Job Hunt

Stephaine Anderson

All students will soon sigh with relief as they leave their last exams to enjoy their summers of late nights, sleeping in and traveling to visit family. However, the most fulfilling liberation will be for those students who aren’t talking about what professors they have next semester. The greatest pleasure will be for those of us who are finally done…the seniors. Or will it? We are supposed to be feeling “done,” right? Here we are. We have completed school. They all told us that if we went to college and got our Bachelors degree, we would be able to get a job. That was the whole point of it. But what so I do now? That proverbial “step” from college world into real world is more like a complex leap into a dark and rather frightening abyss. I often feel a certain pull towards remaining a “kid” as I prepare to become an adult in the next few months. It is intimidating. Obviously adults are different from us, but how? What do I need to change? Do I stop wearing flip-flops or just refrain from PB&J’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner? There is something 9-5 folks have I simply lack. More importantly, however, I feel as though there is something I have that 9 to 5-ers don’t. Freedom. Am I ready to give that up? As freshman and sophomores we romanticized the job search. In fact, we might still have been able to say, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Now, we enter into our own job searches as the economy slowly passes from recession, and we all grimace at the possibilities.Where do we want to live? What should a resume look like? Cover letter? How much money will we need? How many jobs are there in my field? Where do we find the time to travel to an interview if we get one? How do we network? Will we have to move somewhere we don’t want to live? Will I hate the job? Is this what I really want to do? The jobs you are interested in require at least two years of experience. Don’t our highly priced educations mean anything? Do we really have to settle for jobs that entail making copies for the boss and hopes of moving up to mailroom somedam? We expected it to be easier. We went to colleges so that we would have the jobs we wanted and after all the work is done, the weather is warm, graduation is approaching we realize that the work isn’t over. I think it is a matter of doing the same thing we did the day we left for college. Remember? College might have even been scary, but we went anyway. Somewhere, find the passion we all had when we were younger to find a job we like. Throw your heart into a search and show excitement. Make it your own investigative adventure. Get dressed up in the morning; remind yourself that this is just the beginning of a long line of many new thrills in your life, make yourself aPB&J and jump into the abyss!