Life After College Situation (Question)

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sta3535
Butterfly
Butterfly

Joined: 23 May 2019
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Posts: 15
Location: PA

19 Apr 2021, 9:33 pm

Even though I'll be graduating from college in a few weeks, I still have a question, along with some concerns about my specific situation that I'm currently dealing with at the moment:

Despite me working and volunteering with the football team and the athletic department throughout my college career (which connects with my major), I was told by my parents and a few professionals that my college major is usually competitive in nature. Even though I agree that college sport teams and professional sport leagues are hard to get into, depending on the situation, I still believe that I may have an equal opportunity, only if I put all of my focus towards my future career goals.

However, my main problem includes me not going above and beyond, along with not being ambitious/motivated enough when it comes to networking and reaching out to people within my field of study. I was also told that I should've had something lined up after I graduate, but due to Covid, along with having an easy-going/go with the flow personality (which is an excuse IMO), I haven't used LinkedIn or Indeed as often until as of recently when I was told that I should start looking for "better paying" jobs or any opportunities that connect more towards my major since my graduation date is quickly approaching.

Furthermore, my future career revolves around working behind the scenes of college or professional sport teams. Stadium work, preparation/planning, and equipment management are my career interests.

I'm just wondering if I still have a good opportunity since I'm starting later than most graduates? As of today, I'm using LinkedIn and Indeed more often and I plan on contacting more people with similar college majors as me, so maybe I'm starting to turn a corner?

On an extra note, I was told by some of my friends that everyone is different when it comes to their own lives and that I should focus more on my own career path rather than comparing myself to others.



Fenn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Sep 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,404
Location: Pennsylvania

22 Apr 2021, 9:29 pm

Job hunting is hard. Job hunting in a pandemic (when many places closed or were not hiring) is certainly not easy. Job hunting requires social skills and organizational skills. If either of these were hard for you in college, they will also be a challenge in job hunting.

It is easy to tell you what you should have done - but unless you have a time machine you may find that changing what is already done to "what you should have done" is simply not possible. Best thing to do is try to learn from the past and plan for the future and decide what actions you can take (not building a time machine or attempting to change the past) today.

The book "What Color is My Parachute" describes a job search which is focused on finding places you want to work and then finding out everything you can about these places and making contacts with people who work there. Linkedin can help with this. It is also updated every year with new information, like what are the best websites to use for job hunting.

The last time I was looking for work I joined a job hunting club. That helped me with motivation and organization.


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