RAW DATA #6 INTERVIEWS

How do you define adulthood?

Maybe it needs to be broader than just graduating from college. Not everyone goes to college but they still become an adult.

Caleb—challenging, ready to leave college when it was done. 5 years out, working fill time.

Esther—wasn’t sure what she wanted to do after college. 6 years out, did a teaching credenctal program and has been working 4 years fulltime.

Kim—9 years out of college. Watched older brother graduate and struggle to make I after college and have to switch careers to pay the bills. Determined to not go to the same path. She knew it was hard and didn’t want to have dad ask how the job hunt was at dinner every night.

Ashley—11 years out of college. Feels like finally embracing adulthood in 30s because she recently graduated from a grad program and got a “ job” job and recently purchased own house.

“I don’t want to adult. I feel like I am now more silly because I need to balance out the parts that have to be responsible.”

Bridget—Had to find own place at 18. Hard transition from having a maid growing up (cultural). Didn’t grow up at 18, just changed. Grew up at 25.

**The support/teachings of one’s parents shape how you view what you can/should do.

The difference between a big dream and actual reality, sometimes it does not line up.

“My mom never asked what do you want to do or be, what kind or career or profession do you want to have. It is so different than just having a job.” Instilled the need to have a profession not just a job.

Our parents are a completely different generation. My mom has been in her job for 35 years, I only plan to stay in my current one for 2. They didn’t have the internet, so they couldn’t explore every thing they could be. They had limited options, maybe like 10.

My mom said she felt her options were teacher or nurse.

“I’ve Heard there are like 80,000 jobs in the world and parent’s have narrowed it down to about 20.”

I think it is harder now to find a job and establish oneself in a career than our parents had it.

**the abundance of options creates anxiety that I made the wrong decision, or should have chosen something else.

“Sometimes more is just more, and it is over whelming” so many choices is sometimes too many.”

Junior year of college, I realized that I hated the subject I was majoring in and had a bit of a quarter life crisis, not knowing what to do, since I had wanted to be that for so long. I developed a bit of depression, which actually pushed me toward what I do now, psychology.

Mom told Ashley, choose something that you like for now. Your major can translate to something else down the road. She was realistic that your job will change several times throughout your life.

I have my job for now, I have my doctorate but that doesn’t mean I will be that forever. I could be something else some day. I am fluid in my idea of what I can be.

Do you think you feel that way because your parents raised you the way they did? (yes)

On the flip side of your freedom and fluidity, I would crumble under the pressure of that.

I’m not a finisher, I am a dabbler.

“Parent’s said: If you are going to go to a private school. Get a degree that will get you a job. So I went for business.”

Still wanted to pursue psychology. Decided that I would pay off my loans and then go back to school.

I thought I would go back to school sooner. I didn’t get my current job right away. I tried to bridge the gap between business and psychology. Tried a job in recruitment. Did sales for a year.

A lot of places are not really looking out for you career wise. They’ll take the work for as cheep as they can get it. The initial deal when I started 2 years about was good but there is not much effort to help you promote. I think because our generation is prone to moving around, hiring managers know this and kind of expect that and plan for the turn over.

If you want to advance you have to do it by switching companies.

**Job vs. career.

I used to talk about going back to school a lot and a mentor asked me if that was really a reality. The message I got was, If that is your plan actually do something about it.

It is still my plan, but I don’t mind putting that off, I think in that industry, having life experience and working can only help you clinically. I don’t have as much sense of urgency to get on to the next thing.

I bounced around a bunch from lawyer to advertising. My dad always said: My daughter is going to be a teacher when she grows up. I went to college undeclared and because I stumbled into doing the junior high youth group, I decided to be a teacher. I couldn’t decide between secondary and primary so I got both.

That’s good, but are you sure you don’t want a career? I went into college wanting to help women and children. I wanted to help underprivileged women feel good about themselves.

I did an internship in americorp in Chicago. I would ask the teen that came to the media center when they wanted to do after high school. They said probably find a job and just get by. Have you thought about going to college? No I can’t afford college.

Because of their frame of reference was so small and based on the streets of Chicago they didn’t dare to dream bigger, dare to think that they could accomplish anything more.

Mixing your dreams from when you were little with the reality of paying bills or having a lifestyle that goes along with that career that is something that you want to be part of

Seeing how those dreams fit into the life you picture or want for yourself.

I think that a big portion of growing older is expectations based off of either others or parents. My dad’s view/expectiaon is go to school, go to college, get married, buy a house, have kids, end your 35 year career with the same company and then you die. Here it seems like it is the “American Dream” Dan works, mom stays home and watches the two kids… etc. I just feel like there are a lot of expectation about what like should look like.

