“Congratulations!!” read one post on a friend’s Facebook wall, the day after she landed an office job in her field.
“So amazing!” read another.
“Are you ready for your big-girl job?” asked a third well-wisher, accompanied by a GIF of Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope.
“I can’t believe I finally have a real job” was the text she sent me a few days later, from the comfort of her desk, where she had been hired to do operations work for an organization she had once, a few years prior, interned for. It was a weirdly solemn text, I assume a combination of nervousness about her first real day on the job, and a mild sense of relief that she had finally made her way out of the post-grad maze and into a job that society considered impressive. Finally, her degree wasn’t for nothing, and she was securely in a “real job.” …show more content…
The more the clock ticks away on your “no-longer-a-student” life, the more acute the feeling gets that you need to find your next big step. It’s a kind of musical chairs of the professional world, where there are only so many spots to be taken, and there are way more qualified young people trying to get into them. It can feel incredibly tense, like one wrong move in an internship or one stained sweater at an interview can be the deciding factor between you getting a “real job” and you staying in post-grad limbo. And so when you finally do cross that threshold and find yourself with a steady salary, benefits, and a little desk to call your own, all you feel is relief. You made
“So amazing!” read another.
“Are you ready for your big-girl job?” asked a third well-wisher, accompanied by a GIF of Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope.
“I can’t believe I finally have a real job” was the text she sent me a few days later, from the comfort of her desk, where she had been hired to do operations work for an organization she had once, a few years prior, interned for. It was a weirdly solemn text, I assume a combination of nervousness about her first real day on the job, and a mild sense of relief that she had finally made her way out of the post-grad maze and into a job that society considered impressive. Finally, her degree wasn’t for nothing, and she was securely in a “real job.” …show more content…
The more the clock ticks away on your “no-longer-a-student” life, the more acute the feeling gets that you need to find your next big step. It’s a kind of musical chairs of the professional world, where there are only so many spots to be taken, and there are way more qualified young people trying to get into them. It can feel incredibly tense, like one wrong move in an internship or one stained sweater at an interview can be the deciding factor between you getting a “real job” and you staying in post-grad limbo. And so when you finally do cross that threshold and find yourself with a steady salary, benefits, and a little desk to call your own, all you feel is relief. You made