Whether your grad plans to schlep it to the office every day or needs to build their own workspace at home, chances are they could use some help prepping their desk for the professional world. If you know a recent graduate and want to make their first days on the job a little more convenient, we’ve rounded up a few of our favorite office essentials — gadgets and accessories that should prove useful in anyone’s day-to-day life. Have a look below if you need help jogging your brain for a gift idea.
The Logitech Brio 500 is our top pick for the best webcam, period, and it’ll perform super well in your game-streaming setup. It’s basically an upgraded version of the iconic C920s HD Pro, and it shoots video at 1080p/30 fps with improved zoom and automatic light-correction technology that breathes life into even the most cave-like of spaces. It has a physical privacy shutter and connects to your PC via USB-C, which is incredibly convenient. One neat feature of the Brio 500 is the ability to rotate the camera downward to show your keyboard (or maybe that cute drawing you’ve been working on during matchmaking). It comes in black, pink and white colorways, each one made of recycled plastic.
In a world that runs on batteries, you can never be too far from a charger. A reliable charging station like the Anker 525 is a real convenience for topping up a smartphone, tablet, wireless mouse or any other device that may need refilling. It puts four charging ports within arm’s reach — two USB-C and two USB-A — and it measures less than five inches wide, so it’s compact enough to fit on a crowded desk. Those USB-C ports can supply up to a 67W charge, so this isn’t the most powerful station out there, but it’s still enough to charge many mobile devices and slim laptops at full speed. — Jeff Dunn, Senior Reporter
There’s a good chance that your graduate will be working from a few different locations when they start their first job. Maybe they’ll spend half of their time in an office and the other half in their new apartment, but you can help them stay focused anywhere by gifting them the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones. These are our current favorite high-end cans thanks to their excellent sound quality and equally stellar active noise cancellation. Their Adaptive Sound Control feature automatically changes the level of noise cancellation depending on your location and what you’re doing, blocking out as much of the world as necessary without the user needing to do much work. There's also multi-device connectivity, so your graduate can seamlessly go from listening to music on their laptop to taking a call from their smartphone. — Valentina Palladino, Deputy Editor
One of the most difficult obstacles with working from home is all the distractions. Even seasoned WFH folks can get sidetracked by temptations like TV, the internet or just easy access to the kitchen — any grad new to remote-work life could feel the same way. A potential solution to that is to use one of these multi-cube timers from Mooas as a productivity tool. Each side corresponds to different lengths of time; to start the timer, they’ll flip the cube so the desired time faces upwards. Flipping the LCD display upwards again will pause it, while turning the display downwards will stop the timer.
There are a number of ways to use them, but I like using the Pomodoro Technique with these. I’ll enable the 30 minute timer, which then encourages me to focus just on my work for the allotted time period. Once time is up, I give myself a five minute rest, and then I start it over again. Your giftee can also use them as a reminder to stand up and stretch every so often. These timers come in a variety of colors, each with different time pre-sets, so be sure to pick the one with the time lengths you think your loved one will want. — Nicole Lee, Former Commerce Writer
The best Christmas gifts you can buy in 2025, according to an expert
Gift ideasOr how to find something for someone who already has every game they could ever want.
Gift ideas
