Beata Santora, an English professor at Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) this semester, also graduated from FCLC, so she’s been through what every junior and senior at FCLC and other colleges across the country are going through right now.  The unknowns are the worst: Will we get jobs? Should we take the first job opportunity that is given to us? Should we go to grad school? What about law school? Where are we going to live? How are we going to afford to live?

Luckily enough, Santora and a group of contributors at “Quick & Dirty Tips,” a website that gives advice for a plethora of situations, just released an e-book called “Quick & Dirty Tips for Life After College” to help answer these questions.

Santora says that this e-book is an attempt to make life after college a little bit easier.  “We all have goals in college, but a liberal arts education doesn’t prepare anyone for the real world. Most students don’t know how to balance personal finances, or stock a kitchen on a small budget. Most don’t know how to network to get a job.” Here at FCLC, we all learn “wonderful knowledge,” as Santora put it, but there’s no way to apply knowledge on Chaucer or organic chemistry to making a living or getting a job.

The topics range all the way from getting a pet to how to find a job or what job should be taken.  It’s all about the transition to the real world.  However, we all know there are countless books of advice for life after college, so I was interested in what set this book apart and why students should pay attention to it.

“It’s told in the perspective of experts in their fields,” Santora said. “Each of them has been in your shoes, each of them has struggled to get a job and finance their lives.”

These areas of expertise range from health to money to animal care to personal hygiene. It is available only as an e-book, which Santora thought was more convenient for college students. Knowing the budget we all seem to be on, Santora thought it would be more easily accessible for students of all monetary demographics in this format, as opposed to being published in the more expensive print edition.

It’s only $3.99 and it’s short— there’s “not a lot of verbiage,” to confuse you or bore you.  As Santora laughingly said, “It’s quick and dirty.”

The authors, or experts, of the e-book are the same ones who write for the “Quick and Dirty Tips” website. There are about 15 experts in total for the site, all of whom are a part of the field they write for— Santora said multiple times “this is what they do”—and they write articles and record podcasts in their specific topic all the time.

For example, Santora brought up the “Get Fit” guy: this man is an Iron Man and a triathlete, and he podcasts about his own experiences with advice thrown in.  They “curate content for you guys,” meaning the information is simple and honest.  Santora said, “They do this because they love it and because we are a platform to get their information and knowledge out there.”

One of her favorite parts about the book is how succint and to the point it is. “You’re not going to get theory or general advice like this anywhere else. It’s specific information in bullet form.”

Santora also said that it’s great because it gives precise steps on how to move on after graduation.  The tips you pick up in the e-book can be taken directly from the e-reader and applied to life.  She also said that this book covers everything she would have liked to know when she graduated, especially the importance of networking.  The expert who wrote the book’s section on networking is a public speaker and a communications expert. This expert explains that one of the the best ways to network is through the alumni association.

Santora used magazine publishing as the example: “Oh, So-and-So went to Fordham and she/he edits at this magazine, let me contact her/him.” Most people, Santora said, would never think of the alumni association when trying to break into their desired industry.  That’s a bit of free advice for all of us.

Want more? The e-book is easily available electronically, so grab your e-reader and buy it now. You’ll be glad you did.