Now What? or: Life After Graduation

Here you are, a newly minted college graduate, diploma [case] in hand, ready to take on the world. Maybe you’re heading off on a backpacking excursion or spending the summer driving cross-country. Otherwise, you’re probably looking for a job. Even if we weren’t in a recession, finding your first “real” job can be stressful.  Post-collegiate hopes and dreams can easily be crushed by reality.  And although you need to find a job, you can’t spend all day, every day looking for one. You will become burnt out.  

• Set aside a couple hours every day to look for jobs.
• Get an internship!  You can’t get a job without experience, and internships are experience opportunities.  Divide the week up so that you have time to work (a paying job), intern (general unpaid) and look for jobs.  
• Make your internship count! At the end of your work period, you want your supervisor to be willing to recommend you and act as a reference, so make sure you’re known in the office as a hard worker and always willing to help out.
• Gather a handful of websites you can use and hit them every day. We suggest mediabistro.com, indeed.com, monster.com, HotJobs, Craigslist, and for magazine jobs, ed2010.com. These sites are good for internships and jobs. If you can’t find internship postings for a particular company, email them and ask—rarely will anyone turn down free labor.

Finding a job can take a long time, but don’t panic. Do other things to occupy your time and pay the bills – bartending, waitressing, babysitting, lifeguarding, etc.  Interning will give you good resume material and help you solidify industry connections. And remember, you just graduated from college—be proud and excited!

--Posted by Sophie Friedman, Vault Web Content Intern