Getting a Job - The Pressure of Getting It Right the First Time

Something that my friends and I have been talking about recently is the pressure to find the perfect job, and the fear of being stuck in a job that doesn’t fulfill you. It’s so hard to know at this age exactly what you want to do and what career you should be committing to for the next 40 years. This article by CurtRosengren addresses the myth of the “perfect first job.” Careers are rarely, if ever, linear. There’s very little chance that any of us are going to land the best possible job straight out of school. So instead of trying to lock yourself into one path, and possibly charging head-first into a career you end up finding unfulfilling, take your first job as an opportunity to learn and grow. 

Use employment as a testing ground for your interests and personality. There is so much that you can learn from the simple act of doing. Your education provides you background knowledge necessary to handle your work, but on-site experience will reveal if a particular career is really for you. Sometimes the best experience you can gain from a job is learning what you don’t want to be doing. 

Your first few jobs are going to be a far cry from what you actually want to do. And that is okay. When first starting out, the way you evaluate your job is more in terms of the skills utilized and the nature of the activities engaged in. Don’t worry as much about the actual work itself, as you gain experience in the field, the more prestigious, harder-to-reach doors will begin to open up. Experience is invaluable in the workforce. The more you work, and the more experience you accrue from different jobs, the more valuable you will be to the prospective employer of your dream job. Also, the more you work, the clearer the picture of your own dream job will become. 

Reflect on the skills and abilities that you like to utilize while at work; do you like working with people or numbers? Are you pining for an office or do you need to be out and about? Ask yourself: what are the aspects of this job that I really enjoy? And conversely: what are the things about this job that I just can’t stand? Lots of successful people fall into their jobs by accident; we hear countless stories of people doing jobs now that they didn’t even know existed at the time they started looking. Allow yourself the flexibility to adapt and change as needed. Use the first job, or first few jobs, you get straight out of school as a source of practical knowledge that you can continue to apply to your hunt for the perfect career. You don’t get extra credit for staying the course – if education is a lifelong endeavor, then the experience that you gain from each job becomes another piece of knowledge to be used in constructing your own career path. 

Do you find these topics interesting? Have you ever thought about writing a blog? If so, join our team! Please send any interests, inquiries, or articles to Cassie Sklarz at sklarz@fordham.edu. We'd love love to hear from you!