So, you have spent all these years in school and if you are considered a traditional student that means you have probably spent close to a total of 17 years or more in school consecutively. If you are a nontraditional student in means you have more than likely spent a total of 4 years in school. What are you to do now that you have a degree?
You would think that college had prepared you for the real world, right? Well, unfortunately you go to school expecting to better yourself only to find out that jobs are hard to come by whether you have a degree or not. In fact, I think it is more difficult now that I have a degree than it was when I was going to school to get my degree.
How can this be you ask? Let me just tell you. You find yourself applying for job after job after job only to get one or two interviews and they really are not what you want. The jobs require a bachelor degree, which you have but you are either too qualified or underqualified. It has been my experience that many companies do not want to hire people straight out of college. They want them to have experience because they want to know you will be a true asset to their company.
So, what are you to do then? You do what my husband and I did. You start applying nationwide. You take whatever interview you are able too. You do your best at the interview and pray for a good outcome.
It is important to keep in mind that you will not get that 100,000 dollar a year job right out of the starting gate. However, you might be able to get a 30,000 dollar a year job and work your way up. Keep your options open and do not turn down the job just because it is not enough money.
You see, when my husband and I first graduated the only job that offered us any type of good pay at all was eight hours away from where we were living at. The upside is even though we were moving away from my family, we were moving closer to his family. In fact, we moved in with his grandmother and we did it in less than a week of the job offer. Yes that is correct, we just had a baby and God put us in the right place at the right time. Again, remember we applied nationwide only to find ourselves with his family living with his grandmother.
I am the one who was ever so lucky to get the job which meant my husband was the one staying at home with the baby searching for jobs for himself. I have a bachelor degree of science major in business administration and a concentration in healthcare administration. Before my bachelor degree I had completed an associate degree of applied arts and science and I obtain my certification of phlebotomy. Got all that? It is important for this next section.
So here I am with a bachelor degree and I am going to work as a phlebotomist making more money than the companies who wanted to hire me for a position that required a bachelor degree. We were not in the area we wanted to be in nor were we making the money we wanted to but we knew we had to do what we had to do.
We packed our bags and moved eight hours. Knowing we wanted to move in less than a year, we only applied to companies that were nationwide. However, while being near my husband’s family, I moved up quickly in the company I was working for. I loved what I was doing and I was pretty good at it too. But still something was missing. I wanted my own place to raise my family in. I wanted to be out of the cold and in warm weather.
As soon as I could I started applying south I mean I put my application in for every job that came available from North Carolina on. If it was south I applied. When I found that was getting me nowhere, I took a chance and emailed the recruiter herself. Within minutes I had a job interview for a position south.
Now remember we moved eight hours away from my family in with his in less than a week. Well, when I accepted the position down south we had a little over two weeks to do it in. We scrambled to find a place to live, packed our bags, and hit the road. We moved sight unseen and neither one of us had ever been to the spot we now call home. Talk about a nervous wreck. Emotions were all over the place but again you do what you have to do.
Now my husband has a career while I stay at home with our now 2 children. We have a nice home and have everything we could of ever asked for except for the million dollars. But money is not everything.
It is so very important to remember that money is not everything and in order to get to the spot you want to be you might have to start at the bottom and work your way up. If you prove yourself to the company you work for you will move up quickly. Go in with the attitude this is temporary until I get where I want to be. Take any job interview you might apply to 100 jobs and only get 1 interview. You may not get an interview at all but do not give up keep applying. Go to the interviews and prove yourself worthy. Accept whatever job offer you might get even if it is not the one you want and again prove yourself and work your way up. Do a good job at your job and it should not be difficult to work your way up. But whatever you do, do not expect to get a 100,000 dollar job out of the starting gate.
If you are looking to buy a car you may enjoy my post about what I would do differently when buying my first car.
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