So many college students look for the perfect job. But they’re looking at the wrong things. They look for starting salary, stock benefits, prestige, etc. You can’t blame them for wanting a return on their investment, especially if they took on a lot of student loans. However, I believe even these students can make an impact while earning money to pay off loans.

“This is NOT the time to try to maximize as much money as you can make so you can save up to buy a sick ride. This IS the time, however, to realize that you have a five-year window for you to attack the life that you want to win.” — Gary Vaynerchuk

In order to lead a satisfying life, you have to reach for what you want. Start building a network, refine your skills, and get out there in the real world. Instead of working for that big company you hate, go work at a startup in an area you are passionate about. You have no real obligations at the time of graduation, besides finding work. You (most likely) do not have a family to care for or anyone else’s mouth to feed. Don’t play it safe.

“The biggest risk is not taking any risk at all.” — Mark Zuckerberg

Start looking for companies that you are passionate about; work on problems that will actually make a difference in this world. Would you rather balance a checkbook for Nationwide Insurance for $100,000 a year or help design an interface to put people on Mars for $70,000 a year? I’ll let you decide on that one.

Another thing I believe college students should get away from is looking for specific roles within a company. Most of the jobs in the future do not exist today. That is a sentence that you have probably heard before, because it is true. Do you think twenty years ago there were titles like Happiness Engineer or Customer Success Manager? Definitely not. Look for opportunities, not jobs. If someone offers you a position at an amazing company doing growth marketing when you were looking for a role in UX — take the job. If it doesn’t work out you can always apply elsewhere and you will have picked up solid skills and a work ethic that other companies will recognize.

To summarize this article: Don’t play it safe, recognize when an opportunity presents itself, and go kill it in the real world.