Well.. all my friends (minus 3 maybe) have real, big kid jobs. I, on the other hand, wait tables at the tiniest restaurant on earth, spend the majority of my free time stalking monster.com for possible jobs in pittsburgh and my hometown, and pray someone will appreciate the thoughts that I write down, which actually happened!!
I'm not sure how easy it is to get something published onto this website, but I could care-freaking-less because I am ecstatic that someone enjoyed what I wrote. Maybe you will enjoy it, too!
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/say-youre-busy-when-youre-really-watching-netflix-then-let-them-prove-themselves-to-you/
Check it out and let me know what you think!
I am still feeling a bit discouraged, but my resume is perfected, I am doing some freelance work writing a website and product descriptions for a frozen yogurt company, and hopefully gaining some job experience that will only add to my skill set.
Does anyone have any experience in freelance writing? I need some help figuring out rates and how much to charge for the work. I bought a book called My So-Called Freelance Life: How To Survive as a Creative Professional for Hire and so far I have been learning a lot, but any type of in put on how to gain a bigger client base and actually make decent money would be greatly appreciated.
Good luck out there, college grads. We're gonna pull through soon. The six-month wait period for an actual job is almost up.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Are we unprepared for the working world?
Last night I was reading my local newspaper and I stumbled upon an article that was very similar to this one that I found from Kathleen Parker of The Washington Post.
Basically, this article talks about how recent college graduates are unprepared for jobs within their career. Apparently recent grads do not have the necessary skills to succeed after graduation and "entry-level writing skills are deficient." This is terrifying to think about because even as an English major with a concentration in writing, I am questioning whether my writing skills are up to par.
The next question I want to ask is this: Who's fault is it that we are unprepared. The university or college we attended? Or does it go way back to our high school days? I know that when I was in high school, our English classes demanded that we write research papers each and every year. Writing skills were engraved with a welding tool into our brains. I know that this is not the case for all students though, because once I got to college, I realized not everyone had the same preparation for college as I did. Many people had no idea how to write papers, and if they aren't interested in writing, how would they ever improve these skills? They are too interested in their biology and business classes, when in reality, writing skills are the most important part of life and every job you will ever have.
My high school has been going through some changes recently. The school board wants to cut foreign language & art classes because of funding. Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous? Isn't it true that you have to have at least 2 years of a foreign language to even get into college? What is wrong with education these days? It drives me crazy - and this is one reason I chose to change my major from English Education to just plain English.
If we as new grads are unprepared for the working world, what can we do to become more prepared? Knowing what your interviewer wants during an interview is essential - prepare yourself by studying questions and having answers ready when they ask you. The most difficult and most common question is this: What is your biggest weakness? Here are some other questions you should be prepared to answer during an interview:
- Tell me about yourself (Relate to the job you're applying for if possible. This could be challenging)
- Why are you interested in working at our company? (Requires research)
- Tell me some thing you know about our company (Requires research)
- Tell me about your experience at your last or current job (Relate experiences to the job you're applying for)
- If you saw a coworker committing an unethical act within the work place, how would you handle it? (THINK ANONYMOUS HOTLINE! You don't want to be the office rat)
- Do you have any questions for me? (ALWAYS have questions for the employer!!!!) questions found here
Keep your heads up new grads. We'll get out in the working world soon enough even though
Monday, June 17, 2013
I've only been a college grad for 31 days...
and I already feel like finding a big kid job is IMPOSSIBLE. Discouraged is my favorite verb right now, because I have only had ONE interview in the past month and a half and have not heard back from anyone else. Maybe this feels impossible for me because I'm trying to move to a different city? Do employers see that you live 3 hours away from somewhere and automatically put your resume in the "no" pile because they don't want to have to deal with relocating you?
These are the questions we as new college grads have to ask ourselves when applying for jobs. The only thing that I think might help me is the fact that I got my undergrad at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). It's about an hour outside of Pittsburgh, so I know the area well. I have lots of friends out that way and I love the city.. so why not move to a big city for my first job? My home town is pretty big itself, but for a twenty-two year old, Pittsburgh is the best place for an opportunity right now. The city is a great place for young adults, whereas my hometown is crawling with jobs for 40-50 year olds.
