Chance and Luck | March 2015
If you’re in the search for a new career or even your first, you must be coming across some things that might not seem ideal. I believe it all comes down to faith, chance, and luck.
At the beginning of college I wanted to be an elementary history teacher or a marketing/communications personnel for a fashion magazine. I wanted to be a teacher because I did an internship during the last month of high school and I loved it. The 4th grade class was amazing and I learned a lot about what comes with being a teacher. I chose my classes for the first 1.5 years of college and went down a path of neutral (Gen Ed’s) and leaning towards teaching. I was great at these classes. I got A’s and B’s, enjoyed them, and I even liked my observations. I however got a job the summer after my first year at a camp and I realized there that I couldn’t do it for the rest of my life. I enjoyed the camp but there were things that I knew would be coming with teaching that I didn’t want to handle.
After I decided that wasn’t for me, I switched to a Business Administration major (there wasn’t a marketing major at my school). For the next 2.5 years I focused on management, marketing, communications, and digital design. The first semester of it was brutal. I was thinking I made the wrong choice. I thought if I can’t make it through the basics (Management 101 & Marketing 101) how would I be able to do this major. I decided to give myself one more semester of business classes and then make up my mind. I passed all my classes and I did so much better the following semester. I got more into the electives of the major and classes that I was generally interested in (communications, marketing, and management).
Now I believe that further education is there to guide you and teach you about the career field you want. If you aren’t sure what you want to do, maybe you should spend a year after high school and find out before getting a degree (or if you even need one). Maybe you have an idea but can’t decide between them. Start on the path that can go either way and try classes in both or a summer job in both to decide.
The life after you get your degree and are looking for your career is something that you can’t really prepare for. Sure you can have internships, jobs, knowledge, and contacts but essentially it isn’t up to you. There are some people who have their mind set on certain people or types they want to fill a job so they won’t even look twice at you if you don’t have everything they want.
I am not an expert on the job market out there because frankly I don’t know what goes through people’s minds and have only seen it from the applicant’s side but I can equate to a lot of people. I’ve been looking for a job for about a year. The job market is a brutal place. Sometimes people have to post a job listing even though they know someone in the company who they have in mind to fill it or they just need to renew someone’s contract. There are also the people who you interview with who never write back to inform you of your application status even if it is to say it was filled by someone else. There are the ones that lead you on and then offer the job to someone else. But there are always the nice ones who know what it is like, so they make sure to do what they can to help you whether it is a referral or even just tips. Or the even better ones that offer you the job.
Never give up hope and always keep dreaming.
You will find what you are meant to do.
