99. Traditional Jobs vs. Entrepreneurship, and Preparing for What Comes After College (Q&A)
Episode 99
In this Q&A episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I’m answering two listener questions from college students who are both wondering what comes next.
One student is deciding between a traditional job and entrepreneurship, and the other is trying to make the most of college while figuring out her future path.
We’re diving into the myths around entrepreneurship, the value of early career experience, and how to use your college years to build skills that transfer into the real world. Whether you’re a student, new graduate, or someone in the middle of a transition, this episode will help you see your next steps more clearly and remind you that uncertainty doesn’t mean you’re on the wrong path.
What You Learn:
Why entrepreneurship and traditional employment aren’t mutually exclusive, and how to combine both strategically
The most practical way to explore business ideas while still in college (without risking financial stability)
How early job experience builds the skills and perspective every entrepreneur needs
The “meta skills” that future-proof your career — like time management, communication, and self-initiative
Why following your curiosity (not just your passion) leads to smarter career decisions
How to use college intentionally (through internships, mentorships, and real-world projects) to prepare for what’s next
🔗 Resources + Episodes Mentioned:
⭐SchoolHabits University (Parents, go here)
⭐SchoolHabits University (Students, go here)
⭐The College Note-Taking Power System (Brand New Program!)
⭐Assignment Management Power System (Brand New Program!)
Episode 11 – The 6 Most Valuable Skills for School and Career
Episode 22 – Internship Tips
Episode 56 - Choosing a College Major (with Lisa Marker Robbins)
Episode 58 -More Internship Tips
Never stop learning.
❤️ Connect:
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The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I choose not to spend my time fixing them 😉
Traditional Jobs vs. Entrepreneurship, and Preparing for What Comes After College (Q&A)
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[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Learn and Work Smarter podcast. This is episode 99, which means that we only have one more episode left before we reach 100.
That sounds absolutely bananas to say out loud. I'm not sure if you've heard, but I'm doing a giveaway to celebrate episode 100. I'm actually giving away one free signature enrollment into School Habits University. All you have to do is leave a review of this podcast on Apple or Spotify and then send me a screenshot of your review.
You can do that through [00:00:30] Instagram. I'm at School Habits, Facebook or email, and then that's it. You're entered into the drawing, and I will pick one random winner. The drawing closes on the 13th, and I'll announce the winner on the 17th. All the directions and rules and regulations are at Learn andWorksmarter.com/100.
That link is in the description box below, as well as in the show notes, and I also shared a post with more details on Instagram. If you wanna read that over there. Now that is out of the way. [00:01:00] Let's begin today's monthly q and a. I have two questions that are both submitted by listeners this month. In fact, there was a third question, but it was so similar to one of the other questions that I kind of morphed the two together, and that's telling me that more students are listening to the show, and I think that is really, really awesome. That's my intention, right? For students and working professionals to be here together.
I have a question from a college senior, and a question from a college sophomore. As always, I encourage [00:01:30] everyone to listen all the way through because you might just learn something that applies to your situation as well. Or if you know a student in your life who might be struggling with some of these same questions, please share this episode with them by tapping on the little arrow wherever you are watching or listening, there's always an arrow somewhere. Right. And if you wanna submit your own questions to be answered on an upcoming episode of the show, go to learnandworksmarter.com and fill out the really easy form on the homepage. I [00:02:00] ask you for like your name, which I don't read, and your question. Anyways, we have lots to cover, so let's get started.
[00:02:30] Our first question today is from a college senior. I'm gonna read the question now they write: hi Katie. I'm a business major in my senior year, and lately I've been questioning the whole idea of getting a regular job after graduation. I keep thinking I'd rather do something on my own. What advice do you give someone like me who wants to take the entrepreneurial route but still has a few months left before graduating?
Great question, and this is [00:03:00] actually the one where I kind of combined two submissions into one because another listener sent in something really, really similar. So if you're listening right now and you're like, wait, I didn't phrase my question exactly that way, this still is your question, but I morphed it with another one.
So anyway, this is clearly something that is on a lot of people's minds If I wanna be an entrepreneur.
While most people are getting traditional jobs, what do I recommend? And I love that you're thinking about this and that you're focused on getting through your senior year in a way that sets you up for what you want next. I [00:03:30] think it is a really good mindset to have, not in an anxious, future obsessed kind of way, but in a like, Hey, I care about the direction of my life kind of way.
