Look at bad job market as opportunity
After 15 interviews and no offers, my graduation date imminent and the option for a fifth year and another major financial burden, it seemed that my worst nightmare would almost certainly come true - moving back home, unemployed. Winning the lottery seemed more likely than securing a job.
What happened to a college degree being the golden ticket to a job? I pondered my options. With no enthusiasm for law or graduate school at the moment, my options dwindled - move back home and continue my current full-time job of finding a job or take a "gap year."
My moment of truth came one morning in February on a flight home to Madison from Dallas. I was seated next to a University of Wisconsin alum and CEO of a sizable mortgage brokerage. We chatted about Wisconsin and the current job market and my heart raced as I became ever more excited at the thought of a job offer or at least an internship waiting for me at the terminal.
Instead of a job offer, his advice was, "Take a year off, do something different and wait for the markets to recover. You have the rest of your life to work." By this time, I had been toying with the idea for months but had a hard time committing to it, wondering how this transitional experience would impact my candidacy for employment in the future. But hearing this solidified my decision. The question now was what to do?
I love to travel the globe and chose to pursue a position teaching in China. Unlike volunteer programs or the two-year commitment to the Peace Corps, teaching allowed me to live independent of my parents, save enough money to travel the region during holidays and fulfill my longing for a cultural adventure all while gaining work experience.
Living in China, so far, has been an incredible experience.
My advice? Think of the current employment debacle as an opportunity to break the mold and challenge yourself to do something different. At best, you have a life changing experience before settling down in the cubicle farm. At worst you demonstrate to prospective employers your ability to "think outside the box" and find the positive in a negative situation. I'm not saying that this experience will land me my dream job when I am finished, but it will have allowed me to do something unique and delayed the monotony of writing cover letters and searching Monster.com on my parents' couch.
Kevin Bartel
Algonquin