Recall a few months back, when I wrote about graduating college and moving to the city? And then two days later, I flip-flopped and decided to try to ride out the recession my hometown a few more months? Well, here it is, nearly four months later, and I’m finally forcing myself to make that scary transition into adulthood by leaving the campus and finding my first “grownup job.”
Of course, a lot of scary thoughts are going through my mind. Obviously, we’re still in (aren’t we?) a severe recession. Unemployment is a lagging indicator, which means that, even if the economy turns around tomorrow, the labor market will probably get worse before it gets better. I’m not a snob, though. Given limited options, I’d be willing to do pretty much whatever work is out there (short of donning the Mickey D’s hat or a WalMart smock – did both in high school). Right now, I’m working part time as an administrative assistant – not exactly a career by any means – but it has its perks. I’m not on my feet all day, I’m not dealing with the general public, I’m not selling anything, and hey, it’s a paycheck.
Another thing that’s weighing heavily on my mind is the knowledge that professional life is different from college life. In school, I have a lot of friends who are close to my age, who study the same subjects as me and enjoy a lot of the same things as I do. Google aside, it seems that there aren’t that many offices full of hip, intelligent, unmarried, childless 20- and 30-somethings. Honestly, I think it’s going to be lonely out there – I don’t have a husband, boyfriend, or children to occupy my time on those Friday nights that I currently spend going out with college friends. I recently read that the rate of depression is highest among 20-somethings (sorry, can’t remember the source), and that’s not surprising. College life is easy: you’re told exactly what you need to learn, you get constant feedback in the form of grades, and there is always one social event or another event going on. I expect the “real world” is going to be much less straightforward, and much more boring (this must be why people have kids).
It’s not only the life transition that’s wigging me out; I have no friggin’ clue what I want to do. I wasn’t trained to be anything specific like a nurse, a teacher, a financial analyst, or a journalist. Economics is a nebulous subject; if anything, I was trained to think rationally and critically about everything (and believe me, I really emphasize that fact in job interviews). It’s safe to say that I’m open to pretty much anything right now, although I think that, given my lack of a family life to balance with work, a job that is demanding and challenging would be better than pushing paper for 8 hours a day.
An alternative to work would be to delay my adulthood even longer and start collecting applications for graduate schools. I’ve been considering grad school for some time now, but I’m not completely sold – I don’t want to invest that much money into something that will ultimately narrow my career options. I think I’d enjoy law school, but I know I’d hate being a lawyer. And I have neither the patience for an average MBA curriculum, nor the background or finances to get into a top business program. Unless I wake up someday with an unshakable urge to get a PhD, grad school will remain on the back-burner.
For all my fears, there are a few reasons to be optimistic. Generation Y kids tend not to hold their jobs for very long, so most employers probably won’t expect me to stick with the company more than a year or two. I have no kids or mortgage tying me down – I will never again in my life be as free as I am right now. My subject is extremely broad, yet more directly applicable to most jobs than other broad social science degrees (psychology, anthropology, etc.). Finally, economics students are really, really damn smart.
Tags: careers, college, grad school, work
