<p>Hi- I’m a soon-to-be college grad and could really use some advice. I only have two courses yet to take before graduating from the University of Maryland, which I’m taking online this summer while living at home with my parents. I have no plans to move out in the near future, and am trying to find a full-time job with benefits- basically my first “real” job. While I won’t receive my diploma until December, I was hoping to find a good job or internship that would give me some experience before then. However, I haven’t had much luck in that department…I’ve found two part-time jobs, which is a way to earn money for now, but I just realized how difficult it’s going to be to get my foot in the door and get started on a career. While I’ve worked a wide variety of retail/restaurant jobs, as well as an internship, I feel like at this point the best I’m going to do is have a secretary career, or jump from dead-end job to dead-end job for the rest of my working life. I always imagined myself as having a successful career in some field, and the sudden realization that that might not happen is discouraging. </p>
<p>In college I majored in general business and Spanish. While I very much enjoyed learning Spanish, I am far from fluent, although I am still working on it. While it’s an interesting thing to have studied, I have realized that at this point my Spanish skills are not good enough for me to get my foot in the door anywhere. And Spanish was what I considered the “fun” part of my degree, I was not that interested in business, but majored in it because I thought it would be practical, especially paired with Spanish. I basically went with business through a process of elimination after trying a bunch of other majors. I was told not to worry about being unsure of what to study, because just getting a college degree was what mattered most, and that most people don’t find work directly related to their degree anyway. I now realize that that was probably the wrong advice…and that a general business degree is worthless, since I only learned a little bit of this and that, and didn’t specialize in one area. </p>
<p>I’m starting to think I would be better off if I had never gone to college at all, but instead had gotten career training at a community college. But when I was graduating from high school that option never occurred to me or was offered to me. I was in the top 2.5% of my class, and college was just what the top students did after graduation. It just frustrates me that after four years of college I feel like I’m in the exact same position as when I graduated high school- clueless. One career path seems just as good as another at this point, and how would I know since I can’t get a job in any of them? I’ve applied to many internships this summer in areas of business that do interest me, such as supply chain management, but haven’t received a single response back. I want to at least get interviews before I get rejected, because I feel like I need to practice my interviewing skills, but I’ve only gotten 3 interviews out of the 40+ applications I’ve sent out, and 2 of those interviews were for the part-time jobs I have right now.</p>
<p>Maybe this is what I get for not “majoring in what I enjoy.” If I had, I would have majored in English. Although I’m pretty sure if I had majored in English, I’d be in an even worse position to find work than I am right now…Anyway I’m considering going to community college to get certified in a health career, such as a MRI tech. Although I feel bad for considering that as an option, just because my parents paid for me to go to college and now I’m considering doing something that I could have done out of high school. For me, doing something like that would be okay, like I’m not too proud to go to community college, and I know my parents would be understanding, but part of me still feels like I would be letting them down. </p>
<p>I’m looking at a medical technician job because there is good job security, I might someday be able to use my Spanish skills, and it seems relatively interesting to me, I’ve always been interested in the health field…job security is important right now, because I feel bad for my inability to find a full-time job, when my parents are paying hundreds of dollars a month for health coverage for me through Cobra. And I really would like to become more independent from my parents, but as long as they’re paying for my health coverage and food that’s just not going to happen. Part of me doesn’t feel ready to settle down with a career, I would love to travel and explore different things for a few more years, but I feel like that’s being irresponsible of me. My dad says to give it time before I make any drastic decisions, and that I’m selling myself short…but I feel like he overestimates how much my college degree will be worth. At this point I’m definitely not considering grad school- if I can’t find a job now, getting another expensive degree is probably not going to solve anything.</p>
<p>Heh well sorry for the life story… but parental advice and insight would be much appreciated :)</p>