Job Search: Start Now

Senior year is here and it’s hard to believe that in eight short months my title as “student” will be taken away and replaced with “alumnus”. I have to admit, this change of title scares me because I know what it means. It means that a chapter in my life that I have really enjoyed will come to an end. It also means that a new chapter will begin, and with it will come the time to get my first real job. AAAAAAAAAAAAH!

So to make the transition into real world a bit easier, I have set a goal for myself. I want to graduate Wash U. with a job already lined up. Although I still don’t know what I want to do with my majors, I do know that hiding from the future won’t get me anywhere. I have eight months to find a job, and I am starting now.

I have set aside time each week to work on my job search (here is a link to help you get started with your job search http://careers.wustl.edu/documents/job%20search.pdf). It’s much easier for me to do something in many small chunks, over a long period of time, than all at once. I usually try to get an hour or two in each week. What I have found is that the actual job search is not as daunting and scary as it seems. It’s really not that hard—the hard part is finding time to do it and actually doing it. It’s kind of like writing a term paper. You don’t want to do it—you’re tired and have a million other things to do—but once you start it’s not so bad. So, yes, I have chapters to read, tests to study for, and projects to work on, but I remind myself that I do all that because I hope that it will help me get a good job. And no matter how great my grades are, I know that the job won’t find me, I have to find it. So that’s why every week, even though there are other things I would rather be doing, I sit down and work on my job search.

So to my fellow job seekers, my message to you is be proactive and start your job searches now. You will thank yourself when it comes time to start that new chapter in your lives.

-Julia