From little on it's all laid out for you in a nice, neat timeline: 1.)preschool, 2.)elementary school, 3.)middle school, 4.)high school, 5.)college, and finally 6.)start your own life. What they failed to tell you was how hard the jump from number five to number six truly is in reality. The persistant student that has met all of these steps and often times has even went above and beyond suddenly has to face the cruel reality that the world as it is today may not have an opening for them. The bright future that was promised should finally be in your grasp, but thanks to a little thing called the economy you find yourself screwed. After a few failed applications, you start to think this is harder than you expected. After a few hundred applications, you realize damn this is frustrating. After a couple years worth of applying, you can sum it up into one, exhuastive expletive--SHIT!
At least that's the word I would use to sum up the past two years of my life. I was the picture of achievement graduating high school with a 4.0, eager and excited to embark upon my college years. I knew it was the final hurdle I had to jump before beginning my real life and entering the workforce. After five years of studying, writing papers, student teaching, and dare I say it a little partying and fun, five years later I had finally arrived. I was a college graduate with an elementary education degree. So color me surprised when what I thought should have been the golden treasure at the end of the rainbow actually turned out to be me moving back home broke, unemployed, and living with my parents. I had officially become the unemployed graduate--a name many of my friends and fellow graduates also claim.
Don't get me wrong, I have gotten interviews, but they have all ended with heartbreaking condolenses of We've decided to go in a different direction or Thanks for your time, but we have chosen someone else, or my favorite We went with someone who had more experience. Cut to me pounding my head into the wall. Experience?! Really?!! I don't know if companies realize this but I cannot supply experience until someone offers me some experience.
Let us not forget the time and effort that goes into applying and interviewing for these positions as well. They ask for nothing short of your entire life in paper: resume, licenses, letters of recommendation, contacts, cover letters, transcripts, finger prints, drug tests, background checks, character/personality tests, personal essays, and any other means in which to discern if you're the "right candidate." At this point, the only thing I haven't been asked for on an application is my bra size and I'm sure in a few short years that will become standard as well. Interviewing is even worse. Let's not forget that to even get an interview that you're usually competing against hundreds of other applicants. That's a feat in itself, but then comes the actual interview. Nothing makes you feel smaller than entering a room with anywhere from six to ten people all there observing your every move, word, and breath while they advise you to relax and just be yourself. Yeah, easy for them to say. They aren't worrying about the fact that if they don't get this job they only have three short months until their parents health insurance expires and loans kick in. Deep breaths don't really cut it at that point. Preparing by looking through one hundred plus interview questions is more like it, and even then they usually still find a way to ask you that one question you're not quite sure how to answer completely ambushing your confidence. Even worse, you might have the perfect interview where you feel like you have got it in the bag only to be devastated by the fact that it came down to you and another candidate and they wish you the best of luck.
So there's the past two years of my life in a nutshell. It's down right dreary and as you can see it's made me a bit cynical. I cannot help but asking what now? Do I keep at it? Do I choose a different path? More importantly, when will my luck kick in?
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