I love my University. I love all the people I’ve met here, the city, the new experiences, and I look forward to everything that is going to come: but college is expensive. I’m a good student but scholarships and federally backed loans don’t cover everything so it was the understanding of my parents and myself that I would be working part-time to pay for it.
I started looking for work pretty casually during the first semester. I didn’t think it would be that hard. I had applied to a few on-campus jobs, the Pita-Pit down a couple of blocks away was hiring, and I had job experience. I thought I would drop off my resume at Pita and the search would be over. My summer job was literally at a deli, how close can you get to pita experience? Well, I didn’t hear back from Pita. There was one fatal Pita run where I walked into the store and there were three new employees. They all looked at least mid-twenties, a little edgy and like they had way more availability than me. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with that, I was just heartbroken. I was already at a low when my dream job was Pita-Pit but I shook it off and kept looking.
A few weeks later, one of the on-campus jobs I applied for came through. One of the journals decided to hire me as a graphic designer. I said yes on the phone as soon as the editor gave me the offer not realizing that I would be the unpaid graphic design intern. I love working for the journal. It is not even that big of a time commitment but when the pressure is on to find 15 hours of paid work, suddenly getting something fancy on your resume isn’t helping you fill out cashier applications.
Not to be deterred, I continued to look for paid on-campus work. I applied for the dining service with no luck. I looked at the University’s networking site but there were very few listings that I qualified for. Another student media job came through, this one paid, but only by the spread. Before I knew it, the semester came to a close and I had made a total of $75 of the ~1,500 I was hoping for. Disheartened, I flew home for the break knowing I had my work cut out for me for the next semester.
Over the break, I applied to about 20 jobs online. The process was grueling, disheartening, and made me feel small and useless. The one job that asked me to interview was a 40-minute bus ride away. Oh yeah, did I mention I don’t have a car? When it was time to fly back to school, the night before I got probably 4 hours of sleep because the panic of flying back to Spokane without a job terrified me.
The first weekend back I checked in with a few of the business I had applied to online and dropped off my resume at another I saw was hiring. The managers seemed genuinely interested in my application but I never got a call back from any of them.
Fueled by genuine fear of having to drop out of school because I wouldn’t be able to pay for it, I continued my job search desperate to find something to pay for my tuition. Finally, my RA told me about one on campus opportunity that just opened up. It was another publications job but this one paid by the hour and was easy to work around my classes. I sent my resume that night and when I got to the interview I was hired on the spot.
But the search didn’t end there. The publications job was something I was really excited for, it was researching and writing and my supervisor is really nice but at this point, I was trying to find as close to 20 hours a week and she was only giving me about 4. I had to keep looking.
On a whim, I sent a resume to a marketing job for a local business I saw advertised in the school paper. I really didn’t think they would even reply to my email but they gave me a call and asked me to come in for an interview. This job was off campus but only about a 10-minute bus ride. I was nervous. If I got this, I would be able to finish out the year. I did a mock interview with Career and Professional Development, I pulled out my business casual outfit out of the depths of my closet, and left class ten minutes early to catch the bus.
The bus dropped me off at a weird street that didn’t even have a sidewalk. But it was the middle of the day and I assured myself that this was a real job with a reputable company. The lady on the phone said there were a lot of interviews scheduled the day before but I was reassured by my mock interviewer’s advice that they had called me because they saw me a real potential candidate.
I got into the office and it was nice, someone found me right away and let my interviewer know I was here. Suddenly, she came out, we shook hands and we walked into her office. The next thing I knew was that the interview was over before I even sat down. She was already asking me about my availability. I couldn’t believe that they were actually hiring me on the spot.
The pressure that had built up from months of job searching had finally lifted. I finally felt secure and like I could enjoy the rest of the semester without my bills looming over me.
It was exhausting, disappointing, and for a while, I was in a really dark place. I couldn’t talk about money without almost bursting into tears. One night I looked at my credit card statement after paying for the semester of books and my bank account and realized I had $40 to my name. I had never felt more alone in my life but I pushed on. I knew that there was an end in sight and that any moment, one of these jobs was going to come through for me. And it turned out that the small on-campus student media jobs helped me land the marketing job off campus. Everything happens for a reason and I know it’s cliche but the more I experience of adulthood the more I believe it. If you’re experiencing this just know that you can’t give up. Someone wants to hire you it’s just a matter of time.