6.10.2009

I'm a Dime-a-Dozen.

When I'm not working at my restaurant I am working for the Communications Department for the Advancement Office at Judson University. I acquired the position in early January when I had just returned from studying abroad and was beginning to panic about graduating without any experience in my field. Thankfully, I still have my position here. I get to use my degree (however sporadically) to write for Judson's quarterly publication as well as several other office projects.

I came in this morning lamenting having to work at all because I wanted to sleep in and I wanted to enjoy the nice day and I wanted to complete my own list of to-do's. It was in the midst of my ungratefulness when I checked my email and found 11 messages from CareerBuilder.com waiting for me. Apparently, I qualify for several burgeoning marketing companies despite my lack of financial, marketing and business knowledge or experience. Yay.

It would be easy for me to get discouraged right now. I can choose between telemarketing or the food industry right now while the media and journalism industries tighten their payrolls and ignore my resume.
I'm not discouraged, though. The truth is that while I know what I want, I'm not 100 percent sure that it is best for me. I don't know where I'll be in a year or five or ten. I only know that I right now I have two jobs: one that pays my bills and sometimes drives me crazy, and one that is slowly but surely honing my skills for something greater.

I'm recognizing that the "Go to college and you'll get the job you want!" line that our parents fed us is only partially true. They forgot to mention that industries are competitive, and that you and your degree are a dime a dozen without hard work and a lot of blind faith.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, you probably know about this stuff, but be careful with entry level marketing job opportunities from careerbuilder. most are scams or Multi-Level-Marketing operations that you don't want to get involved in. I did two interviews for these kinds of places, a complete waste of time. Check this:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/205/ripoff0205096.htm

It describes the 2 "entry level marketing" interviews I sat through. It was obvious how silly they were once you got there. It was just an annoying waste of time.

Good luck in your job hunt though! It is tough out there right now. I'm selling cars right now and I like it a lot more than I ever expected. I hope you can find something that makes you happy!

Kevin said...

I feel your pain for this journalism job market. The internship I am doing now has really told me that I want to do this for a long while, to be a photojournalist.

But I meet so many photogs that have been around a while and fear things won't get better. I would hate to finally know I want to do something only to find that there are no jobs, and may never be any jobs. Really stinks!

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