(rant)
For a couple of days now, I have been devoid of my dear Food Network and HGTV, due to some sort of fail somewhere in the relationship between Scripps Media and Cablevision. My food tv fix has been graciously sated by good old PBS, via Create (awesomest channel ever) and regular PBS stations. But still, no Food Network! grrr...
(/rant)
05 January, 2010
a new year, but a very different ballgame
mood: worried, but not freaking out (yet)
music: something either moody or cheerful
The last semester of undergraduate study is coming up, and it's beginning to scare me. I'm also a week (of four) into my very last substantial break of mostly unfettered freedom. I've lots on my plate:
-finish applying to graduate schools: recommendations, personal statement, resume
-somehow find funding for graduate school
-start scrambling for a job: scrambling requires momentum, and the more, the better
-polishing my resume for employment
-try not to let the mounting debt from an RPI education get to me
I'm starting to see just how bleak things for me might be. I'm also finding a lot of parallels with one kid I know who already graduated: he's an Asian biology major in the same organization I'm in (and whose former leadership position I'll be taking) who hasn't done research. He's now working as a barkeep at a hotel somewhere in NYC. I hope my prospects will turn up to be better than his were a year ago, when the recession was in full swing.
It's also a bit late in the year for gradschool applications: most schools' due dates (especially if you want funding) are in late December-early January, including a good number of my schools of interest, so some schools are out. I hope the other schools are better for me than those others will be. On my list (remaining) are McGill in Montreal, UConn, Lincoln U in New Zealand, and UHawaii.
(takes a look at requirements)
(takes a look at tuition and fees)
It's going to be a scary ride. I quickly realize that I'm grossly underqualified, with hope riding solely on the fast that my cumulative GPA is still miraculously above 3.0. I also quickly realize that grad schools are taxing on so many levels, not just in terms of stress, but also with money.
If sufficient graduate school prospects fail me, I must instead devote my time to the job search, to minimize losses and debts. But I must ideally search and apply for jobs concurrently with applying for grad school, which means double the required effort. Why, oh why, did I not finish all this grad stuff sooner?
Sorry to be a downer, but real life is finally catching up to me. I'm unfortunately (or fortunately?) not alone in this struggle: all across the world graduating seniors are scrambling for employment and/or graduate school enrollment, and finding out that their prospects are dim. In even direr straits are those who have just graduated and now struggle to pay off student loan debts.
Just recently I watched a PBS documentary on the latter issue. It features a young woman with a master's degree in social work who is having so much trouble with her finances due to student loan debts and absolutely horrible job prospects that she is evicted; it doesn't help that she is a also single mother and that her aggressive lenders are convincing her to pay their bills instead of paying rent. Any sane person can tell you that the fault is not with her, but with the system: the system of crooked lenders has failed her and thousands upon thousands of other helpless college graduates. Unfortunately, the system still continues to extort and exploit them, with only a glimmer of hope in sight in the form of national reform.
But anyway...
My job prospects are understandably meh, but not bad. I'm hoping for some lab tech or gardener job somewhere, but if I have to I'll resort to a clerical, dishwashing, or retail job. At this point, I'll take what I can get. An IT job would be awesome, but I know I'll never get one because of the experience paradox: I need experience to get the job, but to get experience I need a job. It doesn't make sense! Are there actually jobs out there that give full-time experience in IT that doesn't need any experience?
There's a whole lot I have to mull over. Goodnight World.
music: something either moody or cheerful
The last semester of undergraduate study is coming up, and it's beginning to scare me. I'm also a week (of four) into my very last substantial break of mostly unfettered freedom. I've lots on my plate:
-finish applying to graduate schools: recommendations, personal statement, resume
-somehow find funding for graduate school
-start scrambling for a job: scrambling requires momentum, and the more, the better
-polishing my resume for employment
-try not to let the mounting debt from an RPI education get to me
I'm starting to see just how bleak things for me might be. I'm also finding a lot of parallels with one kid I know who already graduated: he's an Asian biology major in the same organization I'm in (and whose former leadership position I'll be taking) who hasn't done research. He's now working as a barkeep at a hotel somewhere in NYC. I hope my prospects will turn up to be better than his were a year ago, when the recession was in full swing.
It's also a bit late in the year for gradschool applications: most schools' due dates (especially if you want funding) are in late December-early January, including a good number of my schools of interest, so some schools are out. I hope the other schools are better for me than those others will be. On my list (remaining) are McGill in Montreal, UConn, Lincoln U in New Zealand, and UHawaii.
(takes a look at requirements)
(takes a look at tuition and fees)
It's going to be a scary ride. I quickly realize that I'm grossly underqualified, with hope riding solely on the fast that my cumulative GPA is still miraculously above 3.0. I also quickly realize that grad schools are taxing on so many levels, not just in terms of stress, but also with money.
If sufficient graduate school prospects fail me, I must instead devote my time to the job search, to minimize losses and debts. But I must ideally search and apply for jobs concurrently with applying for grad school, which means double the required effort. Why, oh why, did I not finish all this grad stuff sooner?
Sorry to be a downer, but real life is finally catching up to me. I'm unfortunately (or fortunately?) not alone in this struggle: all across the world graduating seniors are scrambling for employment and/or graduate school enrollment, and finding out that their prospects are dim. In even direr straits are those who have just graduated and now struggle to pay off student loan debts.
Just recently I watched a PBS documentary on the latter issue. It features a young woman with a master's degree in social work who is having so much trouble with her finances due to student loan debts and absolutely horrible job prospects that she is evicted; it doesn't help that she is a also single mother and that her aggressive lenders are convincing her to pay their bills instead of paying rent. Any sane person can tell you that the fault is not with her, but with the system: the system of crooked lenders has failed her and thousands upon thousands of other helpless college graduates. Unfortunately, the system still continues to extort and exploit them, with only a glimmer of hope in sight in the form of national reform.
But anyway...
My job prospects are understandably meh, but not bad. I'm hoping for some lab tech or gardener job somewhere, but if I have to I'll resort to a clerical, dishwashing, or retail job. At this point, I'll take what I can get. An IT job would be awesome, but I know I'll never get one because of the experience paradox: I need experience to get the job, but to get experience I need a job. It doesn't make sense! Are there actually jobs out there that give full-time experience in IT that doesn't need any experience?
There's a whole lot I have to mull over. Goodnight World.
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