To all new or recent graduates of 2020/21

Are you one of many graduates struggling or stressing right now about the job search process? Finding a job in today’s market is one thing; finding a job that aligns with your career prospects in its entirety is a whole ‘nother level.

Notice how I said ‘many.’ Many of us, especially those within a circle of peers who have friends impatiently finding their next gig, can feel the pressure stacked against ourselves. It might just be a senseless and ever-growing pressure to achieve the next biggest step of our careers, which ties back to our fundamental desire to make a strong monetary income for our families, and for ourselves. This pressure reflects only one layer of the whole mishmash. Other external pressures that may or may not be well defined for every individual include things related to societal pressure, social-economical pressure, a growing uneasiness about career longevity, and obviously, job security.

That’s not to say I’m not a hypocrite. I probably epitomize my own target audience for this story; I also need to take a step back and think prudently to ensure I know whatever I’m doing now is still on the right track no matter what speed I’m going. I’ve realized that the key is to think thoughtfully yet strategically, while ensuring myself that I’m good enough to achieve an end goal with my job-searching process. As we experience the dawn of 2021 with a pandemic all but still buzzing around, vaccines are only looming around the corner as I type this. That’s only one good piece of news out of many that we can probably be thankful for.

Furthermore, let’s not forget who we are and what we’re a part of as a whole: over a million college students in the US graduate with a bachelor’s degree every year. How many do you think are graduating with work experience, or in even simpler (complex) terms, are propitious? What portion, do you think, of those who graduated with work experience, will ultimately end up in a career path that aligned with the dedicated effort and time they originally exerted during their time in college?

As this pandemic progressed, I’ve had the privilege to still find work virtually— something that I’ve failed to remind myself constantly as I’ve treaded forward while simultaneously being visionless about my future. To be fully transparent, it felt like my career goals have always been turbulent. I’m lucky enough to know that product management as a career path is a viable solution for me in the short-term, given my set of strengths, loves, and interests. However, I always jumped around and pivoted my job-search strategy, not-to-mention constantly doing more and more research about the job market, my own personality, and other factors which only piled on the stress. Having discovered this and thought carefully about what I had to do to reduce this stress, I’ve came up with 2 main pointers I feel that are worth mentioning as a take-home message from this story:

1. Find a healthy balance of working hard towards your goals and being PATIENT about your goals.
2. Start crafting your plans with a short-term VISION of yourself living and breathing the results of that plan.

For the first point, it’s simply easier said than done, all things considered. When one works hard (and has been for sometime), it can be absolutely crippling or deterring to not see the results of your efforts right away, or even worse, encounter moments of failure despite those efforts. It’s critical to take a step back and think about the efforts you’ve already made. Additionally, one should definitely remind themselves of the opportunities that still lay ahead. Opportunities will always arise, and encountering short-term failures is only a testament to your ability to be patient with the right opportunity for each individual, which will come eventually.

For the second point, it’s all about sticking with that short-term vision: the ‘where’ and ‘what’ when you picture yourself within a career in the future. Slowly take the time to do this without the negative effects of friends or other external pressures affecting your vision. Having that clear vision/goal for yourself is a key piece of protection that can help clear the extrinsic pressure of meeting certain expectations. In short, set your own realistic expectations, because once you begin achieving them, you’ll feel much more accomplished and proud of yourself, without having to compare to others.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is to note that the grass is never fully green: we’ll never be fully satisfied by our accomplishments as we feel we’re always missing out on something greater that’s within reach. While this psychological impact can have its benefits as it provides us the right mentality to chase the next biggest thing, you can probably see how it can be detrimental to stress and anxiety. Rather than being content with what you’ve accomplished thus far, you purely see such progress as mere stepping stones to a further goal. When you have these moments: always think about how propitious we are, or how impactful to society as a whole in which we could be without caring about our own career-related accomplishments. Because, at the end of the day, the positive impact and value we made for our broader communities is what truly has the power to stick to our brains and make us feel accomplished indefinitely.

And finally, as a final and perhaps pragmatic piece of advice (one that I’m currently trying to follow): Be thoughtful about your job search.

By thoughtful, this means reading more and talking to those within your fields of interest to truly learn more and gain a genuine interest. Don’t rush it with trying to hop from one career step to another before truly establishing that genuine interest and a decent foundational base of knowledge for that subject. All the while, never forget to still leverage all the resources you have while still setting realistic goals for yourself, such as building a portfolio, attending info sessions or networking events, and messaging hiring managers for career advice.

To summarize: if you’re in need of mental recovery, be okay to take your time with your progress until you’ve made that recovery. Once you’re mentally strong again: work harder and more diligently, while still being patient and mindful of that self-vision you have of yourself, while limiting external pressures.

To all new and recent graduates: you can do this! Be patient and believe!