Graduating from college is a major milestone in a person's life. But the worry of finding a job after graduation can overshadow this event pretty quickly. Deciding where to live and how you're going to be able to afford to live there has been a constant worry for Drew Chamberlin and Katie Manning.
Seniors graduating this year started college during COVID-19 at its peak. Some say this has its advantages but graduating senior Katie Manning said it has more than one disadvantage.
"I honestly think that just kind of set up my whole college career in a way because the first year and a half was online, I didn't have any classes in person couldn't really go anywhere, couldn't get involved in anything," Manning said. "And right off the bat, I feel like resources were stripped from my hands. And just because nothing was open, everything that you had to do online, meeting people was really hard. Getting connected as a freshman is like really important for setting up how your college career is gonna look in the next four years. So right off the bat, I feel like it just kind of gave me an expectation of like, not really needing to do things and just kind of going with the flow and getting my classes done. I wasn't involved in a sorority. I was just kind of your average college student and then when my junior year hit when my junior year hit I started realizing that people were doing internships and getting more involved. Clubs are starting to open up, but they weren't open up to the extent. I'm an Exercise Science major. So the clubs that are available at the University of Arkansas are interesting. Anyways, they're great clubs, but they really didn't start opening up until my senior year at completely earliest. I didn't know about it. And then my senior year hit and I realized like, oh, I should have been getting involved in being in clubs and putting myself out there."
After struggling to find an internship in the field he was interested in, Drew Chamberlin said he should have seen the signs of how much of a trial job searching was going to be.
"You know, starting in the fall just, you know," Chamberlin said, "October just want you to know, once a day applying for a job or applying for a couple and if not applying for one, then doing something to better myself or my chances whether that be emailing people that I know that work for industries that I'm interested in the area, or seeing if someone knows a friend of a friend that I could talk to, and it kind of became overwhelming at times just to reach out to companies almost like mindlessly. And then just being able to anticipate that you're not going to hear anything can be really disheartening to put a lot of work into a cover letter from a company that you're never going to hear from again."
Chamberlin said technology has often made this search a little harder, giving this generation a disadvantage.
"It's not what it used to be, where you could knock on doors and get a job on the spot," Chamberlain said. "Especially when a lot of jobs these days are just, you know, if your resume doesn't have the right keywords, when you submit it online, it's like you're not even going to get flagged to be read by a real person."
Drew said his true desire is to make films and tell stories. Freelancing is the optimal route, but the stress lies in where or when your next gig could be. A more reliable job could be found working for a firm.
"My heart says, you know, freelance is great, but you know my bank account says no, so I always wanted something full-time," Chamberlin said. "So searching for jobs, you know, in advertising marketing, places around here where video is growing, especially in Northwest Arkansas, where it's like, you know, entertainment and certain industries are growing here and we're putting lots of money into it. But trying to catch the train that is that growth can be tough because they're not always looking for someone right out of college. They're looking for someone who is experienced in the field to contribute to that growth. So it's tough to be a small fish in a big pond, a column that is rapidly growing. You know, but as of Risa nearing graduation, it's it's almost like a ticking time bomb thing like oh, you have one less day to figure out how you're going to make your income and so it became crunch time I opened up a Google doc on my computer and I wrote down the name of every advertising marketing production company in the area, and just sent emails to everyone just switching out the name of the company with you know, this email template. Just hoping to get a response to get anything."
Katie is not in a sorority or any clubs. As she entered her junior year last year, she said she realized she needed an internship but didn't have the resources to secure one. Like Drew, she is learning that it's a little difficult to find an internship in the field she wants to work in.
"I'm not planning on being in a clinic after I graduate," Manning said. "And most of the internships available aren't clinics, which is a great, great experience if I were to do that, but since I'm not going for that, I feel like my options are more limited. And then now I'm here about to do my internship over the summer. I'm walking the stage in May during the internship in the summer, and finding a job, I feel like it's gonna be really difficult."
After her internship this summer, Katie said she was hopeful they would offer her a job, but she didn't quite know what this internship would be like yet.
"The exercise science advising office, told us about our internship options about two weeks ago and said that she's going to send like a list to us next week," Manning said. "So the week of finals is when we'll get to pick our internships and then they'll just put us on one. So they send us a list of options and then, first come, first serve you get to pick your own and then hopefully the one that is your first option, you'll be put in, but there's no guarantee. I think summer might look a little differently just because there are not as many students but yeah, so I don't know what I'll be doing for an internship yet. So I'm just kind of hoping that it will go really well and then I'll really like it, and I will hopefully get offered a job afterward."
Katie's dream is to be a women's personal trainer and health coach for different stages of their life. Regardless of her degree, she will still have to do additional studying and acquire these certifications. Katie said she feels a little behind because she didn't have the resources or conversations with her advisors about the next steps.
"Whenever you do academic advising, they needed I think to understand the freshmen that were coming in COVID, the year of COVID and really push when things started to open up and be like, here are your options," Manning said. "This is what you should be getting into this is what's more common to get into at this age for your degree, because I think that really helped me on understanding like, Okay, this is where we're at now. So, what can I do to take a step forward? But I honestly think like the exercise science department, I don't think it was very big until maybe a couple of years ago. And so they're trying to figure it out. Or maybe there's new things coming along that they're not ready to put out yet. I'm not really sure."
However, having the right questions to ask your advisors could help them lead you down the right course.
"When you do meet with your academic advisors," Manning said "I would give advice to ask questions. No matter how annoying it may seem because I know I've probably held back questions during my sophomore and junior years because they just seemed like they were done with the appointment. And they didn't expect any questions to be asked. But I didn't really know what to ask. I would ask questions though. If you had any stupid questions like, 'Where can I look at online classes?' or 'Where can I find this? Or where can I do that?' Because I didn't know how to do any of that until my senior year and they're like, you could have been doing online classes this whole time. But I had no idea. I didn't know where to find that."
Sometimes, a job offer might appear, but it might not be what we initially wanted, and we have to decide what would be best in the long run.
"I got offered a job not for one that I applied for not for one that I was looking for," Manning said. "It solely came off of a relationship that I had preemptively made someone that I had worked with before here and there, and they knew that I was capable of the job Now granted, that's a huge weight off my shoulders isn't going to pay exactly what I want right out of college. Absolutely not. I mean, it's going to be tough for a little while, but it is something that I can learn and grow into. And now I'm at the stage where I can either say yes to this job or with the short amount of time that I do have, hold out and try to find a different job."
As graduation nears, the tension of one less day to find that job emerges, and trying to figure out how to make an income makes it much more strenuous.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline by reporters. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of KUAF programming is the audio record.