Without knowing all the nitty gritty details about your situation and your resources that are available to you, I want to dig into something that stood out to me, a little sort of red flag of your question. You mentioned that a lot of your friends are looking for traditional jobs, but you would rather work for yourself and it's this mutually exclusive framing of your potential plan [00:04:00] or your I your concept.
That gets me a little nervous because I think there are more opportunities available to you if you don't view it as you know, one way or the other. When you think of it as one way or the other, you're setting yourself up for a false choice. Either I work for someone else. Or I work for myself mutually exclusive.
But the truth is that there is a lot of room in between those two things. They do not have to be mutually exclusive at all. And honestly, I think [00:04:30] that social media has distorted what entrepreneurship really looks like, the constant bombardment of influencers. I'm using air quotes if you're not watching this on YouTube, but they make it seem like starting a business is just, you know, one viral video away.
And I think that narrative does a real disservice to students who want to go with an entrepreneurial route. It hides the hard parts, the, the setbacks, the risk, and the the skills that are required to sustain something over time. And [00:05:00] that's not to say that overnight success doesn't happen. It does, but it happens way less often than people want you to believe.
Now I can only ever share from my own personal experience here, but I also think that might be helpful, right? Because I have done both. I have worked for others, and I have built a successful business that I created outta thin air. I also belong to some incredible business communities where I interact with seriously high level entrepreneurs.
I'm at like the lowest of the totem pole, you know, among the groups that I, that I mingle with. [00:05:30] I hear their stories all the time and almost never does a story go like this. Hey, I, I graduated college and I started a business by myself and I became ultra, ultra financially successful. Almost always successful entrepreneurs build their skills through some sort of employment first.
Now part of that is just logistical. Most students need some money after college, right? Many are paying back loans. They're trying to cover rent. They're trying to buy groceries and pay for a car, and managing all of the life expenses that were low key built [00:06:00] into college tuition. Right? That's what I meant.
Well, not the car piece, but like food and stuff and utilities. But that's what I meant earlier about not knowing the particulars of your situation or your resources. Depending what those are, it might make sense or might even be necessary to work for someone else for a while, for financial stability. And honestly, that would be my recommendation.
Regardless of your financial situation or the resources available to you, my recommendation is to do both. Okay? Get a job somewhere, A [00:06:30] JOB, an actual job somewhere. Work for someone. Build your skillset while earning a steady paycheck and at the same time, start building your, your business slowly and thoughtfully on the side.
What's the rush? Do your research, run your market research. What are you gonna offer a product service? Is there a genuine need for it? How do you know? Where's your data? Who's your target audience? Have you talked to them? How's your business gonna operate and how will it actually make money? You can fine tune all of those questions [00:07:00] while you're working for another company because the better your questions, the better your answers.
And this goes without saying. But the best job experience is job experience. If you wanna be successful for a long time, you need skills, you need awareness, you need perspective, you need experience, and there is no better way to gain that then by working somewhere else first and learning through doing and observation, right, plus that approach takes some of the pressure off.
It removes the time-based urgency of like, this project product has to [00:07:30] succeed right now or, I lose my apartment. Because being an entrepreneur requires so much patience and intention and thoughtfulness and, and risk tolerance. Sure there's some urgency at times, but you don't wanna make big decisions from a place of panic like, I have to launch this not awesome product because rent is due next month.
You know what I mean? And if you're really, really itching to get started on an idea you already have, which I totally get it. Once you get a be in your bonnet, you just like, you [00:08:00] just wanna go all in immediately. Right, but, and you can absolutely begin that exploratory phase of entrepreneurship right now while you're still in school.
You don't have to wait until graduation to dip your toes into it. If your schedule allows and your senior year isn't too packed, start fine tuning those questions now. You can even begin viewing your courses differently. Obviously, you're taking business classes to learn the content, right, and to pass the class and get a grade, but if you already have a business idea [00:08:30] in mind, start thinking about how that class content might apply to your idea.
If you're taking notes in class, take them as you normally would, but then maybe add another column for ideas about how that strategy or concept could apply to your business. Make those connections between the class content and your business idea, like in real time. Also, as you already mentioned, this is a time when many college seniors start looking for jobs, like traditional jobs.
As you say, your friends are so. Again, my recommendation is to [00:09:00] look for traditional employment after college. While, okay, not to say that your business idea isn't gonna work, but I'm saying that as like you can get practically an MBA just by working and observing and you know, learning through. Experience.
