The following is some more shallow thoughts by a graduating senior (and I am legally obligated to say this: assuming I pass all my classes). This post's topic revolves around employment - you know, the phrase of one's life after he or she is done with the educational system (cue the wise person saying we never stop learning). And what a great time to be graduating! I mean two years ago the great country we live in suffered the worst economy meltdown since the great depression, and currently we are still in the midst of the recovery (with high unemployment!)
So its not exactly the best time to be graduating and jobless? Sure the recovery is on going but unemployment is still quite high (especially California, which economic future is projected to be more dire than other states), and the hiring freeze all over is still at the beginning stages of thawing. Now I don't want to jinx myself, but if only I am graduating one year later, the prospects of finding gainful employment will be much easier (assuming people at wall street don't fuck everything up again).
Good luck Californians!
(But wait are you not an entrepreneur major?) Why yes I am! And I hope to be sometime in the future, but just not in the immediate days after graduation. You see to start a business you need something called capital, otherwise known as straight cash (homie!). Now appearances may be deceiving but I don't have much money at all, nor does my family (don't Asians save? yeah they don't tell you how MUCH they save either...). So no money no business? Well I can borrow from a bank but going through the entrepreneur program has taught me is that Bank loan interest will more often than not absolutely wreck with your cash flows in the first year and then... well you won't have a business after that.
To the unemployment line it is, because after graduation I can no longer work on campus for obvious reasons. And I am just not super optimistic about any immediacy that I would actually find a job post grad. I say this from experience because it just so happens that for one of my entrepreneur classes, we the students (of the United States of SFSU) need to find an internship for ourselves with a startup company (and pay attention closely, find one OURSELVES - meaning nothing was setup for us). This is just as good as telling us you've graduated as an entrepreneur, now go find yourself a job with a startup.
Many conflicts arises. First of all, any startup will be way too busy trying to SURVIVE their first years of opening to actually find the time to keep an intern. Heck most of them are too busy to even answer emails (now they could also be rude, but I criticize no man, much like Abraham Lincoln). Another conflict is painfully obvious once I've started looking for internships. The problem is that since this is for class credit, we are representing the university, hence strictly NO SELLING. Meaning the internship cannot be a sales position. Now I don't know about you, but it appears that the single most important thing to a new startup business is to MAKE SALES.
To say finding an internship was hard would be an understatement. Turns out offering free labor is not as attractive to companies as it appears (especially one with the burden of mentoring). Now I understand the feelings of some of my friends who graduated earlier than I have - that feeling of sending out 100s of cover letters and resumes and receive nothing back. If one thing this internship searching has taught me is that it is NEVER personal, it is just business (thank you, Godfather).
Connections are important. It may be the biggest thing we know, but the world is a small place, thus it does you zero good to burn bridges. Never assume you will never see that person again. Be courteous and be nice.
The thrill of the hunt.