Day 112: Still Nothing

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I've been very quiet on here lately and I apologize for that—to be honest I'm kind of upset at myself for it. I am almost four months into my job search and still have not nailed down a regular morning commute. Did I think that a job would land in my lap upon leaving the Petersen Events Center on May 1? No. No I didn't. But no one ever told me about how long it could take for me to land my first post-grad job.

Summer 2016 will definitely go down as the least fun for me. Most days were spent in the confines of my bedroom pouring over listings on Indeed and Glassdoor, fielding email rejections from "Do Not Reply" addresses, and only just recently landing a few phone interviews. Note: I have actually had a couple of interviews for a job that I super want. Fingers crossed I get a face-to-face meeting in the next week! 

There is a lot that I wish I had done to make this process and summer as a whole a little easier on myself and my now insane stress/anxiety levels. 

I wish I had gotten myself a summer job. Maybe I should have just bitten the bullet and listened to my parents—but when does anyone my age ever really want to do that? As much as working retail in high school really destroyed my soul maybe I should have just gotten a job. Now, I have applied for a couple; to no avail. In a moment of sheer panic (those have happened sporadically over the past month) I did bring back my Care.com and Upwork.com accounts in search for short jobs that would give me just a little bit of money to work with. That being said: if anyone is in need for a freelance writer/editor...hit a girl up!

I also wish I had just gotten out of the house more. It's tough since I have a grand total of one friend still here at home and she works through the week. I was really envisioning a summer made up of more happy hours and nights chatting it up. Of course, I initially was also imagining a summer still in Pittsburgh. 

The biggest lesson I've learned through this whole process and ordeal of a summer is this: very little is probably going to work out the way you think it is. Especially at this point. My future is still in a very uncertain place and to a personality like mine that is a scary idea. I like to have a plan. I like to know. I have also learned that the waiting is the worst. No company will respond in a matter of days no matter how much you will your email to show an incoming message. There are companies I honestly waited months for just to be rejected. As someone coming from part-time jobs and internships that came a bit easier, this can be a pretty rough realization.

I just hope that with the few interviews that I have started to schedule that a trying summer will give way to an active and fruitful autumn.

<3 Ashley

How do you/did you deal with your post-grad job search? 

Also: in all seriousness...freelance editing/writing...I got you. I don't charge like crazy.