad
"The boredom and the knowledge that I'm not at all interested in
continuing in this line of work."
-- 2002 anthropology grad
"Depending on other people who are not on the ball and always
last-minute with everything."
-- Anonymous
"Administrative crap."
-- 2002 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
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.