But anyways, as you're looking for your job, try to find one that's somewhat related to the industry or fields that you're interested in. That way the, or interested in, you know, creating your own business in. That way, The experience that you gain, the [00:09:30] skills you build and the contacts you make will all have relevance when you're ready to step away from the traditional job and then just do your own thing full time.
And there might be a period where you're doing both at the same time. That is kind of what I'm suggesting here, right? I think that probably is going to be the, uh, best route that happened to me. I was the vice president of a tutoring company that focused exclusively on SAT and ACT prep while I launched school habits.
Which teaches executive function and study skills. Right after that, I became a high school [00:10:00] special education teacher, and I continued building school habits on the side. I was always doing two things. In 2020, I finally left teaching and I went all in on my business. So while I've been running school habits since 2016, about 10 years,
I only became a full-time entrepreneur in 2020. That's when I left teaching public school. My main reason for not leaving teaching sooner was that I just genuinely love my students, but also the experience I was getting was invaluable. [00:10:30] I got to figure out what is missing from the curriculum, and that's what I built my entire business off of.
Now, I have 20 years of teaching experience behind me and 10 of those as an entrepreneur, and I can't imagine it happening any other way. And honestly, my story reflects the same pattern I see hundreds of other entrepreneurs in the business groups I belong to. So long story short, stay in your classes, but maybe start viewing them through a different lens.
Think about how the material applies to your own business concepts, and then when it's time to apply for jobs over, you know, the next few [00:11:00] months or so, try to find one that overlaps with your area of interest, that's related to the job that you wanna create or the, um, company that you wanna create. Keep plugging away your own project on the side.
Schedule time for it. Literally block it into your calendar. Like write in your calendar, like side business work session. That's what I did. It did a day did not pass where I didn't work on my business. Doing, that's gonna help you move forward consistently.
It's also gonna shift your mindset away from that, you know, either or thinking: work for someone else or work for [00:11:30] myself because there is major value in doing both. And especially simultaneously for a little while, working for someone else gives you that incredible opportunity to extract every bit of learning structure, professional experience that you can, so that when it is time to go out on your own, you're ready.
All right. I hope that answer was helpful. Feel free to follow up in a few months or at the end of the year to let me know what your plans are. I've had some people who have submitted questions in the past, um, [00:12:00] follow up via email, like after making decisions or after listening to, you know, my answers or whatever.
And I always find that kind of cool to know, like, oh, what, what happened to you? Alright. Anyways, so our second question today is also from a college student.
They're a sophomore, and let me read to you what I have here. Hi Katie. I'm in my second year of college and I'm trying to fi figure out how to use this time to actually prepare for what comes next. I don't totally know what I want to do yet, but I don't wanna waste these years either. [00:12:30] What should I be focusing on now that will help me later on career-wise, or personally? If it's helpful, i'm currently undecided, but I think I'm gonna declare a psychology major this year, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. Thanks so much.
Okay, so here we have another student wondering. What the heck to do with their life. And that seems to be the theme of today's episode. And I honestly wanna assure students listening that these kinds of questions are completely normal.
It is perfectly normal to be a high school or college [00:13:00] student and ask yourself, am I headed in the right direction? Am I doing the right thing? What do I even want to do for a job? And while we all know that thinking about these things as early as possible is ideal, the reality is that even plenty of adults still don't know the answers to these questions.
I actually have a podcast episode where I interviewed Lisa Marker Robbins, who's an expert in college and career guidance, especially around choosing a college major. That is episode 56. I'll leave the link in the description [00:13:30] box. In that episode, Lisa shares that it's best to start thinking about these questions as early as sophomore year of high school, and she gives some really, really compelling reasons.
For that early starting point. But if you go back and listen to that episode now, I think you'll find a lot of valuable insights that apply directly to you, even where you are as a sophomore in college. Again, that is episode 56. Now, I think some of the advice that I'm gonna share in my answer here
may overlap with the advice I shared for the [00:14:00] previous question, but that is okay. It's sort of all part of the process of just figuring things out. 'cause there are some key steps that really matter when you're in this figuring it out phase. Whether that means, you know, whether you're a sophomore or a senior in college, or you know you are a veteran, working professional, whatever.
So first things first, I want you to focus on building transferable skills. You do not need to know your ideal career direction yet. Obviously the goal is to start figuring that out, but I think [00:14:30] that the smartest move right now for you and for any college student listening, is to just start developing the skills that are gonna serve you anywhere.
