Wow, a freshly graduated millennial English major blogging about her job search – ORIGINAL CONTENT ALERT.
Yes, the concept is familiar and overdone, but each time one of us tries to put what’s going on in our world into writing, there’s a chance that someone else will read it and think to themselves “okay, they’re also flailing around in the void and they seem to be okay with it so I guess I can be okay with it, too.”
While I still find myself wishing I knew what I’ll be doing/where I’ll be living in a few months, I’m mostly okay with not having any solid plans right now. For most of my 4 years in college my answer to the question, “So what’s next?” was something along the lines of, “My plan is to not have a plan” which seemed okay to most people as long as I followed it up with a self-deprecating, “I’m an English major so I probably won’t find a job anyway!”
As I started to get closer to graduation, I started adding a bit more meat to my answer by throwing in my loose plan of staying in Columbia (my college town) through the summer and then eventually looking for internships/jobs and moving wherever they would take me.
Which leads me to my current situation: sitting in Starbucks, Googling “free resume templates”, and searching Indeed.com for “publishing internships” as I start to get tired and want to take a nap and wonder, “How do people get through normal work days without a goddamn nap every once in a while?”
I don’t enjoy the mood that results from thinking about applying for jobs in a “high demand field” such as publishing – before I even apply anywhere I’m thinking “My resume is shit. I have nothing relevant to fill it up with and now it’s too late to fix that” and “There are probably at least 124 other candidates with way more impressive accolades and they probably know someone in the company or nepotism will win yet again or… blah blah blah” on and on until I eventually decide to leave Starbucks to go home, listen to some music, and enjoy the sunshine because I’m young, wild, and free.
But never fear, tomorrow I’ll be back at it again, hanging out at the local ‘bucks trying to remind myself that yes there are probably other more qualified people applying for the positions I want, but that shouldn’t stop me from goddamn trying. I know the life I want, and the only one that can give me that is myself. Step one is getting into the publishing industry, so that’s what I’m gonna do sooner or later – (ideally it’ll be sooner, but Rome wasn’t built in a day and a lot of really successful people didn’t start living their dream life until they were like 30 or 40 so time is relative and happiness is everything).
Until next time,
– K
thelavenderhours 