The (Unemployed) Graduate

Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Day 1 of unemployment:

After sleeping for 13 hours, I woke up at 1 pm to the hard cold realization that I had no plans that day, the next day, the next week, or for the rest of my life. I’m not starting a job this month. I’m not going back to school in August. Though it is very exciting to graduate, it’s not so exciting to have just graduated.

I job searched throughout senior year. I talked to the counselors at the career center, went to the career fair, attended lectures, and even stalked people on Linked In. I’m either too qualified for an internship, not qualified enough for a job, or just plain old not getting through to the HR person. I’m pretty talented. I have some great experience in television production. Therefore, I’m going to blame my employment misfortune on the economy, and I think that’s pretty fair.

Upon entering Notre Dame in the fall of ’05, I was promised a job in four years. Here I am, four years later, with a fancy sheepskin diploma and no job. I’m not bitter. I’m just waiting for that promise to come through. In the mean time, I’ll be living at home in Stow, Ohio, enjoying summer in the suburbs.

On my first day back home, I got out of bed at 1:00 pm, wandered downstairs, looked at all my suitcases and boxes that needed to be unpacked, and proceeded to ignore them for the rest of the day. It was just my first day back. I deserved to relax a little.

In the afternoon, I text-message broke up with Pat. He was never my boyfriend, but we did date for the last two weeks of college, and I wanted to make it clear that we weren’t dating anymore. Also, we had planned to text message break up on this day because planned jokes always work better than spontaneous ones.

I tried to watch a movie on megavideo.com but after watching about 15 minutes of it, the stupid site claimed I had viewed 70 minutes and had to wait another 40 minutes to continue watching. This discovery has really messed up my summer plans.

I wore athletic shorts and a wife beater the entire day.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Day 2 of unemployment:

I woke up at 12:30 today. I’m slowly progressing toward waking up at a reasonable hour.

I looked at all my crap that needs to be unpacked and ignored it for the rest of the day. I still needed some time to grieve my college career.

I decided to go for a walk around my neighborhood. After 2 minutes, my iPod died. I got chased by 5 dogs: an Australian shepherd, a Pomeranian, a basset hound, a beagle, a lab, and a tiny fluffy thing. I forgot that everyone in this neighborhood knows me because everyone in this neighborhood has lived here for over 20 years. I ran into a few people, some of whom congratulated me, most of whom started debates about Obama and abortion with me. I’m very tired of having to defend my graduation and I’m sad that any congratulations I receive has to come with a debate on morality. Though I guess debating political and ethical issues is more interesting than talking about gardening or something.

I tried watching something on megavideo again. It failed, so I tried to rent something from iTunes. By the time the 2 hour download was finished, I didn’t want to watch it anymore.

I spent the entire day in athletic shorts, a wife beater, and a Cubs hat.

Thursday, May 21, 2009
Day 3 of unemployment:

I woke up around 11:30. Not bad.

I unpacked one bag of clothes because I was running out of wife beaters. I couldn’t find where I had packed my underwear, so it looks like I’ll be going commando.

I job searched online for a couple hours, scouring the internet for any potential jobs. I called a producer in South Bend, who one of my professors was sure had a job for me. He didn’t. He told me that finding a job is all about luck and that he had to work at Bloomingdales after college. That was encouraging.

Finding legitimate production companies is very difficult since there are a million production companies, but probably only a handful that aren’t run out of someone’s basement. There are a lot of “one guy an a camera” outfits out there. Another deceiving thing is that a lot of job openings that sound really awesome are in the porn industry. For example: Looking for a Final Cut Pro editor, limited experience necessary, to work in Chicago/NYC area. Pay is $45,000 a year. Sign me up! Hold on…click on the company profile...oh, I would be editing porn. Fantastic. Starting your career in porn doesn’t work out too well for actresses and I doubt it works out any better for videographers.

The grandparents came over for dinner. They seem to think I’m looking for jobs in Cleveland. I’m not.

I spent the entire day in athletic shorts and a wife beater. My real clothes are on protest until I get a job. Also, I’m thinking about not washing my hair to get some sweet dreads.

Friday, May 22, 2009
Day 4 of unemployment:

I woke up at 10:30. Getting much better.

After getting up, I got a bowl of cereal and watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit. That movie is not nearly as scary as I remember it being.

I felt extra motivated and unpacked the rest of the clothes. This won’t stop me from continuing to wear wife beaters and athletic shorts.

I sent an email to a local production company, asking for job advice and if they had any summer openings, even offering to work for free. They said no.

I pet my dog for a couple hours because he’s really sick. Then I fed him some pepperoni.

I went on a walk and only got chased by two dogs. No neighbors harassed me about abortion.

I watched American Psycho with my mom. She fell asleep, so then I was just watching it by myself.

I’m considering putting on real pants.