The Unemployed Life
Graduation to Nowhere
I’ve spent no small amount of time thinking about how my life could have been different if I had graduated in another year.
From the first day of senior year in the fall of 2007, (like all seniors) we avoided mentioning the “G word” and cringed when anyone asked what our plans were for the next year. We were still safely ensconced inside the safe, dependable collegiate bubble. The outside world, where concerns over subprime mortgages were slowly mounting, hardly penetrated. Besides, people we knew had graduated and gone to get jobs. Just as we expected we would.
When I did finally graduate in May 2008, Bear Stearns had already collapsed, but I couldn’t see how my experience could fold in on me: I was a double major, graduated magna cum laude, had put in my time as an unpaid intern, and was an editor of a campus magazine at Syracuse University. I expected success and moved to New York so I would be here to interview at a moment’s notice. I signed a one-year lease on an apartment and waited for the interviews and offers to roll in.
Nine months later, I’m still waiting. I’ve done two post-graduate internships to keep my resume fresh, but while I keep looking, sending out resumes, schmoozing up every media person I meet, the market for journalism jobs — heck, any job — keeps shrinking. The market is full of journalists looking for any job they can get. How can I compete with someone who has a few years’ professional (non-internship) experience?
It’s hard not to feel desperate. Some of my friends have had to veer dramatically off-course: One, who was a very talented fashion design student, just took an administrative job in finance. Others, chastened by getting laid off only months into their careers, are going to grad school to wait out the recession. Meanwhile, I’m facing the very real possibility that I might have to pack it in and move back home to Detroit. Although the job market is even bleaker in Motown, how can I sign another lease when I don’t know where my next paycheck is coming from?
Since feeling sorry for yourself won’t get you any closer to a job, I try focusing on the bright spots instead: At our age, most of us don’t have a family to support or a mortgage to pay—we’re only responsible for ourselves. Our limited amount of experience commands smaller salaries, so in some ways we may have a better shot at finding a job in a cash-strapped economy than someone a few years older.
But I’ve been at this for months, and sometimes it seems like there’s no end in sight. Then I remember something someone told me about a year ago, which helps keep me going: It only has to work once. You don’t need a dozen contacts to come through for you; you don’t need to ace six interviews; you don’t need three job offers. You just need one. One job. One person to take a chance on you.
Just one. When you think of it that way, it doesn’t seem so hopeless.
Andrea Morabito is an under-employed journalism graduate of The Newhouse School at Syracuse University. She lives in New York City (for now).
Tags: anxiety, career, economy, finding work, job-hunting, jobs, media, Millennials, resume, Trends and Entertainment Discussion
5 comments for “Graduation to Nowhere”
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Hang in there Andrea! I’ve worked in media for most of my career and we’re all pretty uncertain about what the future holds, but one thing is certain: there will be a future. Also, some of the best writing is a result of difficult situations.
I would feel sorry for you… had I not experienced the same thing during the last recession (late 1980’s/early 90’s). LOTS of people have been through similar straights, Andrea; you’re not alone. For me personally, it took 9 months until I found a job in my field at the time (PR) and that one was part-time (20-30 hours per week). In the meantime, I was lucky enough to a) be able to move back home with my parents temporarily, and b) get temp. work as an administrative assistant. My advice to you would be to find a job – ANY job – to at least bring some $$ in and to make more personal connections, because you never know where the next opportunity might come from. So keep your chin up, and keep at it.
Andrea, thanks for the article. I am in the exact same place in my life as you because I graduated June 2008. I haven’t even gotten an interview for a job I would seriously consider!
Although my credentials are somewhat less than yours (no magna cum laude.. ok like a 2.5 but whatever) it makes me feel like college was a waste. Now I think it would have been worth my time to try to get some technical degree to fit into the job market far more easily without putting myself further into debt to go to grad school.
The only thing I know is that there are a lot of us out there right now, and there’s no way things are going to stay the way they are unless the U.S. wants a generation lost to them and borne of poverty. Look up, things can only get better for those of us with nothing to start with.
@ Austin: Glad you enjoyed the article. I was actually having similar thoughts the other day – that maybe I should have had more fun in college and spent less time obsessing over my grades and extracurriculars because it seems like I would have ended up in the same place anyway.
But none of us could have predicted how things were going to turn out, so we’ll have to live with our decisions. And you’re right that we’ve got nowhere to go from here but up. Best of luck to you!
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