There is a disconnect between what you think as you grow older and what it actually is.

Where is the disconnect between just being happy with my current state.

I couldn’t achieve things the way I had planned them out in my head was the biggest struggle for me. I am thankful for where I am in my job but there are other areas of my life that I need to get up to that level, like focusing on a relationship and family.

Our spirits and desires on earth are a precursor to what we will have in heaven, it is not possible here.

I think the biggest thing is being content in your current circumstances.

I have a lot of fear of what is coming. A fear of am I doing it right and I don’t even know what I want half the time.

Laura- wanted to be something in the medical field

Kyle- wanted to be a video game developer

Kaela- wanted to be tv and movie actress

Melanie-did not want to be anything. It changed every week.

Timmy-wanted to be an orthodontist then an architect.

I don’t know, I will get some kind of job, I don’t know… I’’ll get married or something. (college student)

I thought college is such an exciting time. You work really hard and when you finish, basically you can do anything. I don’t think that I thought about it too much. I thought it will be great you finish college and then do the next thing.

Up until college graduation, life is very linear. I think many of my college friends went to grad school because that was the next thing, not even because they really wanted to but because it was the natural progression.

I decided to go to nursing school latter and had to take a year off and felt like I was not on par with my peers and thought I would be the oldest one there but was the youngest.

Everything was guaranteed growing up. But when you graduate from college there is not guarantee. I expected it to be a lot easier than it was.

Very few colleges give you a resume course.

Financially. It was harder than I expected. No one told me it would be this hard. Financially, learning how to adult with my money has been the hardest thing to adjust to.

Student Loan debt is real.

Trying to navigate life without everything being so linear and without having an advisor. You have to

Aligning my expectations of my career with what is real. There was a time when I realized that my nursing program was going to last for the next 3 years and I thought that is a really long time. But also, it is going to take me that long to get good at it. It was eye opening because it only took my a month to become an expert at starbucks. It was a harsh realization that it would take long time.

We expect things to happen right away but in reality they talk a lot longer.

I made the mistake of living with my college roommates the year after college. The activities we wanted to do did not mix with the reality of waking up to go to work at 5 am.

Taking on different responsibilities mean a different work life business. Life is not just about you any more. It is about you and what you are trying to pursue

I don’t think I though very much about how life after college would be. I didn’t really think about the process to get there, I was more end goal directed.

We all have daydreams and fantasies about how life would be and I am certain none of that happened for any of us.

Jobs are a big focus because you need a job in order to progress in other areas.

A big challenge is figuring out how to balance

It took me a depressingly long time to realize that my life is not like TV and that is okay. You see these TV shows of a group of people that always hangs out all the time and has adventures and shared life experiences and I am just watching the show by my self at home. TV also compresses time so it seems like they accomplish so much in such a short time. It is an unrealistic idea of what life is.

You are basically asking me to predict the future. My expectations are to start a business and them rule the world.

I don’t really think about post college life much

3 years to rule the world.

Scale of one to ten what was it like

2.5- more concerned with finals

ending college

0-thinking about calculus test tomorrow

next drink—I was freaking out about a job in march before graduation but not before that.

No one felt like they were through the transition.

I don’t think you ever feel like a grown up.

There will always be another transitional hurdle.

I’m not in a relationship, I don’t have my own home. These are all the signs of being an adult and I don’t have any of them right now.

My priorities have shifted more toward resume building; I’m always looking ahead to the next thing.

I hate the real world, I’m over it. Does that answer the question on how my transitioning is going?

I don’t like having responsibilities or having a schedule but I have to because I am an adult.

We had a senior session where people in different fields came to tell us what we could go into. I wish we had done that earlier because I didn’t really know what it took to get into nursing school like internships or volunteering and by that time it was too late.

I learned how to be an adult and handle responsibilities while still in a nurturing environment.

You learn how to prioritize your life in college.

The structure of college is geared to help you develop independence

How would you sum up this topic

It is hard to sum up when it hasn’t ended yet.

This period has been characterized by challenging expectations.

Interview with Parker:

What have you been doing in terms of looking toward graduation and your job search?

Not as much as I probably should be. Last semester I was more on top of it. I have a senior seminar class with the university president who is good with connections. They brought in speakers form companies like Nike and Nestle and others. We learned about what they do, how they got their job, and how they worked their way up to where they are now. It was interesting to hear from them. It gives me background on what I need to do and how I need to network with people to get into those businesses.

Why are you less prepared this semester?

Last semester I was on top of weekly reaching out to people at business and looking for jobs on line. This semester I have been more focused on my last semester of college and having fun more than using my extra time off from class to look for jobs and connect?

