Just When You’re Not Looking

My job search has been on hold for about a week as I tie up all of the loose ends that are my last week of school. Ever. Well, at least until I go back to graduate school. And as luck would have it, the week I’m not trying to concentrate on finding a job, I land an interview.
Although I haven’t been actively searching and applying this week, I can across an ad for an Editorial Assistant—a great way for me to get professional experience and learn the editing ropes at the same time. So I wrote a cover letter and emailed my resume and that afternoon, I received a call to come in for an interview next week. Now the ad was a little ambiguous: medical company seeks recent college graduate to assist with editing our many publications. Something like that. But “recent college graduate” and “assist with editing” were the operative words. I was not aware at the time, however, that I was actually applying with a personnel company, not the company itself. I called the gentlemen back anyway.
“You’re graduating in May,” he said. “When would you be able to start working?”
“By the end of May. Graduation is May 13, so I would be able to start the following week, after I get settle in DC.”
“That’s great. However, I’m not sure if the employer for the position you applied needs the position to be filled before then. But what are you interests?”
“I’m interested in publishing—writing, editing—but with a focus in the non-profit sector, helping with communications and that sort of thing. My two main interests are social issues, especially dealing with education, and writing.” I started to get nervous that he would renege the interview offer.
“Well, listen,” he continued. “Whether the position is still open or not, I’d still like to interview you and help you find something in the area.”
I wasn’t sure about the whole personnel company thing at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought of what a great idea it is to interview with them. They have the resources I need and even if they don’t know of anything for me right away, at least I will have another interview under my belt. Besides, it gives me an excuse to go down to DC for a few days before graduation and look for jobs in person, instead of relying on this computer.
It’s amazing how this little bit of progress helps me confidently concentrate on enjoying my last weeks of college.

Like Stones in a River

I’ve been relating in recent posts that this stage in my life is difficult because there is no plan. However, I don’t mean that I haven’t outlined a plan for myself, just that after college there is no standard plan. We spend our lives moving from one stepping stone to the next: go to elementary school, go to high school, go to college. You have to decide where to go to college, but the standard today is at least to go. Check, check, check. So then what do you do after college? That’s where the stones end and you’re faced with the wide open sea, which can be both liberating and oppressing.
So here I am, standing on the last rock, ready to dive off in just a month. I’ve decided what my next move will be; whether or not I can stand on it for a while, I have yet to see. But I am going to move to College Park, outside of DC, where my boyfriend has a house that is already paid for until August. I will continue my search for entry-level publishing jobs and internships, focusing right now on the non-profit sector, but not limiting myself to it. I realize I have to get experience before I can jump to where I eventually want to be; in five years I hope to working for a certain magazine, based in DC, that concentrates on both socio-political issues and creative writing, my two main interests. If I aquire a position that both affords me enough money to continue living in the city and will help me get to my next rock, my boyfriend and I will move into the city in the fall. If things don’t work out–either with him or with the job–I will go home and try something else. But I at least have to take that risk.
I’ve applied to about nine positions in the last two weeks. I’ve only heard from one internship position and it was not the response I had hoped. I also heard from that non-profit teaching position I had interviewed for in March. I didn’t get that either. Although I don’t think I would have taken the job if I did get a position, it still hurts my pride a little. It would have been nice to have a little boost of confidence knowing that someone out there wanted me. Okay, so I may be acting a little dramatic and I feel I’m still early in the game. But I’m trying to stay strong even though my enthusiasm is waning. My friend from home told me yesterday she sent eight resumes to companies in Florida where she hopes to relocate. She heard from four, got interviews for two, a second call from one and that one has not called her since. It’s like the March Madness of employment. And I feel like I’m headed in the same direction. When do I know when my options have been exhausted and it’s time to go home?

