I have spent countless hours in the last couple of days working on job applications. No time to think about becoming more liberal anymore! This is the one time in life when I have to prioritize. All that matters is now is landing a job that will guarantee me that H1 visa. Oh, and finding decent and affordable short-term housing.
I have good days. Days where I spend maybe 6 hours or more on job applications. This is incredibly boring and mundane but I feel like I need to record what's been going in these ~g-l-a-m-o-r-o-u-s~ two months of my post-grad life.
Job apps:
1. finding and e-mailing pertinent alumni about job opportunities ("ohay!")
2. writing and re-writing cover letters
3. e-mailing HR people for follow-ups
4. scouting through company websites (first up is always PennLink -although to be honest, lately the job selection on there is just like 'come teach in abu dhabi' so not interested and then I visit some of the big ones for new positions)
5. continue to write down a number of potential employers and try my best to find openings/contact them about internships
The fields I'm focusing the most on: journalism, humanitarian, research/thinktanks, and PR.
I can say that to date, I have completed around 75 job applications. LOL not even going to tell you that I've received interview requests for less than 5 and have been rejected (officially, because of course, I've probably been rejected to a whole lot of apps but I'll never know because they only contact you if you're a candidate).
There's something so unsettling about sending an email or an application out in the internet. You have no idea who's reading it, you have no idea if they even will read it. You just kind of have to hope that it will not slip through the cracks and the right person will read it. This is if they even read it. You might be waiting to be contacted about a position you never even were considered for. I always send out applications hoping for the best, but my success rate (this would be measured by the times I'm contacted for an interview -- I obvi don't mean job offers because I haven't had more than 1 interview with any company) is somewhat discouraging.
Every once in a while I come across the job that would be ideal for me. The one job that I would withdraw all my other applications for. Sometimes you come across a job where the requirements might as well have a picture of you on there because you are the position. You are that job. But even when that happens, I don't hear back. At least I haven't yet...
If this whole job in the US thing doesn't work, maybe I'll volunteer in Europe/Africa/LatAm for a couple of months and then try to work in Brazil. This would be temporary because God (and everyone, really) knows I wouldn't fit in over there and I don't think I'd be satisfied there. This would set me up for a future MA or PhD in either the U.S. or Europe.
I don't know. It's like I have a bunch of opportunities spread before me (even though I really don't) and all these possible career paths I could go down on. It's exciting, for sure, but it's also scary because I get to make every single decision myself and I don't even know if I'll be good at it or if I'll like it. But the more I think of a specific path, the more I think I'd be perfect for it.
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