It’s March. The second semester of the 2014-2015 academic year has hit its equivalent of hump day, and not just because its Spring Break and there are tons of people getting their hump on in Florida resort towns. It’s midterms time, and with those midterms comes the pressure of being halfway to finals week – and, for seniors, graduation.
If you’re a senior sitting on a plane on your way to your parents’ house, sipping on coffee in an empty campus café, or recovering from a fun night of frivolity on your vacation, you’re likely a member of one or two college camps: the ones with jobs lined up post-university or the ones who will be thrown into the real world without any hands to hold.
I was someone who graduated and didn’t have a job, or even a plan for that matter. Graduate school sounded awesome because I’m one of those losers who loves to be in class. A well-paying job was tempting, too, if I could’ve found one. Then there was the practical girlfriend in me that knew too much more long-distance and my relationship with my significant other would dissolve like Pixie Stix dust in warm water.
So, being the indecisive person that I am, I ditched my plans for more schooling in order to chase my boyfriend to Florida while working a job that paid the rent but definitely sunk me below the poverty line. My peers, over the months that passed in that year, have purchased cars, gone on expensive business trips, and spoken at conferences. They’ve afforded exotic vacations, gotten engaged, and posted pictures to Instagram that gave me serious grown-up FOMO.
Now, a smidge over a year has passed since I earned my diploma and I only recently got serious about finding a more stable career. But here is what I’ve learned as my journey unfolded and have been told to expect in the future:
Being Picky Has Pros
When I graduated, I had kicked butt as a scholar. My GPA was awesome, my courses were practical in the real world, and I was sitting happy in a city that had endless opportunities. I didn’t want to settle for just any office job, though I’ve always had a kind of romantic fascination with those kinds of positions, and I didn’t want to work in a notoriously lame field. What I wanted to do, though, I didn’t know for sure. Having waited some months, I feel much more comfortable with the job interviews that I apply for because I have had the time to hear how my peers fared in their entry-level work. Being picky means that you’ll likely find something you’ll end up sticking with for a period of time.
Being Picky Also Has Cons
Unfortunately, being picky also means living with your parents and falling a year behind your friends when it comes to qualifications in the workplace. You may never be qualified for those awesome jobs that you want if you don’t suck it up and log some hours in a salaried job that is significantly less impressive. A lot of employers don’t mind you having the wrong experience for a mid-level job, they just want to see that you’ve been hired for a moderately long-term job that doesn’t involve sandwich making at the local deli or taking phone calls at your neighborhood hair salon. Lowering your standards for what comes after graduation might not be such a bad thing, after all.
Networking Became Easier After College
I was told to network by a few professors in school. “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” they’d say. I heard them, of course, but I didn’t realize just how hard it would be to get my foot in the door in the age of electronic resume submissions without knowing the right people. If you’re stuck without a job after college, don’t panic. The friends of yours that do snag jobs fairly quickly will climb the tiny ladder of entry level antics over the first few months of employment and be able to talk you up as a potential next-in-line hire for the job should a position open six months from when you show interest. Just hope that those friends really impress their supervisors so that you can actually benefit from their recommendations.
It’s Just One More Year
Getting a year older is not the worst thing that can happen in your life. If you dive into moving cross-country to explore your dream of being a taco truck vendor and then realize nine months in that you hate the smell of salsa, you can start fresh without having lost too much. You’re still in your 20s, you’re still young enough to be considered enthusiastically for the jobs you tossed aside as a fresh graduate, and you’re still just as vibrant as ever. Sure, those who have student loans to pay back or a hearty rent to pay may not be so relaxed about a year passing without steady pay, but a single year passing without a salaried job will probably not make or break your path in life.
The Job Hunt Will Be OK
I was recently told, since getting serious about this whole growing up thing, that job interviews come in waves and that job offers come in tidal waves. You can have a dozen job interviews with no serious openings and then you do six more and every employer you’ve chatted with wants you to work for him or her, within the month. You actually end up turning down jobs in order to cozy yourself into your new office in peace. While this is just something that I’ve heard through the grapevine of experience, it reminds me that striking out is okay as long as I keep coming up to bat. Soon enough, I’m going to hit that home run, and so will you.