During my undergrad, my professors preached about how many job opportunities there would be for someone within my major. What is my major you ask? English Writing & Literature. They would tell us "all companies want to hire English majors because of their writing and communication skills." If this is the case, why does it seem to be so difficult to even get people to consider us?
Four weeks ago I thought the trick was this: Find networking opportunities. I applied to two places in which I had connections to the President & CEO. The first place I applied was perfect, or so I thought. I sent my resume and cover letter to Prez & CEO and he set me up with an interview, which I went to two weeks after sending my things in. The interview went great, but I was told at the end of it that they wouldn't know whether there would be an opening in the department I would potentially be working in for a month or two. Is this an easy way of basically telling me no? Or is there potential here? It has been a month and a half since the interview, and I am still trying to figure out how to e-mail the company to tell them that I am still interested in the job. Does anyone have any advice on this? Would I just simply e-mail them and say "hope all is well. I am still very interested in obtaining a position within your company," or do I e-mail her to ask her a random question about the company? These are things that I am not sure of. Does anyone out there have any advice on this matter? All input would be incredibly helpful.
I still think networking is the way to go within our current economy. All jobs I have found in the past were ones I basically fell into, and I wish it was this easy for me still. Even though knowing people who own companies isn't entirely working for me right now, everyone should give it a go. When you don't have any networking opportunities available, job boards are the next best thing. My favorite is indeed.com - this website pulls from all of the the other job board websites. Another piece of advice when applying for jobs online: apply for the most recent ones. Anything more than a week old means that hundreds of people have seen it already and probably applied. You want to be at the top of the resume pile, so make it happen.
Do any of you have a piece of advice or a story you want to share about finding/applying for jobs? Leave me a comment and I'll feature it on my next post! My goal is to share one of your stories each week. New college grads need to stick together. We will get jobs eventually, so let's get together and start erasing the discouragement from our lives.
These are the questions we as new college grads have to ask ourselves when applying for jobs. The only thing that I think might help me is the fact that I got my undergrad at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). It's about an hour outside of Pittsburgh, so I know the area well. I have lots of friends out that way and I love the city.. so why not move to a big city for my first job? My home town is pretty big itself, but for a twenty-two year old, Pittsburgh is the best place for an opportunity right now. The city is a great place for young adults, whereas my hometown is crawling with jobs for 40-50 year olds.
During my undergrad, my professors preached about how many job opportunities there would be for someone within my major. What is my major you ask? English Writing & Literature. They would tell us "all companies want to hire English majors because of their writing and communication skills." If this is the case, why does it seem to be so difficult to even get people to consider us?
Four weeks ago I thought the trick was this: Find networking opportunities. I applied to two places in which I had connections to the President & CEO. The first place I applied was perfect, or so I thought. I sent my resume and cover letter to Prez & CEO and he set me up with an interview, which I went to two weeks after sending my things in. The interview went great, but I was told at the end of it that they wouldn't know whether there would be an opening in the department I would potentially be working in for a month or two. Is this an easy way of basically telling me no? Or is there potential here? It has been a month and a half since the interview, and I am still trying to figure out how to e-mail the company to tell them that I am still interested in the job. Does anyone have any advice on this? Would I just simply e-mail them and say "hope all is well. I am still very interested in obtaining a position within your company," or do I e-mail her to ask her a random question about the company? These are things that I am not sure of. Does anyone out there have any advice on this matter? All input would be incredibly helpful.
I still think networking is the way to go within our current economy. All jobs I have found in the past were ones I basically fell into, and I wish it was this easy for me still. Even though knowing people who own companies isn't entirely working for me right now, everyone should give it a go. When you don't have any networking opportunities available, job boards are the next best thing. My favorite is indeed.com - this website pulls from all of the the other job board websites. Another piece of advice when applying for jobs online: apply for the most recent ones. Anything more than a week old means that hundreds of people have seen it already and probably applied. You want to be at the top of the resume pile, so make it happen.
Do any of you have a piece of advice or a story you want to share about finding/applying for jobs? Leave me a comment and I'll feature it on my next post! My goal is to share one of your stories each week. New college grads need to stick together. We will get jobs eventually, so let's get together and start erasing the discouragement from our lives.
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