Real World: Job Search #1

Welcome to the Real World

I'm not a terribly huge fan of reality television; I'm more of a sitcoms-kind-of girl. I like to laugh at situations, not people vying for their 15 minutes of fame. Too schadenfreude for me. But the job search is no laughing matter.

Making the decision to go to graduate school, I kept joking about how I was delaying the inevitable plunge into the Real World—which I think means that I’d have to grow up, begin a career, and pay my own bills. It’s almost two years later, and now I have no choice but to become an adult.

Admittedly, I haven't watched MTV's show, The Real World, since the Hawaii season in 1999 (yikes, does that give away my age?). But somehow that seemed most appropriate for the title of this blog. As I'm about to enter the "real world," my challenge isn't to live in a house with seven other strangers; it’s about finding a job.

And finding a job in a time of economic uncertainty is like one of those challenges that the cast members get. You know, when they were given some seed money and then had to find a job? Well, here, in MY real world: you get the training and then you have to make it happen for yourself. Sure, on the show, sometimes the cast members made it look impossible, but the jobs are there. Yeah, we live in a time when colleges are tightening the purse strings, but that just makes it all the more—thrilling, right?

Yeah, maybe I’ll rethink that when I start actually looking… So, until then:

This is the true story

Of one graduate student

Picked to blog about her job search

And all of the applications, interviews, and conferences

To find out what happens when you stop thinking like a student

And start getting real.