How do I know that I'm successful after I finish college?

You're right, success has a lot of different measures. In the corporate world, there are some measures of professional success that are similar to when you're in school. For example, instead of tests, you'll likely have performance reviews which rate your work over a period of time. Instead of transitioning between grades and graduating, you'll have promotions and different positions you'll accept in order to progress in your career. But other than those things, success can be defined by your own terms. For some people, success is making time to work out every week while juggling client work. For others, success may finishing a project and then booking a vacation and going to see friends. Success may even be switching jobs from your first job to something that your are more passionate about! And you certainly are not only defined by your job and salary - a lot of companies these days talk about your "personal brand." We all think about brands every day - whether that's Starbucks, Apple, or Google - and different things come to mind when we think of those brands. Your brand as a professional will be what defines you professionally - this can be your amazing attention to detail, your willingness to help out coworkers and pick up slack for the team, or even just your sense of humor! It's hard to come up with your personal brand on the spot and it takes time to develop and grow, but I definitely encourage you to research a little more about personal brand and work to develop your own.

Clio, that is a great question and one I am currently facing myself. My best advice I have is that everyone has their own definition of success based on what they value. Think about what you want from your career and your personal life after graduation. Consider what your larger goals for life are and if your actions are helping you to accomplish them. As to success in your career, don't be afraid to ask for feedback and coaching.

The fact that you're beginning to explore how you define success is an excellent sign that you're on track to finding an answer. For many of my peers, college was a time of formulating what their individual definition of success was. You need to do the same, and consider thinking beyond those traditional, surface-level notions of success.

For me, it became helpful to imagine success less in terms of the traditional metrics--money, grades, outward prestige of occupation. I've come to see a state of success as a situation where you're highly at peace with what you're doing. If you end your days in a state of anxiety, worrying about your future, regretting what you did that day, feeling like your hours were not spent doing things aligned with your gifts, that's not overly successful in my book.

But, if you pause and reflect on your life and find you're doing something you enjoy, something that fits with your definition of who you are and what you're able to do for the world, then this peaceful contentedness sets in. That feeling, for me, means you're potentially successful.

Accolades and financial prosperity may accompany these feelings, or they may not. But those don't matter if you approach success in this way. If you can take a good, thoroughly reflective look at how you spent your day and find yourself at peace with it, you have success (under half of my definition).

There is one other, equally important component to my personal definition of success, and it is more tangible. I ask, am I helping people? Or, more specifically "Is someone in the world better off (happier, able to solve a problem, at peace, motivated, fed) because I exist?" It may sound silly, but if I can answer yes to that question at the end of the day and I'm at peace with what I'm doing, then I am successful.

This is an example of a non-money/prestige image of success. You have to think and write your way to the best one for yourself--just know, it is out there. And, often, it relates to you making the lives of others better. No matter how much money you make.