Karen Kelsky has a must-read piece for prospective or current graduate students in the Chronicle:
Never forget this primary rule: Graduate school is not your job; graduate school is a means to the job you want. Do not settle in to your graduate department like a little hamster burrowing in the wood shavings. Stay alert with your eye always on a national stage, poised for the next opportunity, whatever it is: to present a paper, attend a conference, meet a scholar in your field, forge a connection, gain a professional skill.
The other point I would add is to think about what skills you are developing and what possibilities those skills open up. Not every graduate student is going to get an academic job, but every graduate student should be training her/himself to get a job.