I learned from my internship last summer what I don’t want to do for a career. I could reach out to them and see if I need too but that wouldn’t be something I want to pursue career wise or long term. It made me realize that I don’t want to do insurance.

I am looking into working at Mount Hermon this summer and maybe I’ll look into working there past the summer, on the business side of the camp.

In terms of preparation, do you feel like you thought about “life after graduation” much before taking the senior seminar class?

The first 3 years of college and beforehand I hadn’t put a lot of thought into it. I didn’t do a lot of work so I didn’t have experience or thoughts toward a career. After taking this class I sat the importance and interest I have in finding good work after school. In the last year, has opened up option and giving me the desire to find good work after graduation. And the knowledge that you have too look for it and find it. It definitely takes more work to find something that you like and also supports you well. It will take more effort and time that just kind of searching online or something.

What did you think about the future when you were picking your major.

I picked exercise science because I wanted to do something in sports but realized that it was more science and that was not really my forte. Then I picked business management, which is more just general business because it was easy I guess then I realized I have more skills and interest of understanding of digital concentration so I switched to marketing.

I have done a couple of jobs in digital marketing and found that it was a really cool way to use what I like and am good at in a job.

I worked for a non-profit doing social media for a semester.

It helped me realize that I want to do more non-profit work, something that is more interesting instead of just bringing in money for myself.

It helped me realize that I want to work more in those types of areas. It was interesting work and the company had a cool mission that I would like to be a part of.

What is your plan moving forward to achieve that?

Gaining more connections in non-profit areas. The connections I have are more in business industry.

I don’t know a lot of people in non-profit sector. I know that networking is a big part of getting jobs and is a big thing I need to do in the last few months of school.

What practical steps have you taken in your job search?

I was able to get a lot of contacts in my class and I can reach out to them to get in touch with the people I want to potentially work for.

I have been more thinking toward that step. Once graduation looms closer, I will make more of an attempt to reach out to people.

What kind of things have you done to organize your job search?

I don’t organize as much as maybe I should. I know that keeping digital work of looking for jobs on job search sites and googling non-profit work and keeping a check list of what I have looked at.

I keep a checklist on my computer on a “stickynote” that says it’s status, like the one I worked for last semester, I have a check mark that means I have worked there and know what it is. Then others on the list are there for me to look into.

I keep a list of businesses.

What else goes into your list? How do you keep track of everything?

I wish I said I wrote more things down, but I don’t, I keep a lot of head knowledge of people I have talked to. I also keep people’s business cards. I keep emails from people so I can reach back and talk to them or see what I said previously. So I keep all computer records I guess.

How many locations do you have data stored related to your job search?

Notes section on computer

Emails

Internet searches (not bookmarks)

Business cards

Handouts/flyers/info from school: kept in a stack

I have an interview at mount hermon next week, for the summer and that could potentially lead to more work after summer. I have a couple of connections there.

I haven’t applied anywhere else.

How do you keep track of your parts and pieces of applications.

I keep resumes and cover letters and places I have sent them to just in my email, I guess almost everything is in my email basically.

I don’t know if I keep records of places I have applied. I kind of either know it or I can look back through my email. I guess I mainly use email, I didn’t really realize it.

What are things you think have not worked so well for you in organizing your job search?

Last year going into the summer I was very diligent in applying for jobs and reaching out to people and following up. Because sometimes a job comes up later and it only takes a couple of days for a job to come and go. So doing weekly job searches and reaching out is very important.

A lot of them came because I was diligent in searching and reaching out.

You have to apply to a lot of jobs because you don’t always hear back.

Not doing a lot of that lately has probably set me back a bit.

What percentage do you think you heard back from?

From applying online I probably heard back 10/20 percent of the time. From connections, I probably heard back 90 percent of the time.

It is a big difference when you reach out to people specifically compared to submitting an application online where thousands of people can submit.

What did you a fter your initial step?

Sent out a whole bunch of applications and just waited. If it was something that I was more interested in I would try to research the company more and contact someone who works for the business. I put more effort into ones I know I had a better chance for or where I knew someone.

What made you apply for the others?

Sometimes I don’t know as much about the company, so I thought if I interview I could find out more about it.

I would thank them and ask a question. If they don’t reach out, I would most of the time move on.

Sometimes moving to the next thing is better so I don’t spend as much time on someone that isn’t interested in me.

How many jobs did you apply for, for the summer?

Maybe, like 50. Serious things I was interested in maybe like 15/20

I did not do a lot of keeping track. My computer is smart enough to do that for me kind of. With email records of what I applied for. If I was interested enough I would remember about it.

Is there anything you wish you had to help you organize?

I don’t know.

Would you be interested in something like that?

Anything that helps would be appreciated I suppose.