Being the Judge

I’ve been generally feeling positive lately about the job search and the prospect of self-made independence. The more I research different companies and job posting, the more excited I become about the life I could potentially have in just a few weeks. So I was feeling confident when I travelled home again this weekend. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been going home to Philadelphia a lot recently for various family events. This weekend it was my sister’s birthday luncheon at a nice restaurant with all aunts (I have many), grandmothers, and female cousins. Being the oldest grandchild usually has its perks, but Sunday I felt the other side of the role: pressure. Are you excited to graduate? Are you sad? Can you believe it went by so fast? I could handle those questions. But then they inevitably turned into what are you doing after you graduate? If you’re moving, do you have a job yet? Do you know exactly what you want to do? Try explaining to twenty women from a different day and age that you’re moving to another city, you don’t have a job yet, and you’re just looking to try things on for size. You will get fake smiles and puzzled glances. But am I really crazy? Is it that uncommon to graduate and not have something lined up? And does that look poorly on my character that I’m making such a seemingly spontaneous decision?
I found myself getting defensive and answering some of their questions with “No I don’t have a job yet, but actually neither do most of my friends. In fact, only one of my good friends has a job and that’s because she had an internship with the company last summer.” I did not mention that a good number of my friends were going to grad school or law school and others at least had had interviews lined up. I didn’t know why I felt so ashamed almost. It wasn’t like I wanted to go to grad school or law school right away; for me that decision would have just been an act to prolong the career decision another three years. And it wasn’t like I wasn’t trying to get interviews, I’m just a little behind in the application process.
A long ride back to school and half of an anxiety attack later I realized I was so upset because I wasn’t trying to prove to them that I was doing my best, I was trying to prove it to myself. I’m so used to being someone who’s on the top of her game, that doesn’t everything according to plan. But when there’s no specified plan to follow, I doubt any move I make is the right one. So I resolved to not get discouraged, to allow myself only a few minutes a day to feel stressed out and then move on. Because the only way the situation will get fixed is if I get a job. And anxiety attacks are not going to make contacts, send resumes or land interviews. There are no such thing as mistakes at this point in the game because there’s nothing to lose.

Progress Makes Perfect

I went home last weekend for some family events and started talking to my mom about the whole “future” thing. To my utter surprise, she said to me, “Cait, of course I want you to have a cookie-cutter life: get married, buy a house, have kids. But I know now that that’s my life, not yours. So go to the city, try out some things, travel while you can. I’m excited for you.” Who is this woman who claims she’s my mother?
So after that little boost of encouragement, I’ve been furiously searching for jobs and internships on different career sites. I figured I’ll take paid internships in exchange for experience. Yesterday, I applied to three different places:
1) A temporary position with an agency that edits documents for companies that have outsourced their editing to the agency. Lots of experience, lots of exposure to different types of publications.
2) A grassroots movement internship to be a campaign assistant. Lets me get to know the city better and I have the opportunity to speak Spanish. Sounds like fun.
3) A not-for-profit focusing on the Latino community and education. Combines a lot of my interests and I will definitely have to communicate in Spanish. Very exciting.
I’m also finding that everyone on this blog that says that job searching is a job is so right. I woke up yesterday morning and spent hours at my computer, looking up jobs and internships, researching companies and writing up cover letters. I had to force myself to go to class, only with the incentive that I have to go to class to pass and graduate. And even in class, I was thinking about jobs, Washington, housing, companies to look up when I got home. Balancing school and job searching is, well, not fun.

Best of Both Worlds?

I may have found a happy medium between starting life and teaching. It’s a non-profit organization that places high-performing recent graduates in low income schools in an effort to narrow the playing field for under-privileged students. In exchange for two years service, you receive a teaching certificate, receive scholarships for masters degrees, a full salary and benefits from your school district, and the possibility of getting student loans forgiven. I’m even able to request a city (I chose Washington, naturally). But the work is hard. Really hard. I thought Mom would be impressed, but she was far from it. The prospect of me living or even just teaching in the inner city upset her. She started to talking to everyone at work—other nurses, patients, friends of patients, some of my own family members—who all curiously said the same thing: don’t do it. In spite of the discouragement I was receiving from the homefront, I applied and landed an interview.
Their interview process is somewhat unique in that I had to prepare a five-minute sample teaching lesson, participate in group and individual problem solving activities and then finally have a personal interview. And you interview with twelve other candidates, although you are not competing with them; the organization takes as many candidates that meet their qualifications.
The day of the interview, I was feeling confident. This was my first professional interview and I had prepared by asking my roommates—all business majors—about my resume, what to wear, how to go about following up. I even bought my first suit over spring break. So when I went into the interview, I was prepared enough to know roughly what to expect, but ignorant enough to not be completely nervous.

