Real World: Job Search #6

It’ll All Work Out

I’ve always hated it when people say “Don’t worry; it’ll all work out.” I guess I’m just a natural pessimist, because I DO worry and I don’t know that it will all work out. What if it doesn’t? What if something goes horribly awry and it all falls through? What if I can do something to change it, but I don’t, because I’ve been told to not worry and that it will all work out? Too many ifs…

And I hate relying on ifs. I like concrete facts. I like knowing how things are going work out. In True Colors, I’m totally not an orange. I’m not spontaneous; I’m a planner. I want to know where I’m going, how I’m getting there, and who is going with me. And unfortunately, the thing that I have learned about “working it out” is that it rarely works out the way you’ve imagined it. The reality is usually far from the ideal.

Over the summer, two of my closest friends and I decided to go to one of the national conferences together for placement. Attending is so much easier with other people because you get to split the cost of the hotel, you have company for the journey, and you have automatic confidence-boosters with you when you need it. I wanted to go with friends because I didn’t want to travel back and forth between the hotel and the conference center by myself. I wanted someone to eat meals with and go to program sessions with… you know, to experience the conference.

For various reasons, these friends ultimately decided not to go to this conference. That’s fine; it’s the right decision for them and I absolutely respect that. I’m all about the individualization and personalization of the job search process, and hey, you have to stay true to yourself and to your goals and what is going to make you the most viable candidate.

But for me, I knew that I had to go to this conference.

I went back and forth about it for more than a month. I was registered for placement and the conference. But I had no one to go with, no one to travel with, no hotel, no plane ticket—nothing. And for a while, I thought to myself that I could probably get away with NOT going to the conference. How much harder could it be to just beat the pavement and do the job search the good ol’ fashioned way: sending out resumes, calling people, using your contacts?

And then I got an interview offer at the conference. And another one. And before I knew it, I started to realize that I would be crazy for not attending. It was the right choice for me. I sat down to seriously think how I could afford to do this…. I had some caveats about attending.

If I was going alone, I wanted to stay in a hotel attached to or right next to the conference center. The problem: incredibly expensive rooms. I just didn’t want to trek back and forth between hotel and conference by myself, not knowing the city, not knowing the weather, not knowing—anything, really. And then, when you factor in airfare/travel, meals, printing resumes, buying those 3oz bottles that you can bring on a plane… well, it was going to be about 1.5 paychecks. Seriously.

There was only one way I was going to be able to afford this: sacrifice Spring Break plans.

I had amazing plans with incredible friends. But there was no way that it was going “work out” if I did both. So, all of the money that I’ve saved for that trip is now being shifted over to my “Operation: Conference Attendance” fund.

The moral of the story: It worked out. I’m going to the conference. I’m staying in the hotel I want. I bought a plane ticket. I’m interviewing at the conference. But I couldn’t have my cake and eat it, too. So, au revoir Spring Break. Yeah, maybe it was my last chance to go on Spring Break as a college student, but sometimes—well, there are more important factors to weigh. It’s the right decision for me. I want a job. And hopefully, this decision helps me to get one.

So, I guess it worked out. Sort of.