Most graduates spend a bit of time planning their next move.
Alex Duff and Michael O'Donnell plunged headlong into a business project to create a chess set celebrating some of Glasgow's most distinctive landmarks.
The Duke of Wellington on his horse - complete with trademark cone - takes centre stage as the knight, pawns are represented by the Armadillo while theFinnieston Crane, complete with Clydeport logo, is the rook.
After months of painstaking work, Clydeside Chess sets have gone on sale and orders are flying in from customers all over the world including Australia. The designers say they can't keep pace with demand.
Both are recent graduates of a product design engineering course run jointly by The University of Glasgow and Glasgow School of Art and the idea for the board was a shared vision.
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Mr O'Donnell, 23, had earlier created a wallet made entirely out of the skin and leaves of a pineapple while his co-designer had had already created a prototype of the chess set.
All 32 pieces are made out of environmentally friendly plant-based materials and were created using high-tech 3D printer technology.
Both men are chess players and hope the set will prove popular with tourists, ex-pats and newer players whose interest was sparked by recent hit Netflix drama, The Queen's Gambit.
"It's a good time for chess," said Mr Duff.
"In 2018, I did a uni project at the art school where you had to make ten copies of anything and sell it in the pop-up shop at Princes Square.
"So, I did a 2-D version (of the chess set). It was quite basic, it was laser cut but they sold out."
Mr Donnell, 24, who lives in Glasgow's south side, said: "During that time I had made wallets made out of pineapple skin and in January, I messaged Alex and suggested making a 3-D version of the chess set.
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"We've really merged our two projects. The pieces are made out of from soya beans, which is biodegradable.
"It was important we got the Finnieston Crane in because my great-grandfather worked in the shipyards. We are contrasting this new technology with 3D printing with the manufacturing technology."
"Even the Armadillo, that was based on ship building", said his co-designer who lives in Cumbernauld. "It's like a sheet metal frame with the hulls coming over it.
"It needed to look like a chess set so the towers are Glasgow Uni, which is where we met."
The designers used a combination of Google images and their own photographs of the landmarks to create intricate models using 3-D CAD (Computer Aided Design) software.
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The remaining pieces on the chess board are represented by the University of Glasgow and Trongate towers (The King and Queen respectively) and the Armadillo, which stands as the bishop.
The graduates were both working full-time in Sheffield for a company that manufactures rice processing technology, while they fine-tuned the models. It takes around a week to create each piece.
The chess sets are already on sale at the Scottish Design Exchange in Buchanan Galleries, priced £220, and the University of Glasgow has now expressed an interest in stocks for its on-site gift shop.
"It's taken us years to learn how to use the technology and its the cost of making the sets, because we are making small numbers," explained Mr Duff. "If we were making 1000 a week we could probably sell the games for £100."
The pair now planning to create an Edinburgh chess set and scaled-up models of the Glasgow pieces for sale.
"We've actually not really marketed it that much, we put it on Instagram and got our first customer that way. One of the problems we have is that can't make them fast enough."
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