So what are those skills? How to manage your time, how to communicate early and clearly. How to be resourceful, how to take initiative, how to organize complex projects. How to learn. These are what I call meta skills. The learning and working skills that will essentially [00:15:00] futureproof you. They're gonna serve you whether you end up working for yourself, whether you go corporate or pivoting your career a thousand times before you settle on the right thing.
I have a podcast episode called The Six Most Valuable Skills for School and Career. That is episode 11, and when you're done here, I highly, highly recommend listening to that one, too. That'll be linked in the show notes. Now, the thing about these meta skills is that I want you to start being intentional about building them, not just about thinking about them [00:15:30] passively, but actively practicing them and finding opportunities to practice them.
So for example. If you are working on a, let's say, like a long-term project for one of your classes, like it's an assignment, okay, of course you need to complete the work, but I also want you to start thinking about that project as an opportunity to learn project management, right? You could start experimenting with free project management tools.
I've said it a thousand times on this show, but I personally use the free version of Asana, [00:16:00] A-S-A-N-A, and it absolutely more than covers my needs for my business. You could try using reverse engineering to map out the steps of your project, give yourself deadlines for those micro steps, put those micro steps on your calendar. That way, this project isn't just about, you know, getting a grade and learning the content. It's about that too. But it's about learning how to manage projects and hold yourself accountable to self-imposed deadlines. That's just one example of what I mean by building meta skills, right? So having the skill of project management that's gonna [00:16:30] help you now.
In school, but man, that skill is applicable to every single career you could possibly find yourself in.
Same thing with task management, right? Same thing with organization. You know, I remember being in college and not knowing what I wanted to do for a career. I eventually double majored in English and Spanish, but even as late as I'm gonna say, junior year, I still had no idea what I wanted to do with those degrees teaching. to be honest, Didn't even cross my mind at the time.
I mean, I used to like teach my dolls school, like that was my favorite activity [00:17:00] to play when I played with dolls is like to do school. So obviously there was something there. When I was in college, I was like, no, I'm gonna be like a literary critic. Like honest to goodness, like teaching wasn't even on my radar.
My first job outta college was actually in a corporate setting. I had two jobs technically. I, I worked full-time in a corporate role and I also started working at a tutoring center where I eventually stayed for 10 years. Every single skill I used in that corporate setting ended up being invaluable in getting me to where I am today.
And I'm sharing that to make the point that [00:17:30] you don't have to have it all figured out. I am living proof of that. Next, I want you to follow your curiosity. I'm not saying follow your passion. There's a difference there. I don't totally align with the concept of, you know, the, the follow your passion advice.
Because if your passion happens to align with a meaningful career path, that's great, right? Mine does, and I know that I am ultra fortunate to be in that situation, but sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes you end up in a job or a career that you're good at, that [00:18:00] you like, that makes you happy, that provides stability and satisfaction and you know, it helps you support yourself and possibly your family.
But it's not your life's passion, and that's okay. That can still be an absolutely beautiful life. Maybe your passion is something you do on the weekends and after work on your own time, right? What I, so what I mean by follow your curiosity is paying attention to the things that make you wanna learn more.
Curiosity gives you data. College is one of the few times in your life when you [00:18:30] can explore things that you're curious about without that immediate financial pressure. So when something lights you up, maybe it's a topic, maybe it's a class you're taking, maybe it's a campus event that you went to,
or even a conversation with a professor. Pay attention. Curiosity is often the first step on a path toward your future career. Even if it doesn't look like practical or sensible or obvious right away. I want you to ask yourself, what [00:19:00] do I wanna learn more about? What questions do I keep coming back to?
What actually truly in my heart of hearts gets me excited? Okay. 'cause that's not necessarily your passion. That is curiosity. That is your gut saying, Hey, there's, there's something here. Like go into that. Lean into that. Explore that. Follow that thread. Take the next step there. Start researching. Start talking to people who know more than you about the topic.
Always do that. Curiosity might not give you all of the [00:19:30] answers that you want right now, but it's going to lead you to them. Something else you can start doing now to keep yourself moving forward as you figure out your career direction is to hone the skill of asking good questions. And to seek mentorship.
I know those sound like two different things, like asking questions and seeking mentorship, but I kind of see them as connected. One of the most underrated skills you can build is learning how to ask good questions, whether it's to your professors, your advisors, or just people in fields that you're curious about.
