(Editor’s note: This is the second in a multi-part series by guest blogger Kim Dreese, a 2013 college grad writing about the joys [read: anxieties] of toting her B.A. degree from the graduation stage on into the “real world”.)
I realized the life I was setting myself up for when I decided to major in Creative Writing.
I knew I should have majored in something practical, but the idea of spending an insane amount of money over the course of four years to learn about something I’m not passionate about sounded absurd.
So, when I officially declared my major, my professors — who were supposed to lift me up and send me on my way to become a successful adult — essentially told me and my fellow creative writers that we’re expected to fail. That barely anyone makes it as a writer. That you have to have the talent, motivation, and charm just for an editor to get off their high horse and glance at you for a second.
GOD, WHAT A MESS ON THE LADDER OF SUCCESS
And it wasn’t just my professors.
I received sympathetic notes and emails from all my family members saying they were sorry about the state of the economy and that they wished me well.
I heard endless accounts of how terrible the job market is, how the only lucrative majors are business administration and math and science, and how the only thing my major prepared me for was journalism (a dying field) or some form of communications.
Even before I walked through the graduation gates, I was full of anxiety at the thought of trying to get a job while toting an English degree as my greatest accomplishment.
As soon as reports of my fellow classmates securing jobs began to roll in, I discovered something else about adult life. Nothing I did in college mattered—not my major, not my degree, and pretty much nothing I even learned (especially since I went to a liberal arts school).
I realize this sounds terribly cynical, but realistically, in my experience, your best chance of getting a job is knowing someone who knows someone.
TAKE ONE STEP AND MISS THE WHOLE FIRST RUNG
This period of job hunting before and after graduating was probably the most stressful time I’ve ever experienced in my life.
First of all, after students graduate, the government kindly gives them a six-month period in which they do not have to pay their student loan bills. However, the very day that that six months is up, they’re expected to start tossing out hundreds of dollars a month.
For grads who are struggling to find a job or who have found a job barely above the poverty line (like mine — more on that later), this deadline is a harrowing, spectral harbinger of doom.
When you finally do start applying for jobs, you will notice that just about every single employer has the absolutely ridiculous requirement that “entry-level” applicants must have at least two years of experience in their field — sometimes even in an insanely specific field, like left-handed dental office accounting.
I even saw a job listing that required two years of experience to become a secretary.
Secretaries are obviously very important to the overall business structure, and they do require a certain skill set. But wouldn’t it be better if employers would put more of an emphasis on being willing to train employees rather than expect them to know everything before they got there?
Each business has different standards and quirks, and there’s no way that one job will make you completely and utterly prepared for the same job in a different field.
So, rather than alienate applicants for not having what someone decided is the “proper” amount of experience, why not give everyone a fighting chance and offer training?
(Stay tuned for more from Kim on her own job hunt — and how she landed the job of mediocre daydreams.)
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Kim Dreese is a recent graduate of Lycoming College, where she foolishly majored in Creative Writing and minored in Psychology and Media Writing. Her newest hobbies include blogging and complaining about being an adult. She works at a small advertising firm in Wilkes-Barre, PA. You can follow her daily rants on Twitter at @lyco13.