Week Two: Newly Graduated, Sort of Unemployed

This week I re-started my internship at the Liberal Arts Career Development office. Obviously I won’t have as many projects as I had during the school year, but it’s good to have some things to work on during the week. It keeps me motivated and keeps me designing which is always a good thing. I’ve also been applying to part-time jobs around town so that I’ll have some sort of income to keep me going during the summer.

In light of everything changing for me, I wanted to talk a little bit about having patience and not getting discouraged during the job search. Lisa always told the interns that if Plan A goes wrong, there is always 25 other letters in the alphabet. Boy, have I learned how true that statement is. My perfectly laid plans are always changing and not going according to schedule. I’ve had to learn to be patient and flexible with my planning. Everything may not happen in the time I want it to happen, but things will eventually turn out like I want.

For example, I came to college, a lowly freshman with hopes and dreams of being an interior designer. I was confident in my plan, I knew what I wanted (or so I thought). I could never have predicated that I would actually change my plans and double major in Graphic Design and Classical Studies. Never. I had my life planned out but things change and I have to admit, it was the right change for me.

Now looking at my career future, I have no idea where I’ll end up. I know where I want to go, but it’s important that I be flexible in my planning. Having goals in mind is obviously a good thing but always be patient when things don’t go according to plan. It’s easy to get discouraged when Plan A doesn’t work out but keep making those goals and keep making plans! Be open to new opportunities, locations and experiences that you weren’t considering before.

Week One: Newly Graduated, Newly Unemployed

It has now been almost one week since I graduated college. It’s not going well.

I have applied to at least 50 design jobs. I have emailed, I have written brilliant cover letters, I have updated my online portfolio as well as my print portfolio and I’ve had an awesome internship (which I’m still doing over the summer). Aren’t the job offers supposed to be piling up in my inbox? Shouldn’t I be turning away employers because I have so much work already? Truth is, not all of us get jobs right out of college. Exhibit A: Myself. People love to talk about statistics and the economy and whatnot. I’ve heard the phrase, “Oh, you’ll find something eventually.” more times than I can count. Why is every random person I talk to suddenly an expert on job searching?

I’ve had one interview. The interview was with a company in New Jersey for a summer internship. We all agreed that it wasn’t particularly feasible for me to move out there for a temporary position but the Creative Director said he would pass any freelance jobs he had on to me. Well, that’s great but what about right now? I’ve already figured out that I can’t really afford to move anywhere out of the state at the moment so I’ve been applying locally. Problem is, there aren’t millions of jobs available in good ol’ Indiana.

This is Week One of unemployment and desperation. I think I’m doing well so far, but we’ll see what next week brings as I am forced to contemplate my choices between part-time employment in food or retail. It’s pretty grim. However, I will keep applying to jobs and I will keep doing projects in my spare time. This is what I want to do with my life and so I have to keep plugging away at it.