GRADUATE! EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO SUCCEED AFTER COLLEGE, by Kristen M. Gustafson, Capital Books, Inc., 263 pages, $14.95 paper.

When Kristen Gustafson got her first job after college in 1998, she was so excited about getting a real paycheck, compared to the $60 a week she’d earned as a work-study student, she rushed to the mall to celebrate.

“I managed to spend my entire paycheck in an afternoon,” said the 25-year-old author from her Bangor home.

Those first few weeks on her own only got worse.

On the first night in her new apartment four years ago in a Washington, D.C., suburb, her car was towed because she’d unwittingly parked in someone else’s space. Gustafson thought her car had been stolen, but couldn’t call police because her phone hadn’t been hooked up yet.

She had no clue where to start looking for her car in the unfamiliar city. To add insult to injury, when the Falmouth, Mass., native finally spoke to the local police and spelled out her Massachusetts license plate, the officer asked, “That’s Y as in Yankee?”

That was when Gustafson figured out that she really was a grown-up – one who called her new boss rather than her parents for help.

“When you’re 800 miles from home, you just want to cry,” she said.

Born and raised on Cape Cod, Gustafson graduated from Stonehill College in 1998. From the small liberal arts school in Easton, Mass., she went to the Denver Publishing Institute for the summer. She was hired to do public relations and marketing in September 1998 for International Publishers Marketing, in Washington, D.C., a firm that primarily markets books published overseas in the United States.

A colleague encouraged her to write the book after Gustafson expressed frustration over not knowing how to deal with “grown-up” things such as money and the pressures of being out on her own. She did some research and discovered that there were not a lot of books that told new college graduates how to survive. So, Gustafson wrote a proposal and a couple of sample chapters, then sent them off to Capital Books, a new publisher of how-to books and a client of her employer’s.

The book includes chapters on finding a place to live, buying a car, understanding your paycheck, taxes and insurances, keeping a job, and deciding whether to go on to graduate school. Gustafson included sample leases, a budget worksheet, a list of questions for potential roommates, recipes and loads of practical advice she gathered from experts.

The book also includes lots of stories she gathered from friends, family, co-workers and former classmates. Many of them are Gustafson’s own experiences in learning about life the hard way – such as learning to read a pay stub.

“When I was offered the job and given my salary, I thought I’ll be getting this much in every paycheck, not taking into account that the taxes level would be higher, and I was going to have health insurance fees and 401(k) funds taken out,” she said. “When I got that first paycheck, it was a lot less than I had anticipated and very quickly I discovered that the money doesn’t go as far as you think it’s going to and things cost more than you think they’re going to.

“I got my first electric bill and wondered why it costs so much. That was kind of a real shocker, how much things really cost and how stretched thin the paycheck was. I really wish I’d been warned ahead

of time – you get this salary but that’s not really how much you take home.”

In addition to money issues, Gustafson found that college had prepared her to get a job, but no one had told her how to keep it. Other 20-somethings told her that their first two weeks on the job had been tough as they’d learned to negotiate the maze of office politics and tried to figure out the difference between corporate casual and casual attire. The author and her friends also discovered they no longer had a built-in peer group they’d had in school, and found that hanging out with people they worked with was much different than hanging out with people they lived with in a dorm.

It took Gustafson three years to write the book as she continued working full-time. The book is written in a breezy style that is never condescending. It reads more like advice offered by an older sibling who’s learned from experience and is willing to share a bit of wisdom. It also is well indexed so information on a particular subject can be looked up easily without having to read the book cover-to-cover.

Gustafson also urges readers to learn from experience. Eighteen months ago, the author did just that, when she convinced her bosses to let her telecommute and work from Bangor.

“After two years, I hated living in Virginia,” said Gustafson. “It was too hot, too crowded, too expensive. I wanted a better quality of life than I was getting there. … I love having space around me and not having the traffic jams and the stresses of living in such a compacted area. Plus, the cost of living in Maine is a lot less than in Virginia.”

She also fell in love with an Aroostook County boy she met in college. He prefers to remain in the background, according to Gustafson, but works in sales. The couple lives together in Bangor now, but survived a long-distance relationship she described in her book.

The release of “Graduate!” was timed to coincide with the college graduation season. So far, her book is selling well and has sold of half of the original print run in the first month, according to Jennifer Hughes, editorial assistant for Capital Books.

Gustafson said a friend predicted that from now on there are going to be a lot of 21-year-olds all over country upset that they got her book for graduation instead of a check.

Yet, her experience in publishing has kept the young author’s feet firmly planted on the ground. She knows better than to bug her own publicist about getting on “Oprah!” or other big-name talk shows. Gustafson also is not above being a little star struck, however.

“I was in New York at the Book Expo, the biggest book show of the year,” she said. I was seated next to Marlo Thomas. She picked up a copy of my book and said, ‘I have to give this to my son. He won’t listen to me. Maybe, he’ll listen to you.’ I thought wow, that’s really cool.”

Gustafson admitted that not everybody needs everything in her book, but added that colleges, especially small liberal arts colleges, need to teach more life skills.

“Colleges need to start teaching people how to survive in the real world beyond book learning,” she said. “Colleges aren’t teaching people what to do once they’re out on their own. It’s like they say, ‘Here’s your diploma. Have a nice life.”

You may be 22, but no one needs to know

From “Graduate!” Page 229

Being twenty-something can often make earning respect a difficult proposition to start with, so you don’t need to make it more difficult on yourself. Here are some ways to earn the respect you need:

Clean up your speech. Try not to use the words “like” and “you know” every other word in your speech. It may have worked through high school, but it makes you sound like a silly kid in the workplace.

When renting a car, find out the rental company’s policies ahead of time. Some companies will not rent to anyone under 25, or if they do charge exorbitant fees for the rental. In some cases, if your company has a corporate account with the car-rental company, they will waive the underage driver fees for your rental.

Don’t proudly display your college party pictures all over your desk. Your co-workers and bosses don’t need to see you doing a keg stand.

Don’t reveal all of your out-of-work exploits to your co-workers. Telling them about your wild night out at the bars over the weekend is not the best way to build credibility.

If you don’t know something, ask for the answer instead of bluffing. Your answer will just make you sound even more stupid. And anyway, asking questions is the only way to learn.