From Campus to Career
A Graduate’s Perspective on Full-Time Work

So, you’ve done it! You’ve thrown that cap in the air, snagged the degree, and are now staring down the barrel of what’s next. Goodbye midday naps and Thursday (and sometimes Sunday) night shenanigans, hello nine to five grind. Welcome to the land of full-time work, where alarm clocks are your best friend, coffee is your saviour, and your weekends are sacred ‘you’ time. But there’s a little more to it than that, don’t worry! Here’s a little glimpse into what it’s like from the other side of the tassel.

From chaos to clockwork

We know you’ve heard rumours of a nine to five job being a mindless, busy loop. But when compared to juggling two part time jobs and pulling all-nighters to cram for exams, it’s only up from here! With a consistent weekday routine, you’ll find your flow easily. Your evenings (and mornings if you’re an early riser) are your oyster – and you can maximise them with things that fill your cup.

The best part? As you work more, you’ll earn a magical thing called annual leave which means you can take even more time off to watch even more guilt-free Netflix (or travel if you choose to do so).

Workload or work overload?

Marketing roles often combine structured tasks, like weekly content creation or monthly analytics reporting, with creative sprints, such as brainstorming sessions or blog writing. While deadlines can be demanding at first, the consistency of a professional schedule provides a solid foundation for productivity and personal development. We always have an office full of friends to jump in when tasks get tricky – no one is on their own in the mania of agency life!

Many workplaces utilise a task management system to help manage this clockwork – not just for you, but for the business. At Media Mortar, Asana is our best friend and acts as a daily personal to-do list as well as an ongoing client task tracker that everyone on the team can see – meaning that if you’re struggling to adapt the heavier workload, tasks can be passed around easily without hours of explanation. Just be sure to put your hand up early if you think you need an extra set of hands to get a task completed on time.

Real-world responsibilities

Now that you’re clocking in full time, the training wheels are off. Suddenly, you’ll find yourself managing clients, being involved in projects from start to finish, and figuring out the fine line between a tight deadline and an impossible one – not without the help of a whole team on your side of course! Remember those university group assignments? This is a real-world version, except now there’s money and actual consequences on the line.

Agency work is a dynamic space, and every project is an opportunity to refine your expertise. You’ll learn things like margins, profitability and billability (because apparently, you can’t just give stuff away for free), how to communicate with all sorts of personalities, the importance of monitoring campaign performance, and even copywriting. It’s all part of the growth game and every responsibility is a new skill unlocked.

Expect to take on more ownership, from coordinating projects to presenting ideas to clients. You’ll also hone essential skills including time management and adaptability – critical in a field where trends are evolving faster than you can say “repost”.

The work family

Here’s the thing about full-time work: you end up seeing your coworkers more than your actual family and friends. You spend 7+ hours a day with these people, and before you know it, you’re deep into inside jokes, lunchtime rants, and debates over who really is the best GIF sender.

Though they have the bonus of including new convenient friendships, navigating office relationships can be as tricky as work itself. You’ll learn what motivates your work buddies – who’s up to any challenge at any time of the day and who’s just trying to make it until five. It’s a crash course in behavioural science.

The marketing industry is inherently collaborative, so expect plenty of lively discussions and feedback sessions, just make sure to embrace this social aspect of work – it will make the professional transition 100 times more enjoyable and fulfilling. Trust us, we have a whole office of colleagues to testify (via lively discussion)!

If there’s any team that can survive the highs, the lows, and the caffeine crashes, it’s definitely the Media Mortar team. Full-time work might mean saying goodbye to strolling around empty shopping centres at 2pm on a Wednesday, but it’s also a front row ticket to the next step. So, grab a coffee, set that alarm, and get ready to dive into the world of responsibilities, routines, and an ever-evolving door of new opportunities to learn!