“I didn’t really look for a job during senior year.” Trey said.
Only a short while ago – maybe 10 years – this would have a crazy statement.
Now, I’m not surprised.
I see some advantages to the hands-off approach that many parents take to their children’s job search. One less area of battle. I get it!
But I also see the results.
Trey was now in February of the year after he graduated from college the previous May.
He spent the summer post-graduation mostly enjoying life on the Connecticut shoreline.
He figured he would start looking for jobs in earnest in September. No one told him the following:
He was looking for entry-level jobs for college grads. Most all of those jobs had been secured by college seniors who had landed those jobs while they in school.
He also didn’t realize that many hiring managers are thirty and fortysomethings who do not embrace the lackadaisical approach that Tey had during senior year.
If he didn’t try to get a job, would he really be a go-getter?
Moreover, he also realized that he no longer had the benefits of a college career office that brought employers to campus.
He also noted that he watched some of his friends search for jobs together during senior year and realized he would have had a better time had he done so then.
Job searching is horrible. But it’s particularly horrible when done alone.
When we met, he was deflated. He didn’t feel like “applying to one more job and not getting a response.”
The end result was a good one. Trey was reenergized. It took a few months. But Trey is now happily employed.
Had we worked together earlier, he might have had the same result but without the needless suffering.