What they don’t tell college grads.

I graduated college with this image that I would get a job right after I get handed my diploma and I would be making adult money, let’s just say I was so happppppy for this to happen. But what every college does not tell you is this does not happen.

So I graduated last may from college with my bachelors’ degree in communications with a focus on television and radio. I decided it was time to make the big move to California since my degree will be a lot more use out there. Before moving I was applying everywhere but was getting no callback. I noticed all the jobs were saying they were only hiring locals, aka they will not hire someone located in a different state because they think they will have to pay for moving cost. I figured I would write in every cover letter that I planned to move out there over the summer and will not need moving cost covered (let’s just say this did not help).

Now it was time to move, this opened up a lot of applications I could apply for. Once I moved to California I was applying everywhere, thinking this will open the door more. Again I was hit with another obstacle, experience. Everywhere you look they want so much experience from the person applying, even for the easiest jobs. I would notice that the easiest job that any and everyone can do wanted the person applying to have at least 4 years experience, along with a degree. This made me question everything how can a recent college grad have so much experience when we spent most of our time in school.

So I started talking to my best friend who was in the same boat as me and we decided it would be easier to just look for an internship (and if they were paying that would be great) and if they were not paying to apply for another job to help with the money load. Let me tell you this basically was hard as well. The one problem with finding a good internship that is a good match for you has a requirement that does not pertain to you, and that is you must be enrolled in college and able to receive a credit for the internship. Oh, another dagger. So let’s say you found 10 internships only 1 or 2 would allow a recent college graduate, you would apply and would not get it HOW!

While going through this you realize that time is passing and that your dream of having a job right after college is basically just that, a dream. Let me be the first to tell you that you are not going through this alone. You get on social media and realize people you know and went to school with or getting jobs and you are not and these dampers your entire mood. So how do you overcome feeling bad, let me tell you how I overcame it because you are not the only person feeling like that. I had to come to the realization that my time will come, that I will have to keep applying and one job will be lucky to land me (and another job will be lucky to land you). This one is important and that is to realize that not everyone’s life plan is on the same path. Just because you have not landed that dream job does not mean it is not coming you just have to be patient, even if that is a few years down the line. I also realized that applying for jobs that do not pertain to your degree is not out of your reach to apply for them, especially any job that offers customer service. Every job requires someone to have some sort of customer service experience basically. While doing these jobs find that one internship that allows a recent college grad and if you cannot find that then volunteer, (jobs love volunteers its workers without having to pay).

Overall the important thing to remember is that your time will come. Right now is your time to shadow and learn the ropes, do not let not finding a job bring you down. If you start to feel the slumps just get out and do something you love to do, that’s something I learned through all of this. This is the one time you will have free time for let’s say another 50 years being that they keep raising the retirement age.

Let me end this by saying, good luck with the job hunt, you got this.