How To Decide What To Do After College

How To Decide What To Do After College

The Age Old Question
What do you want to be when you grow up? My mom, who is nearly 50, tells me she still doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up. She’s completed business school, she has started and stopped nursing school, she’s been in the navy, some days she is a beekeeper, a farmer, a canner, and most days she’s a manager.

I’ve always been lucky enough to be certain of what I want to be when I grow up. When I was 6 I knew that I was going to be a doctor - just like the ones on TV dramas. When I was 10 I knew I was going to be a singer, that is, until my mom gently told me that I have a voice only a mother could love (que the tiny violin). When I was 12 I knew I was going to be an orthodontist (because I’m a strange breed that enjoys going to the dentist). Then, on April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (more commonly known as the BP Oil Disaster) began.

After the tragic death of 11 people and several failed attempts to contain the oil flow, the well was finally sealed 87 days later. Hundreds of millions of gallons of oil were released into the Gulf of Mexico, wreaking havoc on the Gulf Coast’s economy, the health of residents and workers involved in clean-up efforts, and the unique environment in the vicinity and along the path of the oil spill. While watching these events transpire on the news, I felt a passion in me and a desire to make a change that I had never felt before. And so, at the age of 16, I knew that I would become an environmental scientist.

The path that I took to get here wasn’t always so straight forward, though. It took changing my major several times, switching colleges, applying to dozens of jobs, moving to Africa and back, and applying to even more jobs. I’m still figuring out how I want to narrow down my career path, but ultimately, I’m very happy with the career I have found myself in. The following are a few tip that I picked up along the way that I hope will helped you decide what to do after graduating college.

Stay Open Minded/Explore All of Your Options
As my college graduation was approaching, it was instinct for me to begin applying for average 40 hour a week jobs. I had toyed with the idea of joining the Peace Corps since high school but for personal family reasons, I decided that two years may be too long for me to be so far away (or maybe that was just an excuse?).

Then, a friend casually told me that she was planning to apply to an NGO called Agricorps. A year in Africa, volunteering, immersing myself in a new culture, making a difference (or so I believed). My interest was peaked. So, I did my research.

Joining Agricorps meant spending nearly a year in Ghana focussing on experiential agriculture education. It did not initially scream ‘environmental science’. It did, however, give me skills in communication, education, and community outreach. Not only that, but American agriculture is heavily tied to environmental conditions and regulations. Joining Agricorps was not an obvious step for me, but I had a heck of a lot more interest from companies after I came back from Ghana than I did before I left.

So, stay open minded. Apply for jobs in Hawaii, Colorado, Alaska or wherever it is you have always wanted to go. Apply to the jobs that don’t initially seem aligned with your long term goals. Volunteer with the Peace Corps. Join Agricorps. Join Americorps. And when the dream job you applied to never calls you back, take the less desirable job and start building the skills you need for the career you want. Which brings me to my next point...

Don’t Trick Yourself Into Believing You Are Going to Get Trapped
So you applied to the perfect job in the beautiful City of Seattle and never heard back (at least tell us if we didn’t get the job!). You’re sad for a moment but then you remember that you also applied for two other jobs in Seattle as well as in Chicago, LA, New Orleans, plus that one that you applied to back in your hometown because your aunt sent you a link and she thinks you would be oh-so-perfect for the position. You mainly applied to the job to please your family but hell will freeze over before you take a job that traps you in that town again.
Not so fast. Just because you take a job does not mean you are stuck working that job for the next 30 years. You can just as easily apply for the kind of job you really want in another year or two. Only next time, you’ll have more experience! Do not fall for that myth that you are going to be trapped in the first job you take in the first location you move to. Yes, life moves fast. That’s why we set goals.

I applied for nearly 25 jobs all over the US before I decided to join Agricorps. Then I applied to at least another 10 more when I came back. But this time, I focussed on areas closer to home. I set my sites smaller so that I could build the experience I need to move forward with my long term goals.

Whether you want to stay in your hometown or move across the world, start your own company or have your sights set on joining one perfect one, you may need to make small moves to get there. Just don’t don't forget to pick your foot up and take the next step.

Remember Passion Does Not Alway Equal a Good Career
Don’t get me wrong, you should absolutely go after the things you are passionate about, but that does not always mean building a career around it. Maybe you are passionate about politics but, realistically, you don’t have the skills to be a politician (public speaking, anyone?). So, instead of building a career around politics, you focus on volunteering with organizations that support the candidate you want to get into office. Then, set your sights on a career that is more applicable to your skills sets, experiences, and long term goals.

Think about what you are good at and how you have proven to yourself that you have those skills. Are you a good leader? How do you know? What do you enjoy doing? Do you despise excel? Do you love working with kids? Take these things into consideration when applying for jobs, internships, or volunteering.

Although you want to have a career you are proud of and one that you enjoy, a career is not your entire life (for most people). You have friends, family, and hobbies to enjoy as well. You want to pursue something that you have at least some skills in (there is always more to learn), that allows you to grow, and that pays the bills. Otherwise, there will be a domino effect on what you are able to do outside of your job (ie. the rest of your life).

Take Things As They Come
Ultimately, I don’t think many of us end up living our lives the way we alway thought we would when we were growing up. That’s a great thing! Life is about pursuing goals, not about the end game. So set your goals, go after the job you want, volunteer with the organization you’ve always wanted to, move back home so you can save enough money to move to NYC. Kick ass and take names.

But, you are not always going to get your dream job right out of the gate. Apply apply apply to your dream job and then apply apply apply to the jobs that sort of kind of seem okay. Take the best of what you can get and focus on building skills that are transferable. Then, take the experience you have built and see how/where you can apply them that is more aligned with your goals.

So, did I get the career that I said I wanted? Well, kind of. I said I was going to become an environmental scientist, and I did after a little detour in Africa. More specifically, though, I wanted to be a wetlands scientist. That is something that takes many more years of experience than what I have. It's also something that I’m not so sure I want to do anymore now that I have experienced the work first hand. I’m taking things one step at a time.

Do the things you enjoy, and when you can’t, enjoy the things you do.

-Saraphina