I know I already asked this question, but I accidentally posted it in the wrong forum.
I’m in my last semester of undergrad. I’ve been job-searching and talking to my counselors and there don’t seem to be any jobs I can get right away that will pay enough for me to support enough. I’m worried that I’ll have to still be living with my parents for several months after I graduate from college. Is this normal?
What is your idea of “pay enough for me to support enough”? Are your salary expectations realistic for your experience level and major?
There are lots of ways to be independent while living on the cheap.
What types of job search tactics are you using? why geographic area are you looking in?
Sometimes one needs to get a temporary job until one finds the right career-focused job.
There are lots of kids who live with their parents while,the save money for their first/last month’s rent and rental deposits.
What kinds of jobs are you looking for…and where do you plan to live? What is your salary expectation?
It is normal, if that means lots of people do it. On the other hand, many seriously struggle on their own, either by choice or because their parents can’t or won’t support them.
Perfectly normal. A high percentage of unmarried young adults live with their parents–even after they find employment. Don’t worry about it–talk to your parents and come up with a plan. If you can’t find a better paying job, you can take a little time to save money, find roommates, get a 2nd part-time job, etc.–whatever it takes to reach your goal of being independent. You should pay rent to your parents, though.
It has become the new normal for many since the economic downturn of 2008. D lived with me after graduation while working in an AmeriCorp position that gave her resume the boost it needed to launch her into a position with an employer that she is still with 5+ years later. She’s had two title bumps and regular raises, so that initial low paying experience was worth it for her. One of her good friends from high school was 3 blocks away at the same time with her folks after completing her degree as a voice major and contemplating her next move (which turned out to be to LA where she and a million others compete for the big break). Everyone has a different story though.
I agrees with doschicos above: find a temporary job until until the first career-focused job.’ As a parent of a college senior, I would have no problem with her coming home while she looked for a job, as long as she had some job, any job. Employers want people who are already working, not a gap of 3 or 6 or more months after graduation. As far as rent goes, that’s up to individual families. My daughter’s bedroom is still hers, as it was. I’d rather her live with us than her spend every cent on some shared rental. But to answer the question from your post, it is normal
Living with parents is not uncommon. Another possibility is parents fronting the first & last month’s rent. That’s what we did. Kid covers the current rent and pays us back on a monthly schedule.
This has been an upward trend for years, starting well before the economic problems in 2008-2009. It is VERY common.
Oh for heaven’s sake. Back in the Stone Age, I graduated from college in March. My “real,job” didn’t begin until the end of August. I worked as a waitress all summer, and lived with my family. It was great.
@atomom brings up a good point. Many recent grads have more than one job going on even when they have a full-time job. They’ll often have a part-time job evenings or weekends and even a third gig (read about the “gig economy”) or “side hustle”. There have been all these words and phrases created to describe it but even 30 years ago when I was graduating college I often had a part-time job to help make ends meet because my first paycheck was pretty darn puny.
Unless you are living in a low cost area, most recent grads I know have at least one roommate if not more than one.
It’s totally normal. Agree with the suggestions above.
What major?
mathematics
When do you graduate? (You said “last semester” – do you mean that you are finishing up your courses this summer, or that you are finishing in December?)
I’m finished in December.
Most employers want someone who can start right away, so the reason that you are not seeing many job offers is just that it is too early. You can use your university career center to get help with your resume and job search techniques; you might consider trying to set up informational interviews and getting help with networking. You are more likely to see realistic job listings for you in November & December. Don’t limit yourself to listings posted at the career center – that’s a start, but you want to cast a wider net using sites like indeed.com.
When my son graduated from college he packed up his stuff and came home – he had a job interview lined up nearby the week he arrived. They told him they couldn’t hire him for the local position but asked if he was willing to relocate --he said yes, and a week later was on plane to the opposite coast to take the job they offered.
My daughter attend school in NYC and had her heart set on staying on the east coast. I told her she was welcome to come home to California, but that I could not subsidize her to live in NY – she ended up with a job offer conveyed on her graduation day, to start in a few weeks.
I know you probably have seen some students who get offers from campus recruiters for jobs that are months away – but most jobs don’t work out that way.
As soon as you are able to walk into an interview and tell them you are available for full time work immediately, the landscape will change.
Of course you need to be flexible in the type of job you are willing to take. My son’s willingness to relocate certainly made his job search easier.
I don’t care for the word normal because normal can be different from family to family. Mine did not live at home after college. Our best friends subsidized theirs so they could live in NYC with entry level job incomes. Another set of friends had one out of 3 kids who did return home and is working for the family business and living at the parents home for now. Normal is what will work for you and what your parents will agree with.
Not necessarily. Some larger companies that recruit at colleges do it many months in advance. And different industries recruit at different times of year.
My daughter got her first post-college job through on-campus recruiting. Later, she went back to school for an MBA and got her first post-MBA job the same way. In both cases, she started submitting resumes in response to job announcements on the online on-campus recruiting site in August or September. The first time, she was applying for jobs in a career field that recruits early, so she went to interviews in September and October and accepted a job offer in November, for a job that started the next July. The second time, she was looking for a job of a different type, and the schedule was a little later. The interviews took place in October and November, and she accepted a job offer in January for a job that started the next August.
Some of her friends, who were looking for jobs in other fields or industries, did their recruiting much later for jobs with similar start dates. It all depends on when the types of jobs you’re looking for turn up in the system. And of course, some of them found their jobs outside the on-campus recruiting system, and their timing was different. One student who got an extremely good job didn’t have it lined up until after graduation because the employer (a government agency) recruits late.
Talk to your career center about the types of jobs you’re interested in. They can give you a better picture of the time schedule for recruiting. You may find that in the line of work you want, the recruiting is like what @calmom described. But it’s also possible that it’s more like what my daughter experienced.
I just looked at the start of the thread and saw that you’re graduating in December.
That could be a disadvantage in terms of on-campus recruiting. You can still get jobs that way (even if the process continues after your graduation date), but you might have to wait months for them to start. If that happens, and your parents agree, it might make sense to come home for half a year or so and get a temporary job. Another thing December graduates who have to wait for a career-type job to start sometimes do is get a temporary job in their campus community and continue living there for a while.
You also might find that some employers would be delighted to have you start earlier than the May graduates can.