Graduation is slowly approaching, and I know I’m not the only one freaking out about not having a plan. Everyone who knows me knows that I like to have a plan – I like to know what time things are happening, I like getting to appointments early and I like having answers. However, the hunt for post-graduation employment is a lot harder than I expected it to be.
Throughout my senior year, I started job-hunting proactively. I started the application process in January and didn’t hear anything (probably because they saw I wasn’t available to work until four months later). The hunt never stopped; I kept looking and looking. As other friends started accepting job offers, I got discouraged. Then I realized: it’s okay to not have a plan.
College is for figuring yourself out. You discover what you like and what you’re good at. You’re about to start the next huge chapter of your life, and it’s what you might be doing for the majority of your life. I know that I’m going to work for years and years to come; why rush into it? It’s better to have a decent job with what I want to do than to take any job offered to me. Not to mention, the thousands of college grads looking for jobs makes it that much harder to break into the industry.
It was hard for me to accept sometimes because when everyone I know begins to ask, “so what are you doing after you graduate?” I never really know what to say. But I know that everything happens for a reason, and that if something doesn’t happen now, the right thing will come along. The trick is to be persistent.
You must remind yourself that you are intelligent and capable of doing so much. That just because you have a college degree with no “real” job yet doesn’t mean you don’t have the ability to do anything. As someone once told me, you are your own genius. There are qualities and talents that you have that no one else possesses, so keep that with you. You are the way you are for a reason, and it’s something special.
So just because you’re not sure what the next chapter of your life will bring you, enjoy the time you have to yourself before you have to start working for the rest of your life. Stay persistent in that job search, and know that the right opportunity will come along.