From Unhappy Girl to Hungry Girl
A life lesson in growing up.
Written by: Racheal A. Ball
Recently The Ladders reached out to me and give my take on what employment and my life was life after graduating and how I got there! Of course I was beyond honored to share my story. The Ladders is a GREAT resource when it comes to job hunting especially if you have a desired income of $40,000 per year and up. They make the process extremely easy and cuts out getting all those random emails regarding an 'open position' for a mystery company that pays 100% commission! Here's my life lesson in growing up...
College graduation was the day I’d been waiting for since
pre-school. It wasn’t easy getting there either, I mean 5 years of studying,
sleepless nights, crying, professors that refused to use technology, chicken
flavored ramen noodles, turning 21, a million part time jobs that equaled 40
hours a week, internships, and buying completely over priced and under utilized
text books that all led to May 13, 2011.
Turns out this was also one of the most boring days of my life, nothing
about a paid keynote speaker screams FREEDOM!!
Then all of a sudden it came time for me to get a real job!
I mean what does it really mean to have a ‘real job’ in today’s world? Does
this mean making a $50k salary, having health benefits, making enough to pay
your student loans, 401k? For today’s college graduates it totally varies,
there are no more comfy cookie cutter jobs anymore and what you spent on
college may not reflect what you’ll be earning and that’s a tough pill to
swallow.
I’ll use myself for example; coming out of college I knew
exactly what I wanted to do, where I was going to do it, and how much I was
going to make. Well, that’s where I had
the game messed up!! I worked my butt off in college doing tons of internships,
working in my field, winning scholarships, etc. but none of it prepared me to
make $10 an hour with no benefits and terrible hours in my so-called dream
career. I was so let down, my pride was assaulted and the worst part was that
job was all I had. I was crushed.
New grads have to prepare themselves for the real workforce,
which means wearing a suit to work and packing your lunch everyday because
bills come before Buffalo wings and beer now. It means maybe taking a job
because pays student loans and rent, working patiently perfecting your craft,
becoming the best employee you can become, making sure to treat every
experience as an opportunity to learn something new and develop and new skill
that can be beneficial in your next job. Although working, as a fitness club
manager for less that a Starbucks Barista made was tough financially I was able
to develop skills outside of my major particularly marketing and sales.
Fast-forward 3 years, I now have a full time
position working as a Social Media Specialist with a bachelors in Health and
Wellness Promotion, sounds crazy right? My degree afforded me the opportunity
to manage a fitness club, the skills I learned as a marketing and sales manager
opened the door to peak my interest in social media. I worked on that craft for
many years hustlin’, I volunteered to help others out with their websites,
taught people how to use hash tags, learned how to use e-marketing and some
graphic design until I got to this point. Mind you I still had a full time job
in orthopedics, it paid the bills so I could start my food blog ‘A Few Hungry Girls’. My blog started out as a hobby, a release from work
and life, I used everything I learned while creating my blog to add to my list
of skills to prepare me for a career in social media. Now I average 500-900 views
each month on my blog, and people want to pay me to do what I love.
The person that graduated 4 years ago has changed everything
she once knew about herself. That person is me, I knew I wanted to be a nurse
or PA coming out of college and you couldn’t tell me anything different! I knew
I was going to go to grad school, make a ton of money, and not worry about
anything else. But life has a funny way of changing you, it gives you hurdles
to jump over, twists and turns to make, it will even knock you down flat on
your butt and may even make you cry. Eventually life comes back around and
teaches you that things change and it’s OK to change with it.
Take every opportunity life gives you, it may suck now, but
it’ll reward you later (you have to have faith). The point of hard work is that
it’s hard but so is your resolve to conquer it.
Stay hungry my friends...
Ray B.
