Hi everyone and happy Monday! Shoutout to my friend Emily for finally getting me motivated to sit down and write this post, which I should warn you is going to be a bit longer than what you’re used to. I’m starting a series of “Things I Learned After Accepting My First Job.” I’m about six months into my first job out of college and I’m learning so much! To be honest, I learned a lot six months ago when I was going through the interview process and when I accepted the job. I think one of the most important things to never lose when trying to land your first job is hope. We just graduated college, we have our whole lives ahead of us, all we should have is hope! Anyway…

For this series I’m starting at the natural beginning, so this first post is focusing on finding a job. The next posts will discuss the interview process, then accepting a job, and starting a new job. I hope you find these tidbits of information to be useful whether you’re on the hunt for a job, in the interview stages, about to accept a position, or even content where you are. What I have to say might not apply to everyone, but each one of these pieces of advice is something I wish I’d known going into the workforce.

Please let me know what you think and please feel free to email me with any questions! As always, I appreciate any feedback in the comments section, but if you have more personal questions (like salary, interview topics, etc.) please reach out to me via email or DM on Instagram. I have no problem answering these questions, I just don’t want to do so publicly in the comments section.

Okay, grab your coffee or rosé, pull up a chair, and get ready for some real talk!  

Finding a Job:

One thing I wish I’d known right around the time I was graduating from college is that there are plenty of jobs out there. I was in such a panic mode the weeks leading up to graduation since I hadn’t landed a job yet. Let me be very clear: you don’t need to have a job lined up after graduation! Not having something lined up doesn’t make you lame, a failure, or lazy. Don’t make the mistake of checking out of college early by spending all your time and effort tirelessly trying to figure out your future. It doesn’t hurt to spend some time on LinkedIn looking to see what jobs are out there and what connections you have, but don’t let your last few months at school be ruined by being preoccupied. (Unless your field is the kind where you’ve done an internship the previous summer with a large company and you know they’ll reach out to you looking to hire…but that isn’t the case for most people).

There are so many job opportunities out there. With that being said, it might not be easy to find the exact job you want straight out of college, and that’s okay. It’s okay for a few reasons…1) because do you really know what you want? 2) because you can’t expect to land the perfect position straight out of school (it’s called an entry level position, which is no one’s dream job), and 3) because even if you know what you’re passionate about, you might find a well paying alternative.

Personally, I know I am passionate about event planning. I spent the past three years working as the Assistant to the Director of Special Events at my college and I loved every second of it. I loved it so much that going to work was typically the highlight of my day, and the actual events were the highlights of my year. I loved what I did so much that I would count down the seconds to the days where we had an event. Those days I woke up extra early, before 6am definitely, and I woke up that early knowing that I won’t be getting back until around 1:00am, after being on my feet all day running around like crazy. I think that’s the definition of being passionate. Oh yeah, and I’m passionate about creative writing as well…in case you didn’t figure that out already…unlike event planning, that’s something I’m actively pursuing at the moment! 

I am passionate about event planning and writing, but I took a job at a hedge fund, why? Well… mostly for the money. Before I graduated college I had this number in my mind, an amount that I wanted to make after graduating. Most of the people I shared my goal with laughed at me. “Good luck with that,” and “yeah, how are you going to make that happen?” were phrases often thrown my way. Now ask me if I’m making that number I had in mind. Am I? No, I’m making even more! I’m not suggesting you ignore what you’re passionate about, but just be open to other opportunities and new experiences, and it doesn’t hurt if those pay really well!

Obviously a huge piece of the puzzle when it comes to finding a job is, dare I say, networking. If networking were a language I would say I’m close to fluent! With that considered, I plan on doing a whole post on networking rather than trying to brush over it here. Keep an eye out for it, I promise it will be super helpful!

Please please please feel free to reach out with any questions/comments! I am more than willing to elaborate on any parts of this post! Keep an eye out for part 2: Interviewing. I’ll be talking about everything from questions you can expect to what color to not paint your nails!