Some thoughts on what you can expect in the professional world.

In his book "The Stranger," Albert Camus writes:  "...the benign indifference of the universe."

Here is my gloss on this in terms of what you can expect in the professional world:

Benign:  The professional world is not "out get you."  That said, you will be in direct competition with peers out to "eat your lunch."  But these are individual competitors, not the professional world.

Indifference:  The professional world, and the people in it, with rare exceptions, simply do not care about you as an individual. 

All the professional world cares about is your ability to consistently add more value to your organization than your cost (120-130% of salary).  You will do this by delighting customers internal or external to your organization or both.  Delighting a customer means that customer is so pleased with the quality and quantity of your work that they are eager for more and delighted to pay for it.  An immediate customer is your supervisor.  A supervisor is paid only as long as the unit they supervise produces work that delights the customers of the unit.  One of your key jobs is to make your supervisor look good to their superiors.  If you do this for a good supervisor, you will be rewarded.  If you aren't rewarded, look around for other opportunities either within the organization or outside it.  But in the meantime keep delighting your customers and keep making your supervisor look good.  If you want to move within your organization, your reputation is either your passport or your ticket "out of town."

The bottom line:  Your professional career is in your hands.  Yes, luck, good or bad, counts but fundamentally you are in control.  Preparing for that career started when you were born, continued throughout K-12, and continues here at UD.  Now you are away from home.  You are making your own choices.  You are completely responsible for those choices; you will reap the rewards or rue the consequences.  Your choice of the amount of effort to put into learning at UD will be a strong determinate of your professional success.  This is not only because you will obtain a better education, but also because you will take the habit of putting in extra effort (or not) with you after graduation.  I can tell you from my experience as a supervisor that those who are in the habit of putting in extra effort stand out.

All your interactions with everyone in your organization (including the secretarial and other support staff) are either a part of your passport, or an endorsement on your "ticket out of town."  When I was a supervisor, I was liked and respected by many of the secretarial staff.  When I had to hire someone from within the organization, the assessments these people were willing to share with me were a priceless resource. 

You will be know, at least by reputation, widely within your organization.  In many cases, you will not even know these people.  What they think of you contributes to your passport or your "ticket out of town."