'Work 50-60 hours a week, most weekends': Virginia man on harsh reality of life after college | Trending - Hindustan Times
Jun 20, 2025 09:28 AM IST
A Virginia man has opened up about the difficult transition from college to corporate life in a now-viral LinkedIn post. Gaurav Chintamneedi said the year after he graduated college and moved halfway across the country was one of the “most challenging” times of his life.
Chintamneedi, an assistant store manager at a leading e-commerce company, said that he works up to 60 hours a week. This is in stark contrast to the life he imagined he would have after college - one where he would work an easy 9 to 5 job and hang out wit his co-workers after office.
Instead, he now spends about 95% of his weekends at work too.
“When I first arrived in the DMV, I imagined living the dream early-20s life—like the ones we see on TV or romanticize on social media. I pictured myself working a 9–5, grabbing drinks with coworkers after work, striking up conversations with strangers on the metro who’d eventually become close friends. I thought weekends would be filled with brunches, coffee shop side projects, and late-night online courses to build new skills,” Chintamneedi wrote on LinkedIn.
Reality was different.
Chintamneedi said that over the last one year, he has worked 50 to 60 hours a week. Many days, he wakes up at 3am for the opening shift. The grilling schedule leaves him drained at the end of the work week.
“Over the past year, I’ve worked 50–60 hours a week—often waking up at 3 am for opening shifts. I’ve spent 95% of my weekends working. And on the rare days off, I was too exhausted to do much of anything,” he said.
“I found myself lying in bed doomscrolling on Instagram, drained from six consecutive days of work, using my limited free time to catch up with friends and family thousands of miles away. Making new connections in a new city wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped. I even started to wonder: Did I peak in college?” the Virginia man asked.
Chintamneedi, a graduate of Chapman University, said that the mental transition from college to real world was harder than he expected.
He added that his post was not meant to be a complaint. Instead, it was aimed at everyone struggling with the transition from college to corporate life. “If you’re also in your first year post-grad, and struggling to adjust, you are not alone. The feelings of doubt, disconnection, or disillusionment are more common than we think,” he wrote.