At the core of good question asking [00:20:00] are some key executive function skills, self-awareness. Initiative, resourcefulness. Right? Those are the, the, some of the core skills that I talked about being transferable.
To learn those skills now, and they'll serve you like forever basically. Right? He, he, he, the entire point of school habits, university people who know to ask good questions, move way more effectively in everything they do. Because they first identify what they need and then they ask a pointed question that helps them move in the right direction.
And then finally they act on what they learned from the answer. [00:20:30] We don't ask questions just for the sake of asking questions. Now, sometimes that means raising your hand in class 'cause you genuinely don't understand something. Other times it means setting up monthly meetings with your college advisor just to get advice and perspective.
Like you don't need to meet with your college advisor every month for actual, real, you know, reasons. But how about you do that anyway, just to get advice and perspective. That person's job literally exists to help you navigate the stage. So like tap into that. [00:21:00] Or maybe it means forming a connection with one of your professors outside of class.
Those relationships honestly take effort and intentionality. They don't happen by accident, but the value that can come from those conversations and the connections, like you can't even imagine what that value is yet. Now about that mentorship piece. Sometimes asking good questions naturally just evolves into mentorship.
You might not go into a conversation looking for a mentor, but if you show curiosity and you show [00:21:30] initiative and thoughtfulness over time, those qualities attract people who will want to help you. Or you might intentionally seek out a mentor either way. You mentioned that you're likely gonna declare a psychology major, and psychology is an incredibly versatile degree.
You can use it to become a mental health professional. You could apply it to business, to education, to marketing, to leadership, whatever psychology teaches you how people think and behave. So go ahead and name me a career where that isn't helpful. So while you're still in college and [00:22:00] when you still have access to incredible resources that are technically included with your tuition, I was gonna say free, but you're paying an arm in six legs for college these days.
So take advantage of these resources. So to tie it all together, the best thing that you can do right now is to stay engaged in the experiment of figuring it out. College is basically this built in lab for testing what you like, what you don't like, and what you're naturally drawn to. So keep your eye [00:22:30] open for clues.
The projects that you just lose track of time when you're working on them, the topics you talk about way after class ends, or the professors who make you think differently. Those are little data points and when you start connecting the dots, patterns will emerge that point you toward your next step. And in the meantime, don't underestimate the value of simply showing up and doing your best in whatever you're currently doing.
Your classes, your part-time jobs, your internships, every single experience, even the [00:23:00] ones that don't seem to be big or significant at the time, is teaching something about what you want and what you don't want. And that awareness is gold. So stay curious. Keep practicing those meta skills and treat this time as intentional preparation for what's next, and not just say a waiting room, some purgatory that's too negative sounding, but some like, yeah, a waiting room for your real life to start.Your real life is right now. Is find a mentor on [00:23:30] campus. Maybe they can help you explore directions that a psychology degree could take you. Start with a professor in one of your psych classes. Maybe reach out to an upperclassman. Maybe there's a senior in one of your psychology courses, who's a few steps ahead of you.
Ask what they plan to do after graduation and how they decided on that path. Then of course, we can't forget about internships. I've done several episodes about internships. Episodes 22 and 58 are two good ones to start with. I will link those [00:24:00] below. Summer is an ideal time for this, but even campus-based internships during the school year can give you that hands-on experience in the psychology field.
Again, to help you figure out what you do want and what you don't want. Internships not only help you build those real world sort of meta skills I mentioned earlier, like communication and organization and time management, but they also give you feedback. They help you figure out whether this major or career direction actually feels right.[00:24:30]
And then along the way, internships often lead to incredible connections and mentorship opportunities that you just couldn't have planned for. All right, my friends, that wraps up this month's q and a. I hope that both of these questions gave you something to think about, whether you're in college, you're starting your career, or you're just trying to figure out what the heck is next for you. These transition years can feel uncertain, but that uncertainty doesn't mean that you are hopeless or lost or doing anything wrong.It just means that you [00:25:00] are smack dab in the middle of a process, and that's exactly where growth happens. If you found this episode helpful, I'd love for you to share it with a student, a friend, or a parent that you think might need to hear it. And don't forget, we are one episode away from celebrating episode 100, and I am celebrating that with a big giveaway for free enrollment into SchoolHabits University.
All the details are at Learnandworksmarter.com/100. Keep showing up, [00:25:30] keep doing the hard work, keep asking the hard questions, and as always, never stop learning.