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Will Write for Food

This week I’ve gotten more excited about life after graduation than I have been in a while. I’ve listened to what I really want to do, and judging by my emotional responses, what I want to do is move to Washington, DC (from suburban Philadelphia). Why Washington? Because I love that city. It’s not too far from home but just far enough. There are so many opportunities for service jobs. And I have a lot of friends moving there. What I want to do in Washington is write, concentrating on public policy and community service. But here’s the problem: I don’t have experience. I’ve gotten excellent grades, I have impressive extra-curriculars, and I studied abroad in Spain, but no professional portfolio of published work (holy alliteration, Batman). What I have done is take several different writing courses—creative writing, fiction writing, expository writing, creative non-fiction, arts reviewing—and gotten amazing feedback from professors, some of whom are accomplished authors and poets. In fact, one professor in particular sat me down and asked if I was dead set on teaching. When I told I wasn’t really that into the teaching thing, she said good, you can make it as a writer. Okay, great. I had the encouragement, but still no experience.
So what do I do? Naturally, I started with the internet, searching for entry-level, no experience necessary, writing careers in Washington. There are writing/editing/assistant positions in Washington, DC. There are even entry-level writing/editing/assistant positions in Washington, DC. But, so far, there are no experience-less, entry level writing/editing/assistant positions in Washington, DC. So here’s my dilemma: do I continue to post my resume (again, sans any professional experience) on Monster and USAjobs.gov and several other engines in hopes for something miraculously appearing? Or do I turn my focus to internships for the summer in hopes of gaining experience, but without an income?
For now, the starving artist will continue her search for a life in the nation’s capital. And, you know, continue her novel while eating Michelina’s Budget Gormet Five Cheese Lasagna…

Mother May I

I graduate in a month and I don’t know what I’m doing. For the past four years I’ve flip-flopped what my goals are, where I want to be, how I want to do it; I have so many interests and talents, I didn’t want to limit myself to just one. For a while I thought I wanted to be a Spanish teacher, but now I feel like I was just taking the safe route. Besides, I will have degrees in English and Spanish come May, but no teaching certificate. So I will have to go back to school for a while to get certified and, right now, I can’t even begin to fathom doing more school. All I want to do is start my life and start making money (and do I need money).
Okay, it’s obviously more complicated than that. You see, my mom is a major influence in my life. I am the oldest child and one that has always succeeded in school and other activities. But I am also a child who does not have it all figured out, like Mom wants me to have. Mom is a nurse. She’s been a nurse since she was 18, she always wanted to be a nurse and nursing is something she’s great at. I, on the other hand, have always wanted to be a writer. And a teacher. And an intellectual property lawyer. And don’t forget an Oscar winning actress. Her thoughts are “pick one,” and preferably the teacher—the safest, most stable of the series and a job she knows and can predict what my life will be like. So for a while I said, okay, let’s be a teacher. But more and more I found myself not being excited about the possibility of being settled so soon. I will be 22 in the summer and to go to school for another year and then move home to the suburbs to teach for thirty years, well, just seems boring. For me. For some people, it’s a dream. But like I said, there are all of those other positions that I want to explore before I take the safe route. You always lose 100% of the shots you don’t take, right?
So here’s my eureka moment: I want to be completely excited and in love with what I’m doing every day, or else what’s the point of life. Naïve? Probably. Idealistic? Yeah. Optimistic and motivating? Definitely. What do I do now? I figure out what makes me happy and what will continue to make me happy. And I figure out a way to make that happen. If it doesn’t work, I can make Mom happy and be a Spanish teacher. But I won’t say I didn’t try first. And so the job search begins.

Thanks.

I want to thank everyone so much for the support they have given me on writing this blog. It’s very nice to have that and I really do appreciate it. I’ve managed to finish up reading for my online courses but I have yet to finish the essays that I have to write 10 -15 pages for 3 of them and 6-10 for two others. It seems like a lot of things to do in a small amount of time. I’m hoping to finish them up by the end of the month although I don’t know if that is realistic but it is my goal.

Should I Write for This Blog?

I’m not really sure if I am supposed to be writing on this blog because I feel like I have nothing to offer here. It seems like everyone else has a ton of things going on that someone worthwhile could read but I don’t. I’m not really sure. I have more personal things that go on in my life – wedding plans, moving, and graduating. I haven’t even really thought about a job or anything like that. It’s too stressful to worry about things like that which I cannot control. I am fiathful in believing that the Lord will show me where it is I am supposed to work and what I am supposed to do with my life. I guess that’s why I don’t worry about getting a job.

Too many things to read.

As an English major I realize there are many many many things that I haven’t read, however I feel as if I am reaching the bottom of the barrel here with my latest Renaissance mess of class. It seems that the education system just can’t have enough of this literature.