The post-college career conundrum
If you’re a recent college graduate – or the parent of one - then you know how oh-so important it is to land and start a killer job minutes after the cap and gown are tossed in the attic.
But as much as you might build up the pressure for landing that perfect job right after college, the odds are very good that you won’t be at that same job in 30 years. Or even three years. Remember when you were a kid and wanted to be an astronaut until that day you realized you hated Tang? Exactly.
The good news is that job opportunities and salaries have increased for our most recent crop of college grads. The flip side is nothing new: landing a great job right out of college is never easy. As the number of job seekers with degrees jumps up each year, the competition for skilled positions becomes more and more intense, especially if you’re shopping for a job in a niche market, like Odor Tester or Pet Detective.
When the job hunt gets long and the money starts to run out, there’s often pressure to take a less-than-ideal career. Hold on just one minute. Yes, we stated earlier that your first career isn’t likely to be your last career. But that doesn’t mean you have to settle. Why not take on an hourly or part-time job and continue your career search on the side? CNN recently suggested as much, and they also suggested that SnagAJob.com was the ideal job search website to do just that.
So why not take on a few shifts a week at a retail store or moonlight as a server? You can probably even find an hourly job that resembles your field of study. You just might not want to mention that whole “Odor Tester” aspiration during your job interview. It might not be taken as a compliment.
