But who you know. Sounds kind of cynical, and goes against the American dream of working hard to get wherever you want to, but based on my experiences the past few years...it's true.
The past few summers, I haven't been able to find any summer work aside from McDonald's, and of course the standard Political Science-free labor-internships (worked for a campaign last year going door to door). No matter how much education I gain, no matter how much leadership experience I accumulated in AIV and Good News, I haven't even been able to get retail jobs at places where they have openings.
This summer, even having graduated from the University of Michigan with a 4-year degree, McDonald's experience, dining hall experience, ample leadership experience, and good references, still nothing....until two days ago. My brother's friend told him to go to this lunch/dinner theater about 5-10 minutes from our house, and to use him as a reference. So happens that my friend Mandy's mom also works there, so I used Mandy as a reference, and we both got hired on the spot! All those hours of filling out job applications and yielding...nothing. And now I have a job just like that. Since I start on Tuesday, and I don't really have much info yet (it was really chill and informal), I don't really know what the hours are going to be like, but yeah, hopefully I will earn some decent money this summer. I'm pretty excited about being employed again.
Anyways, as I've heard in some of my classes, networking is becoming more and more important in the real world today. It's no longer about having the best credentials and working hard to snag the jobs, it's about having connections and getting jobs that way. Like it or not, that seems to be how it's like these days. Obviously, there are exceptions, but it's definitely harder in today's age to get jobs the old-fashioned way. And so, it's important for all of us to build up relationships with others and make connections, we can help each other out in the future.
Sorry to hear that, bro. PolySci and these Business-y type jobs are hard. Should have done engineering, where everyone is socially awkward and no one has friends. The degree/resume is much, much more important in our case.
ReplyDeleteagreed, it seems that way doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteit's the same for med too sorta. a good reference and help will get you into a lab to do research and that begins your network to help you find more research or more connections to get you into med school or to find you people to job shadow (which all of those things give you more connections) to eventually find you a job....yeah it's a social world.
rec letters are huge too so you have to make friends with at least one of your profs. in your undergrad career.
you should just win american idol (oh wait maybe that takes connections too)
Yup, oh engineers...oh well...still not worth suffering through all the math and programming, IMO. American Idol lol...that would be nice. Though as I said in my last post...it's quite a joke at this point. Maybe I can be part of the new Avalon someday =P
ReplyDelete