Starting Your Career During Quarantine| BUILT BY GIRLS
Written by Catherine Kehrli, Director of Operations at Verizon Media and a WAVE Advisor. Catherine hosted the first BUILT BY GRILS Real Talk, an Instagram Live Q&A , to answer all your questions about landing a job in this uncertain time. Read all her advice here.
For those of you graduating this year, you might be feeling some serious career-anxiety due to the current climate and I get it. In 2008 I was finishing my Marketing degree at Santa Clara University at the peak of the financial crisis. I wasn’t getting any full-time offers and barely any interviews. I was worried that I’d never start my career and felt like a complete failure. But through focus, patience, and a lot of effort, I eventually did land that first job. Below are a few tips I would tell a scared 22-year-old Catherine to guide her through this uncertainty:
Never lose focus of your ultimate goal. I knew I wanted to live in San Francisco and work in tech. While it may have taken a while, having a goal kept me focused to keep pushing and to be prepared for any opportunity or interview that came up. For me, taking a role in a different industry or location was going to lead me on a career path I didn’t want to go down.
Be open to taking a job that pays the bills. I was selling socks for 12 months at Nordstrom while many of my friends were starting their careers. It wasn’t what I wanted, but I was lucky I had a job that both supported me financially and allowed me the flexibility to find the right job. No gig is too small or job too low if it helps you to achieve your goals.
Keep expenses low. I moved from the Bay Area back to my parent’s house in Portland, Oregon. I would have loved to stay in San Francisco with all my friends but I knew this was going to plunge me in debt and that’s not how I wanted to start my adult life.
Don’t be shy. It’s easy to be embarrassed if you are the only one of your peers not in a “proper” job. If you are clear on your ultimate goal, do not be shy about communicating it. Be proactive and share with your peers, family, and professors exactly what you are looking for and they will expand your network profoundly. You want to be the first person they think of when an opportunity arises. That job that I finally got after 12 months of retail? It was with a small consulting company owned by my college roommate’s aunt.
Being anxious or worried is completely normal during an uncertain time. There is no such thing as a perfect career path — the most interesting careers have peaks and valleys and take a lot of effort. If you keep focused and work towards your goals, you ultimately will be successful.
Want more advice? Check out the full Q&A with Catherine.
Join us every Thursday at 3pm EST on @BUILTBYGIRLS IG Live for Real Talk — a series of AMAs featuring leaders and doers across the tech industry. We’re bringing expert advice straight to your screen on topics you care about like navigating your career, to money talks, to mental health. Join us as we ask questions, talk honestly, and make a plan for life after Coronavirus. Have FOMO? Check out the ones you’ve missed here.
Originally published at https://www.builtbygirls.com on March 30, 2020.
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