Yes, I know I messed up. So how do I fix my life? I have a mediocre 2.7 GPA and I’m a economics and political science double major from UMASS Amherst. It is too late to bring up my grades as these are the last three classes I have to take before I graduate. Grad school is obviously not an option. What should I do? I am looking at internships and many of them require at least a 3.0 GPA.
My dream job was to get into foreign service but we all know how hard that is. Of course I am going to try but I need to have a “safety” plan. What kinds of entry-level jobs should I look into? Should I look for an internship first? I took two years of Arabic which I love so I plan to study.
I am getting my TEFL (teaching English as foreign language) and I have saved a lot of money from serving that I am going to take 8-10 months backpacking Southeast Asia. Will this look bad when I apply for jobs when I get back? I live to travel and have a passion for international relations and economics (I did not take the advanced calc, econometric’s route but I did take intermediate macro/micro and calc 1/2, etc). I heard that route was a bit useless?
Anyways, I need help with my life haha. So ANY advice is appreciated. What kind of entry-level jobs should I look into? Do I have hope?
Hey man, I graduated from college with a 3.12 GPA in political science (no econ, and a political theory concentration), in 2011, when the job market was brutal.
You can find a job, but you need to have a killer resume, tremendous interview skills, and a lot of perseverance. Work with your school’s career services department.
If you’re planning to take basically a year off after school, you may have trouble. You will either need to find a company willing to wait a year to have you start, or you will need to wait to start applying until you’re back Stateside, during which time you will inevitably have several months without work. Either of those scenarios makes finding a job harder.
To be clear, job hunting is not like college admissions. When applying to colleges, you are almost guaranteed admission to a bachelor’s program. It may not be a great program, but you can still get the piece of paper saying you’ve got your BA/BS. With jobs, there is absolutely no guarantee that you will get a job, and there is no such thing as a safety job. The only thing close is a job that does not require a college degree, such as retail or hospitality. Now, there’s nothing wrong with doing that for a while, but if your expectation is to get a full-time, salaried job, you may be disappointed.
An option for you is to do your travel abroad, come back and get a retail job, and then enroll in a certificate program that will directly qualify you for a specific industry or job. That will allow you a fresh start from a GPA perspective and could help you get into better jobs. Otherwise, you may be stuck doing your best and working low-paid jobs for a while (maybe 2 months, maybe 2 years, maybe even longer), until you can find a good fit with an employer.