Call Your Mother: What am I doing with my life?

Michaela Esau — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 14:00:00 +0000

Graphic courtesy Savannah Hawley

Have you recently witnessed a group of seniors having mental breakdowns in your residence hall? Noticed a junior scrolling through the pages of Handshake for summer internships or nervously updating their LinkedIn profile? Welcome to application season.

For all the 2021 graduates out there, this statement probably induced a flutter of anxiety. If you give your mom or a friend a call to vent about this anxiety, their response will probably be that it is all going to be okay, to which you would respond with a vigorous eye roll and a “yeah, right.” However, if a newspaper columnist tells you it is all going to be okay, you have no choice but to believe it.

One major cause of anxiety for college students on the job hunt is imposter syndrome. Have you ever felt like it was a mistake someone hired you or gave you an opportunity, or like you are much less capable or intelligent than your peers believe you to be? That’s imposter syndrome.

An NPR Life Kit article provides several useful tips for overcoming imposter syndrome, like taking a break or making a list of your talents. Simply recognizing that you are experiencing imposter syndrome is also helpful. Remind yourself that everyone else also feels unqualified sometimes, but it doesn’t mean that it’s true.

I used to feel a sense of shame any time I would apply for something I felt unqualified for like it was an embarrassment for me to even think I was good enough. These thoughts are common, but not helpful to anyone. It never hurts to throw your name in the hat.

Some of these feelings of being unqualified come from our tendency to compare ourselves to others. You are never going to have the most prestigious internship or the most impressive resume, and that is okay. Remember that no matter how little experience you have, someone out there with less experience has gotten a job. Remember the 45th president? Sometimes even the paper-perfect applicant doesn’t get the gig – and if they do, it might not end up being very enjoyable.

So, now you have the confidence to go after the job you want. The next big, anxiety-inducing problem is deciding what job it is that you want. Some people have known since birth that they wanted to be a doctor, teacher or a nurse. For the rest of us non-profit, English and philosophy triple majors, the dream job question feels like more of a nightmare.

This societal obsession with having a solid career plan is both ridiculous and naive. Life rarely works out how you imagined or planned it – not because you are not good enough to make your dreams come true, but because factors like family crises or global pandemics have a way of throwing things off track.

Sometimes, it’s good things that derail our plans. Better, unforeseen opportunities come along. A friend invites you to help start a business with them. An afternoon of volunteering turns into a lifelong career. The point is that few career paths are linear.

I have had multiple mentors in the advertising field who never planned on going into advertising. None of my mentors still hold the jobs they got right out of college. However, any life experience always becomes helpful in unexpected ways. Maybe your first job will introduce you to someone who will help you find your passion, or teach you a skill that will prove necessary in the long run.

If you do think you have it all figured out, it is okay to change your mind. My dad was a business major until his second semester of the senior year of college when he decided what he really wanted to do was go to dental school. Now, he has been a dentist for the past 30 years – and that business degree was pretty helpful when he started his own practice.

Life after graduation is going to be okay because you are going to make it be okay. Apply for everything that sounds remotely interesting. You can always change your mind and withdraw the application or turn down the job, but it’s good to hold off on shutting any door of opportunity for as long as possible.

You will feel better once you make a plan, and a back-up plan and a second back-up. These plans are not written in stone – no plan is. Rather, it’s a simple guide to help you figure out what your next move is. Talk through these plans with a parent or a friend, someone who can help keep the imposter syndrome at bay and remind you that you are qualified and deserving of a bright future.

Your first job does not need to be “the dream.” In fact, you don’t ever need to have a job that makes you leap out of bed in the morning and never want to come home. You should value yourself for more than just productivity. There are people in your life who will love you and care for you regardless of if you have the perfect post-grad plan. The real world is a scary ocean of possibility and responsibility, but there are people out there who will never let you drown.

Fielding the question, “What’s next?” often induces panic for college seniors who are about to explore uncharted waters come May. Through their Life After Jewell program, the Career Development and Internship Office at William Jewell College aims to help mitigate the anxiety of upcoming graduates by equipping them with personal, financial and professional skills and allowing them opportunities to better navigate life off the Hill.

The Life After Jewell program was developed in the spring of 2014. Approximately 80 to 100 seniors have participated in at least one activity or event since its inception. The Life After Jewell activities in the fall include free professional portraits- an important component for LinkedIn profiles-, a job hunting workshop and a graduate school dinner and discussion in October, as many seniors strive to submit grueling graduate school applications by the end of November and the beginning of December. The senior experience session and dining etiquette “Lunch and Learn” is one of the highest attended events, with close to 40 participants attending last year. This event seats seniors side-by-side with professionals, who can offer insight into their personal and professional success while schooling seniors in the art of fine-dining. Not only is this an opportunity for networking with prospective mentors and employers, but it is also a chance to create a sense of solidarity among the senior class. By engaging in conversations about life after Jewell with their peers, students can aid one another during this trying time.

This year’s senior experience session and dining etiquette “Lunch and Learn” will be held this Sunday, Nov 6 from 10a.m-1:30p.m.

In the spring, Life After Jewell focuses on personal finance, hosting sessions on navigating savings and a “where are you going to live?” session.

“Currently I have a Roth IRA set up and sometimes I forget to be contributing money so going to Life After Jewell reminded me how important savings is,” said Kate McFerran, Jewell 2015 graduate. “I am definitely continuing to put money in that and making it a goal.”

These discussions also provide critical information for students managing impending undergraduate debt.

“After the Life After Jewell experience, I really started thinking about how I could pay back my loans and I started looking into teacher forgiveness programs and others specific to my field I hadn’t considered before,” says Jewell 2015 graduate Emily Lynch.

Communicating with and receiving feedback from William Jewell seniors is central to the Life After Jewell operation. The Career Development office alerts seniors about events through mediums such as ongoing emails, campus flyers, social media, the “Check I’m Here” app and class visits. In addition, seniors help shape the programs Life After Jewell offers.

“Our goal is to make the programming as student-driven as possible,” said Marissa Bland, director of the Life After Jewell program. “Both the job hunting and ‘where are you going to live’ sessions were based on specific ideas our students had as a result of being confused and overwhelmed not knowing how to start the job search and not knowing what their living arrangements would be after leaving Jewell. The most successful programming is when the students are really engaged in identifying topics that matter to them the most.”

Bland and the Career Development office welcome suggestions for discussions, event proposals and any questions that William Jewell seniors may have.

Apart from Life After Jewell, the Career and Development Office offers additional assistance for all William Jewell students transitioning to the real world, such as a Career Mentor Program- connecting Jewell students with leaders from their fields of interest- resources for constructing resumes and cover letters, mock-interviews and resources for students to select their major. The Jewell community is also committed to ensuring that students are prepared to master their physical health after school. In previous years, Senior Program Coordinator Greg Irr orchestrated a cooking series during Jewell time led by chefs from Fresh Ideas.

As someone who has navigated the post-undergraduate world herself, Bland offers some personal advice to William Jewell seniors.

“My advice would be related to one of my favorite quotes, ‘Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity’,” said Bland. “Although you cannot always control when certain opportunities will be available to you, you can still always ask yourself what you are doing now and who are you connecting with to prepare yourself when those opportunities arise.”

Bland hopes to see the numbers of seniors who participate in Life After Jewellevents grow.

“With your future, take the driver’s seat. Be proactive. Own your experiences. Do all that, and at the same time, be adaptable,” said Bland.

Feature photo by Amy Kontras.

life after jewell – The Hilltop Monitor

Call Your Mother: What am I doing with my life?

“Life After Jewell” offers unique experiences for seniors