Full-time Unemployment

Being unemployed is difficult. To all of you still in school--do whatever you can to get the job offer before you leave school. I love working, contributing, and being busy all the time, so five weeks of unemployment almost killed me. It brought things out of me that I had never seen before. Beyond the emotional toll it took on me, the work it takes to find a job is mentally and physically exhausting. But the saying is really true: what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger.

Since no one was planning on hiring until after the 1st of the year and I graduated on the 15th of December, I had plenty of time to apply for jobs. Not hearing anything for so long was very discouraging. You start to question who you are as a person and that is the best and worst thing a person can go through. I suggest a healthy balance of humility and confident self-talk to get you through.

I loved my time at Azusa Pacific, but my last semester I had grown to believe that I was awesome, deserved awesomeness, and would ultimately end up with an awesome job. Professors and speakers try their best to keep things in perspective, but everyone enjoys success stories far above those of unemployment and failure.   The three weeks following graduation I had to deflate my big head and realize I needed a job first, a career second. I started to sprinkle in some part-time jobs, retail positions, and temp work applications into my plethora of full time applications. The first call I received for an interview came three weeks after graduation and it came from the Macy's cosmetic counter. I had never been more excited about a part time job in my entire life.

The other side of the coin is confident self-talk. Too much humility might cause an unreasonable amount of deflation in confidence, something you'll need in an interview to get you the job you want. Every time I felt myself questioning my capabilities as a worker or even as a person I would read through my resume and remind myself of the things I had accomplished. Talk to some of the people you've worked with in the past and let them know where you are in your search. Encouragement by people who know what you're capable of can help boost your confidence.

I ended up canceling the Macy's interview because I received 3 more calls shortly after for full-time interviews on the same day. I may not have had to take a part time job in the end, but I knew I had the strength to do what it took to make my dreams happen. God is faithful when you put your trust in him.

Pre-Entry-Level

Once upon a time I was a normal college student headed down an unknown path to an unknown destination. I spent three and a half glorious years at Azusa Pacific University. I joyfully pursued my degree in Marketing, the prefect mix of business and creativity. I spent the bulk of my spare time in Scholar's for Business Achievement, a fancy way of saying the event planning team for the School of Business and Management. My summers were filled with fantastic internships at an online company and with the AT&T Premier Client Group on the most fantastic sales team I've ever encountered.

All this added up to a very big assumption that I deserved and was owed a job. I did all the right things and got all the right grades. Then, quite suddenly I was facing graduation day with no job, no prospects, and no idea what I was going to do next. I knew people, I had applied to some jobs, but nothing was going my way in the form of a job offer. Somehow I still made it through my last few weeks taking in all the joys of college life without being bothered by my looming fate. Most of my friends called it denial.

Luckily, I had enough savings to make it two months in California otherwise I would have to go home to freezing cold Wisconsin. Talk about motivation. So between December 14th and January 22nd I searched. I passed up Christmas and New Years with family to focus on my job search and save some money. Those five weeks changed me and opened my eyes to who I was, both good and bad. It showed me the power of hope and the pain of failure.

In the next few weeks I'll unwrap what it means to really look for a job and some of the things I learned professionally and personally along the way.

Welcome!

This is it! This is the one! This is the blog I've been waiting to write. I hope I can keep it up, but with all the stories I have to tell I'm sure I have enough content for a few months at least. I created this blog for a multitude of reasons including telling my crazy stories but also sharing some lessons learned from the first few months of post-college life. Everyone has their own path, but life lessons transcend individuals. I hope you can take something away from this, and if not at least you might have a laugh or two along the way. Get ready because you're about to read the insane details of my entry-level life.