What Do I Want To Be When I Grow Up?
I’m new at learning things the hard way. However, I’m rapidly gaining the knowledge that life isn’t as easy as I thought it would be, especially with regards to beginning my professional career.
I’ve been out of college for a year and it has taken me more than 12 months to find employment. I thought finding a job in my field of study—communications—would be easy. I have a college degree and a good resume, which lists three internships in marketing/public relations. I figured I was go to go! Then the economy took a nosedive, and jobs along with it. To make matters worse, Michigan’s unemployment rate is the highest in the nation and this is where I wanted to work.
At the same time I began looking for a job, opportunities became scarce, and the number of those seeking employment multiplied. I became just one of the many searching for a job. Each position I was qualified for had 50 or more applicants. I managed to get lots of first interviews; many second and some third. What I didn’t get was a job offer.
Missed manners
One of the most amazing things I encountered on my year-long search was the bad manners of human resource professionals and those responsible for interviewing and hiring. Numerous times I got messages on my voice mail asking me to call to set up an interview. I returned these calls quickly, but was treated to voice mail requesting me to leave a message. I did so, but I never got a return call. So I called again. Again, no return call. After three unsuccessful attempts, I moved on to sending out more resumes and my next job interviews.
Another lapse in manners, which happened often, was being told after second and third interviews that I would be contacted either way—but then I never was. Again calls by me. Again no return calls.
Networks work
I beefed up my cover letter. I networked. I sent out a minimum of five resumes a day. I was doing everything that I was supposed to do in my search for a job. Just as I was sinking into unemployment depression, something amazing happened. My best friend’s boss’s husband heard of my qualifications and requested an interview with me…then a second. He offered me a job in digital marketing, something I had never even considered.
Now, two months into the job—a job I really like—I’m glad that my search didn’t end too soon. I believe that good things come to those who wait! And I learned, from my extensive and often exasperating job search, that my belief proved to be true.
Comments
Rest assured your experience has nothing to do with being new to the job market. I am a seasoned professional who found myself laid off this summer due to outsourcing. I got a good severance and (because it had been nearly a decade since I'd had to look for work) I figured it wouldn't hurt to use at least half of it to be with my kids and husband and NOT look for work. Fast-forward to today, nearly 6 months after the layoff. I am STILL looking for work that is both fulfulling and able to satisfy at least minimal salary requirements.
I am SO glad that I took those first 2 months to be with the kids and my hubby, as I suspect it would have made NO difference if I'd started this journey 2 months earlier. At least I have a lot of great memories of afternoons spent at the pool, family meals where we're all sitting down to the table (ours) for hot meals (not prepared by someone in a fast food joint).
The jobs I'm applying for are not entry-level and the organizations, in many cases, are Fortune 500 or Fortune 100 companies. Still, the feedback is sporadic if not non-existant. I recently got an email from one Fortune 100 company saying that they were "making an offer in the next few weeks." Not, "making an offer to you" or "making an offer to another candidate," leaving me in the awkward position of having to ASK (I was considering another job offer, which fell through, at the time). I have also gone through multiple rounds of interviews, made it to the final cut, and then been offered a just-out-of-school salary. Painful, embarassing, disheartening.
I spent 2/3 of my career as a manager, and I can say with conviction that my recent job-seeking experience will dramatically change my hiring practices, should I re-enter management ranks. I know I was guilty a time or two of dragging my feet when responding to applicants. I just had no perspective on what it must have been like to stand in their shoes.
Posted by: Debbie | October 17, 2006 08:51 AM
Hi Emily! I have a degree in communications too. And I live and work in Michigan! However, my job isn't specifically comm related, I had to take a different route when jobs were so scarce. But I enjoy it. We should talk!
Posted by: Shannon | October 17, 2006 09:44 AM
I agree, you are not the problem. The way the world looks at work and treats workers IS. The job interview process is NOT personal or considerate of others and I've learned to have absolutely NO expectations on being treated like a feeling human being. My only thought would be (after 20+ years in the workforce) is to NOT take a job for which you are overqualified, and during an interview, really drill them on what the job really consists of. I've had the unhappy fortune to find myself in two jobs since I started working again (after 8 years at home with kids) for which I was totally overqualified and as a result, I am bored out of my mind. I am currently looking for something more challenging and am prepared for it to take a long time.
Posted by: ET | October 17, 2006 12:29 PM
I've found that what matter's most is not what you do, but who you know.
I've struggled to find work many times, only to have an old friend get in touch and offer me a project. Always keep in touch with friends.
Posted by: Simon Griffee | October 17, 2006 02:01 PM
I've gone through fallow stretches myself. At one low point, after I'd been out of work for nearly a year, an HR person told me, "Don't worry, you'll get a job. Not HERE, but you'll get one eventually."
Posted by: Sandra Lowe | October 17, 2006 03:10 PM