You learn a lot in college – how to do complex mathematical equations, how to write coherently, how to wake up at 8:50 a.m. and still make it to a 9 o’clock class on time, with two minutes left over to grab a coffee.

Life after college, however, is a different story. Professors generally don’t tell you how to manage your credit card debt. There’s no Car Buying 101. And business classes don’t prepare you to deal with the office slacker, gossiping co-workers or your new, 24-year-old boss.

Rebecca Knight, a 26-year-old Bowdoinham native, has been there, done that, and lived to tell the tale in “A Car, Some Cash and a Place to Crash: The Only Post-College Survival Guide You’ll Ever Need,” ($17.95, Rodale Press).

“Definitely college gives you confidence and poise and conviction in your ideas, which is half the battle,” Knight said, sitting in the living room of the Bowdoinham home where her mother and stepfather live. “But there are some nuts and bolts of life that you don’t get from your college professors.”

The idea for the book came to Knight shortly after her graduation from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. She was working as a news assistant at the Washington, D.C., bureau of The New York Times. It sounded glamorous, and the job entailed great responsibility, but at the same time, she was also among “the lowest peons of peons” in the office.

She found herself going through the typical post-college experience: She was excited to earn a paycheck over $200 a week, but at the same time, she was shocked at how much of that paycheck went to taxes. She felt uncertain about saving and investing what was left over. And then there was the inevitable shift from the comfortable college social scene to the uncharted waters of after-work cocktails, office friendships and dating in the real world.

“When I first got out of college, it was intense,” Knight said. “I had so many questions. I wanted to write a book to help other people in the same situation with these questions.”

So she put her newfound networking skills to work. Knight sent an e-mail to 20 of her friends who were in their 20s, and asked them to recruit their friends for help with the book. Then she compiled a list of questions and asked the recent college grads to share their stories with her. The response was overwhelming – more than 100 people gave her candid, often humorous, anecdotes about life after school.

“Sometimes people would tell hilarious stories,” Knight said, smiling. “None of the stories really surprised me, though, because I knew everyone struggled and had a hard time, but at the same time, they were uproariously funny.”

Knight has peppered the book with her own funny stories, including a close encounter with a pizza on the way to her first job interview. She may have shown up with a stain on the chest of her new suit, but she got a job anyway. Knight is young enough to remember those early struggles, yet old enough to have some perspective.

“There aren’t that many books written by 20-somethings for 20-somethings,” Knight said. “I thought that my youth would be a real asset in this book.”

In the five years that have passed since her graduation, Knight’s life has changed dramatically. She now lives in London and works as an editor for The Financial Times, the European equivalent of The Wall Street Journal. She writes as often as she can and hopes to publish another book, possibly fiction, in the coming years.

But she still remembers that first year out of college – the roommate situation, her first car, and that pesky pizza – and she has a few words of advice for the class of 2003.

“Be patient,” she said. “It’s not all going to happen for you in this one year. You may not have the apartment of your dreams or the job of your dreams or the social life you’ve always wanted, but it does get easier. There is a life after college, and it’s actually pretty fun.”