You Majored in What? (39 page)

2. Your Attitude (Mindset) Is Everything

Don’t sabotage your own potential for success by focusing on what’s not working or how bad things are. The parent of a recent graduate once called me, frustrated because her daughter couldn’t find a job in Denver. She insisted (and wanted me to agree) that there were
no
jobs at all in Denver. I hadn’t seen that on the news—and believe me, if there were
no
jobs in Denver, it would make the news. Unfortunately, this mother was actually enabling and reinforcing her daughter’s negative attitude and fueling her feeling of being stuck. Remember that even when there’s a 6 percent unemployment rate, there’s a 94 percent employment rate among those who want to be employed. And anyway, those are just general statistics that may or may not apply to the field or geographic location you’re in.

You have to look at what is under your control and work with that. You might say “I’d like to find a job in the nonprofit sector, but there’s nothing open.” Is that really true? Is there absolutely nothing, no way, no how that you could do to move toward the nonprofit field? There are no agencies in your town? There are no volunteer opportunities? Really? A finalist on the TV show
Last Comic Standing
talked about how he worked at a radio station doing a show for two years for free until he had perfected the skills (and the courage) he needed to start doing stand-up comedy.
For free.
(He bartended to make money.) And when he was onstage as a finalist for
Last Comic Standing,
I suspect he didn’t have one second of regret for those two years.

3. Keep Your Focus on Lessening the Gap Between Where You Are and Where You Want to Be

Keep conducting experimental wanderings that take you closer to your desired outcome. Experimental wanderings will help you particularly if you ask yourself one simple question on a daily basis: What can I learn today?

You never stop being a student. As you know, when you ask what you can learn, you focus on the knowledge and experience you’re acquiring in order to make better decisions and find what you truly love to do. By always being a learner you develop an innate curiosity that helps you become an expert in whatever subject you desire.

I used to joke with my students that most people spend their first job looking for their second job. The reality is a little more complex. Your first job after graduation is a start whether you know it or not. Even if it’s a McJob and certainly not the job of your dreams, it still represents a step toward the next better job, and then the next. Don’t ever assume you have reached your final destination, whether you’re at your first job at twenty-two or your latest job at sixty-two. There’s always more to come when you see yourself as a learner.

4. Try to Enjoy the Process of the Job Search

You’ve seen all those trite quotes about enjoying the journey as you get to your destination. That’s all fine and dandy when you’re confident you’ll reach the destination. It’s one thing to enjoy the journey of a study-abroad experience knowing that you will return home and go back to school at some point. But how do you enjoy the journey when you don’t know your destination? Or when your destination seems unattainable in the current economy? It’s easy to fall into negative thinking patterns such as “the job search is too hard” or “it takes too much time.” It might help to hear what alumni have said about the job search after it’s over (these statements are from actual alumni surveys I’ve conducted):

• “Writing my résumé was a real ego booster—I’ve actually done stuff!”

• “I learned what’s important to me.”

• “The process was actually a lot more creative than I thought it would be.”

• “Looking for a job helped me clarify my goals. I could see what I’ve done so far and it helped me figure out what I need to do.”

• “The alumni contacts I made were friendly and helpful, and gave me lots of ideas.”

• “I thought I had found a really neat job, but after I researched it, I learned I would hate that job.”

• “I discovered that interviewing is just a skill that can be learned.”

• “I developed a lot of confidence in myself.”

• “I had a horrible interview, but I survived and I learned I would never want to work for that company. I also realized that I was partly at fault, so I worked on my responses to typical questions and never had a bad interview again.”

• “The job search really helped me develop ambition.”

If you’re feeling isolated and alone in your search, see if you can connect with friends who are going through it as well or seek out a local job support group. Knowing that others are going through what you’re going through and helping other people with the process will make you less anxious and more confident. Just make sure whatever group you connect with has a lot of positive energy and focuses on the solutions rather than the problems.

5. Keep Your Focus on Your Gifts, Strengths, and Threads in Your Wandering Map

Or as Glinda, the Good Witch in
The Wizard of Oz,
said, “You had the power all along, Dorothy.” I couldn’t have said it better.

6. Make Sure Your Résumé, Cover Letter, and Interviewing Skills Are Perfected and Ready to Go at a Moment’s Notice

You know how those butterflies are—they flit in and out pretty quickly and if you’re not ready for them, you might miss out on a great opportunity. Always keep “the Chicago Way” in mind.

7. Show Up and Pay Attention

Are you keeping your goals or intentions in your mind as you go about your day? In the movie
The Peaceful Warrior,
Nick Nolte, who plays a character called Socrates, tells his college student protégé to “take out the trash.” By that he means the student needs to eliminate all the clutter in his mind that is keeping him from truly focusing on what is important. And if getting a job, or getting a better job, is truly important to you, you, too, will need to take out the trash. Jobs and opportunities are out there waiting for you. You just have to show up and pay attention.

8. Keep Wandering and Conducting Small Experiments

It’s like following the instructions on the back of the shampoo bottle: lather, rinse, repeat. The experiments don’t end when you leave school; in fact, they’ve just begun and it’s through them that you’ll discover your dream.

After graduating, Jessica decided she wanted to work in publishing, preferably in an international location. She was hoping to return to London, where she had studied a few years earlier, but she was encountering the usual problem of working abroad: obtaining a work permit. She found an organization called BUNAC, which would make short-term work visas available, though the Web site stressed that most jobs were not professional or all that glamorous.

