"Have You Found a Job Yet?"

I just finished my last final ever. Weird.

The entire situation has even remotley sunk in yet, and right now I'm just kind of in a weird, "huh, I'm done stage." I can't accuratley describe it, but I'm sure those of you who have graduated know what I am talking about. (And those of you who havent' graduated college, or completed something of equal magnitude, have zero idea what it is like, and have absolutley no ability to comment about it in anyway. None.)

I handed in that last final, and was literally walking down the hall giggling to myself, with a dumbass grin on my face. I'm sure I looked like a moron. The giggling was in part due to the fact that I somehow got a B+ on the paper I was supposed to revise last Friday, even though I siad "fuck it" and quit revising halfway through. Good for me, eh?

Mostly, though, I was just happy to be done.

I'm not really sure how to sum up my thoughts, but I wanted to throw up an editorial I wrote awhile back about the whole job search thing.

I know many people, a couple in particular, who should really heed these words. Nobody knows anything, and you are no different. No matter who you are. Anyway, enjoy...

“Have you found a job yet?”

This is the most common question a soon-to-be college graduate will hear in the coming days, weeks, and months.

It is also the most frustrating question a soon-to-be college graduate will hear in the coming days, weeks, and months.

Not because the answer is “no,” which it almost invariably is, but because everyone just assumes all 22-year-olds want to be working a 9-5 job immediately after graduation. Yet, is there a more depressing thought than that of spending your early to mid twenties stuck in a cubicle making $20,000 a year because “this will be the springboard to my success?” Thanks but no thanks.

College is meant to prepare students for a career, often in a specific area through specialized training – or “major,” if you will. That’s all well and good, except this ideology does nothing but create a paranoid army of young people who feel their lives depend on their first job.

They don’t.

Furthermore, if you think your major puts you on a track that guarantees one type of job, or is guaranteed to lead you in a specific direction, you are incredibly naive.

Yes, it sucks if you graduate from college and are still working for Domino’s – but only because Domino’s is disgusting. If you are delivering pizzas at 22 with college degree in hand because you are unsure of what you want, then more power to you.

You are far better off than the person who rushed into the corporate world because they were “supposed to.” Those are the people that look and act 40 by the time they are 28.

This isn’t to disparage those who have a job lined up. If you know what you want to do, and are prepared to do so, that is excellent. If you know for sure you want to work in the corporate world (or some other field), and want to get your foot in the door, go for it.

If, though, you aren’t ready for the 9-5 working world, or that isn’t what you actually want, then just relax and let things settle for awhile. 22 is not 72. Life hasn’t passed you by yet.

And next time someone asks “have you found a job yet?” just smile politely and realize they had no idea what they wanted at 22 either.

Hell, they were probably delivering pizzas.

-Juice