If You Can't Go to Grad School, It's the Warehouse For You!

I was just skimming through an article written by Tim Ferris called “8 Steps to Getting What You Want… Without Formal Credentials”. It’s definitely interesting to read as a recent college graduate who thought having a Bachelor’s degree would make it easier to land a job.

As I think I mentioned before, I moved to Madison back in June and hoped to be able to find some kind of job soon. I’m employed now, but it took until just this past Friday (October 7th) for it to happen. Long story short, I’ve been out of school for about five months and just now can say that I’m employed enough to support myself. It definitely doesn’t happen overnight and isn’t easy.

I took a temp job back in August working in a warehouse for a very high-end clothing website. I found the job extremely tedious and quit after just two weeks (which is, coincidentally, the same amount of time I spent in Italy). The breaking point for me was when all the temps were pulled aside at the end of our ten-hour shift and yelled at for being lazy. I was told I should be grateful for this job and have a better attitude (even though I did nothing wrong), and even had the word “delegate” explained to me as if I didn’t go through high school. That, as well as the advice of people close to me, pushed me over the edge and caused me to quit. I knew I could do better.

I was discouraged, though, when all I seemed to be able to get were more warehouse positions. I applied to several more temp agencies and that was all they offered. I grew frustrated with the system and hated the fact that employers seemed to think all I was qualified to do was to ship packages. I knew I was able to do more, even without formal training or experience.

Without a Master’s degree or Ph.D. and/or twenty years of experience, you don’t stand out in an employer’s eyes. So I find myself now in the tricky position of trying to gain experience without experience. I’m not doing it through any traditional means—I think I’m being sneaky. I’m not doing it with the help of any college or organization—I’m finding loopholes.

I found my current writing position through luck. It was posted on the University job site, and my fiancé, who is a UW student, found the job posting for me. I was interested—nowhere in the ad did it mention it was a freelance writing job. As appealing as these jobs have always sounded to me, I’ve never been willing to take them because they didn’t seem “serious”. However, I was more open this time since I was expecting to get another part-time position with Intervarsity to make up for the fewer hours and lower pay—I saw it as being a great combination.

Well, I never got the job at Intervarsity (probably because I lack experience), but I did recently get a job at Panera Bread—not a “college graduate job” in my eyes, but I guess in today’s world it very much is what people with Bachelor’s degrees are doing for work. Most people I know are working at Starbucks, JC Penney, ice cream and smoothie places, or grocery stores. And they all say the same thing about it: “It’s better than nothing!” Even I have this attitude. I just want to be able to live and support myself and stay in Madison—so Panera Bread sounds great. However, I’m extremely grateful that I have this writing job. Though it’s non-traditional, it’s a way to gain experience when I didn’t have any before. With this experience, who knows where I’ll be able to go in the future? And all of this is because I did something “non-traditional” and broke the “mold” for what a typical Christian college graduate should do.

I’ve been able to use my strengths in writing and encouragement in combination through this. I’ve been able to surround myself with positive, encouraging, “go-getter” type people and have seen that rubbing off on me, which is both exciting and scary at once. It’s scary simply because I’m not used to it—but sooner or later I will get to the point where it feels natural if I just keep going. I’ve gleaned a lot of wisdom from Dale Suslick’s story and feel that it’s great I get to spend so much time thinking, writing, and talking about positive things. Overall, it just seems like God knows what He’s doing in my life ☺

Learn more about Dale’s story here: http://lostonemillion.com/… you’ll see what I mean by positivity!

Read Tim Ferris' article here: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2011/09/29/8-steps-to-getting-...

Peace and God Bless!