I know we've all heard it. The economy is crap. People can't find jobs. Getting a college degree will enable you to make a good living. Finding out that last one is no guarantee. Well, now those things have become real to me.
I'm 28 years old. I have a bachelor's degree in Psychology. I am unemployed. I never thought it could happen to me.
Here's a little more background. I've always been a moderate over-achiever. I took advanced placement classes in high school, took college classes along with my high school classes my senior year and when I arrived for my freshman year at the state university, they told me I needed to choose a major because I'd already taken most of the gen-eds. I had no real idea what I wanted to do with my life. I liked English classes in school so I started off with a Journalism & Broadcasting major.
It didn't take me very long to realize I couldn't picture myself being in journalism despite the classes being somewhat interesting. I talked to my parents about it and we decided maybe I'd like to be an Optometrist. I have a very high ick-tolerance and thought it was interesting. I changed my major to Biology and started working on getting enrolled in some pre-med classes.
I made a horrible discovery. I am terrible at chemistry...worse at physics. For someone who most classes came easy to (I skated through high school doing very little work or studying and graduated with a 3.8 GPA.), it was embarrassing to realize I had no idea what to do. I'd pay attention in lectures and feel like I understood but when it came to doing homework I was just clueless. I should've gotten a tutor but... I was just so sure I'd figure it out. Long(er) story short, I had an awful GPA that semester and changed my major to Psychology.
Psychology is very interesting. That is pretty much the only reason I chose that major. I especially found Social Psychology fascinating. People are everywhere and it doesn't take very long to see someone doing something kooky and wonder why on Earth they would stick a taser down their pants/lick the window in the subway/steal greeting cards.
As graduation loomed, I realized I still wasn't sure what my next steps would be. I saw a flyer about an internship program where I could work for a worldwide entertainment/hospitality company and ran with it. To my mother's dismay. I'm from Oklahoma and the internship was in Florida. She had a strong suspicion that I wouldn't want to come back and she was right.
I was convinced that the internship would lead me to a bright and hopefully prestigious career. I had a great time and met some really nice people. The company had many different positions you could do and so I had high hopes that one day I would see a job posting in the company and I would know that it was the job for me. I stayed on part-time and then full-time in my entry level position. It didn't pay much but there were always ways to move up. Unfortunately, so many of my fellow college graduates also did the internship and stayed on afterwards, creating a huge pool of over-qualified candidates for every position and promotion that came up.
I ended up working that same level job for about four years and one tiny promotion. When the opportunity came for a lateral move in the company that would offer a tiny pay-raise I jumped on it.
Sadly, shortly after, I got sick and because of my lack of awareness of a company policy regarding how many consecutive work-days you miss automatically putting you on medical leave, I couldn't work for a while. Because I needed a doctor's note covering my entire absence (and didn't have one) I got "separated from the company." I don't know why they don't just say fired. It doesn't make it less painful. I blame the same people who decided every participant gets a trophy and there are "non-winner" brackets instead of "losing" brackets.
I am a good employee. I am positive, I learn quickly and coworkers and customers like me. I'm not a slacker. It just really grinds my gears that for one technicality I lost my job.
Moving on, I've been job-hunting online. It's been an enlightening experience. Many positions that I've thought "Hey! I could be good at that!" shatter my dreams when I get to the requirements section of the job description. They want however many years of experience in that specific field.
Is that something people really do? They go looking for the exact same job that they have? I guess some people must.
I've been doing a lot of thinking during my two weeks of unemployment. This is my opportunity to find a career to be proud of (and hopefully make a decent living.) Aside from being completely broke and stressed, I'm hopeful for the future.
Now back to careerbuilder.com and entering Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes. Wish me luck!
