Things nobody will tell you about your first job, but you must know

Leaping onto the next phase of your life from the youthful days is a whole lot of transition. Why? It's because you depart from the way you have lived for the past 20 years. It's like having a divorce with your past and moving on to what you expect is a better and mature relationship.

From a life of parties, staying up late, lazing in bed facebooking, attending lectures, hanging out with friends as a graduate, to now having a 9-5 disciplined obligation, achieving targets, taking harder challenges and getting to bed at 10 pm - it's a whole new life with different set of challenges.

Here's why:

1. You'll learn professional etiquettes

Like it or not, you will learn to conform to the professional etiquette of those around you - from understanding office attire and how to use a fax machine to honing more complex skills like email formalities, presentations and communicating in a professional work environment.

2. You learn living life the hard way

It will be the first time when you will have to stick to people or rules or things you hate. It's no more going to be like - you can bunk classes because you dislike your teacher or snub at your classmate because he is a snob! Nope, rules are different here. You let your blood boil no matter what happens to you, and yet perform every day with a smile on your face like everything's fine. Also, spending money is going to be a lot more difficult decision when you are going to be on your own. Just turn around, the pocket money leisure days are far behind now. Life is tough here, let's just face it!

3. Criticism in your First job will prepare you for the rest of your professional life

During that first year out of college, you’ll be thrown into new situations and tasked with bottom-line impacting decisions, whereas in college you were likely in an artificial environment that had no impact on a business or others. You will inevitably face hurdles between college life and the working world, but it’s all about how open you are to learning from your mistakes and how hard you work to form new, positive habits and skills. As you navigate through the real world, you’ll learn to climb the ropes hard and fast. And, as you progress through life as a professional, you’ll be able to steer through situations with strength and grace after “falling” in your first year in the working world.

4. This is going to be either the launchpad or detonator for your career ahead. You Decide!

It's pretty simple - if you land a job as a business analyst for a Fortune 100 company, you are likely to have a way better career trajectory than if you start off as a business analyst for a B-grade company. Right? SO, you decide where and how fast you want to head on that career growth ladder!

5. If it turns out a nightmare, you know it's the right time to change paths and head the right way

Do you cringe at the thought of going to work day in and day out? When you’re forced to work an eight-hour-a-day shift, you can pretty quickly see where you want your future to go. Luckily, as an entry-level professional, it's not too late, you still have the mobility to change your professional path. Consider what you really want to do in life and make actionable goals to get there.