Jessica decided that it was more important to live in England than work in publishing, so she got the visa and left for London. With the help of the CIEE/BUNAC agency, she found a roommate and a job waitressing at a pub. Not much glamour about it at all, but she was in England, which made it all worthwhile. Customers in the pub noticed her accent and would ask why she was working there. Jessica had her story ready. “Well, I love England and hope to stay here. But my real passion is publishing, and I’m hoping to find a job in that field even if I have to return to America. Thanks for asking.”

She didn’t ask anyone for a job; she didn’t say anything beyond what she hoped to do. Sure enough, within a few weeks someone she spoke to offered to connect her with a local publishing house. She got a job as an “Americanizer,” someone who translates British English into American English. She translated several cookbooks, and the company liked her work so much they extended her visa.

Jessica ultimately married a British citizen, and while still keeping her American citizenship in case she decides to return, she is now a top editor at a children’s book publisher in London.

9. Take Advantage of Your Career Services Office

If you’re still a student, use the services now, and if you’ve already graduated, find out what services are still available to you. The biggest job-finding mistake most students make is not using the services when they’re easily accessible and free. You paid the tuition for them, so why not take advantage? Once you’re out in the real world, you can end up paying hundreds of dollars for a private career counselor or coach. Why not get the most from the free services at your school? But don’t just wander in and ask if they can help you “find a job.” Of course they can help you find a job. Be clear with them about what you want. Help them help you by setting some clear goals you would like to accomplish during your meetings with them. A better client makes a better career counselor and results in a better session.

All his life, Ray Kinsella was searching for his dreams.
Then one day his dreams came looking for him.

—TAGLINE FROM THE POSTER FOR FIELD OF DREAMS

10. If There’s Something You Really Want to Do, Do It

Do you have a dream? Is it still just rattling around in your mind? Even if you can’t do it as a full-time job, find time in your life for it. Try taking some small action to move toward it. When I wanted to become a published writer, I read tons of books on writing and publishing. Their advice could pretty much be summed up in one word:
write
. That’s really the only way to be a writer. Don’t wait for the job or the publisher or the agent. Just write. And as you write, you will develop your plan for moving forward with your writing, whether it’s to a job in the publishing field or a job in the law or psychology, or places unknown. You already own, or will soon own, everything you need to achieve your dreams. You have access to more wisdom than you currently use. Plan to act on your dreams and respond to the opportunities that come your way.

FINAL THOUGHTS

As you start to map out your path, keep in mind that there is no “right” or “wrong” way to pursue a career or handle your college days. When alumni are asked to give advice to current students, their advice is inevitably contradictory: for every graduate who says “I wish I had buckled down and gotten better grades” there’s one who says “I wish I had partied more and had more fun.” For every graduate who says “I wish I had taken a major in_; that would have been more practical” there’s an alumnus who says “I wish I had taken more risks and taken classes that seemed hard or weird at the time.” So to say there’s a right way just isn’t, well, right. There’s only
your
way and that’s what you’re going to spend the next fifty-plus years designing.

So let me finish the story of Lisa. We didn’t focus on her résumé at our appointment that day. We focused on the value of the part-time job she was interviewing for and how she would answer the interview questions. We quickly mined her background for stories and examples she could provide of times when she had performed similar duties as outlined in the job description. She recalled when she had filmed her sister’s wedding and edited it down to a three-minute video she put on YouTube, which had been viewed by thousands of people and received numerous positive comments. She prepared and practiced telling another story about writing an article for her college newspaper and how well she was able to meet deadlines and handle last-minute assignments, another job requirement. She went off to her interview, and called me several hours later to say she had gotten the job. Imagine that: she went from unemployed and discouraged to employed and ecstatic in a span of about four hours. Within six months, the position was increased to full time and she stayed for another year before moving to a different market as the producer of a local Sunday morning news program. One of her segments is being considered for an award. She’s not at CNN yet, but she’s on her way. Unless, of course, a butterfly takes her somewhere else.

So you’re going to do what wise wanderers do best. You’re going to take risks, try new things, and experiment with what interests you, regardless of its “usefulness.” You’re not going to give up or admit defeat. You’re going to wander
wisely
into all sorts of interesting stuff, from the class where you learned all about the hero myth to the class where you studied Gauguin, to the internship you had with the FBI, to the summer job in a commercial real estate office, to the month you spent in Peru building housing units. You’re going to look at the seeming chaos of your life and you’re going to make it meaningful.

And you know what: instead of looking for just a job, you may find that
your life comes looking for you.
I hope if you take nothing else away from this book, it will be the notion that you keep learning, experimenting, and wandering (wisely, of course) through the rest of your life. There’s a wonderful line in a poem by the Sufi poet Rumi that reads: “If someone asks you what there is to do, light the candle in their hand.” Consider your candle lit.

You may not know the destination of your journey, but you’re on it, so enjoy it. And if you’re so inclined, I would love to hear your stories of butterfly moments and other tales of the job search. If you’d like to share stories about your wanderings please visit my Web site at:
www.youmajoredinwhat.com
.

And please bear with me while I ask you one last time:

What could you do in the next twenty-four hours to move forward with your experimental wanderings or chase the butterfly?
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