The transition to life after graduation can be difficult. You have new bills to pay, maybe you’re in a new location, at a new job, meeting new people. Everything is scary because it’s new. But what if it’s not? What if you didn’t land that dream job across the country? More importantly, what if you don’t have a dream job?
“What really worries me is that I don’t feel passionate about anything, yet. I don’t want to end up in a dead-end job, but I feel like I don’t have much direction, either,” said Tucker, a senior at UW-Oshkosh.
Plenty of new graduates feel the same way and are struggling to plan for their future. Amy, a senior at UW-Madison, thinks there’s a lot of pressure to get certain kinds of jobs after graduation, “We get these degrees that cost thousands and thousands of dollars, basically telling us which direction our lives are heading. Then, if we don’t find the ‘right’ job, we’re considered failures.”
Trying to pick out a professional trajectory is scary, because a lot of new grads have a hard time picturing themselves in ten years. The old saying goes, “it’s not really work if you love what you do,” and the pressure to find that perfect job is becoming palpable across campuses.
“I hear of all these great opportunities for young people and look at myself and ask, well what do I want to do? Why am I not getting these opportunities?” Tucker said.
Part of the problem is the job market just isn’t that great for new graduates. According to EPI, unemployment for recent grads is “extremely high today,” because those few opportunities are being taken by people with more professional experience. In fact, in 2015, the unemployment rate for young graduates was almost twice as high as the general population’s rate.
So if we simply can’t get the enigmatic dream jobs we hope for, what can we do? Perhaps it’s not about digging for a nonexistent passion or even proving that your degree is “worth something.”
Maybe what we need to do as young people is simply, put in the work. Sure, taking a sales job in your hometown may not sound so appealing, but the reality of it all is that it is change. Our futures do not need to be so bleak. Every one of us has the ability to create a worthwhile experience for ourselves.
Put to work the education you earned. Build up a resume by putting in the hours at your office. Find at mentor. Volunteer for a non-profit. Take time in the service industry. We are the most educated generation of all time. Let’s use our minds, our creativity and our need for passion to build meaning in the work that, frankly, needs to be done.
Graduating is scary. There is no denying that. But regardless of our situations, it’s important to remember that this is just the beginning of our adult lives. Struggling, not knowing and putting in the hard work are all integral parts of adulthood. In the end, it’s not about the job you landed at the end of your college career, it’s about how you move forward and what you take from the experiences you earn.
“It’s going to be really, really hard for awhile. Discovering what I want to do is going to be a process. But I will never regret the decisions I make post-graduation,” Tucker said.