Done with school, now what?

One day you grudgingly wake up (as usual), sit on your bed still mumbling something about your crazy dream, unwillingly check your schedule, and then suddenly, like a divine revelation, realize that it is your last day of school! Although you rapidly find yourself screaming at the top of your lungs as if you had a bullhorn stuck to your mouth “yesss, no more classes, no more homework, no more annoying group work and long papers”, soon your delight banishes the moment you realize that the next step is FINDING A JOB. Oh my oh my, time to wait for a raindrop in the drought (especially if you didn’t major in economics, finance, computer science or engineering: the most wanted degrees)…unless, of course, mummy and daddy already own a company and have a great job position eagerly waiting for you! Most probably, a job position you didn’t want in the first place and that you don’t merit anyways. God gives bread to those who have no teeth! 

Let’s get real folks, nowadays having a full time position thanks only to your skills and qualifications is a luxury few have; and, the few who do are utterly underpaid. How many of you, poor souls, have sent your résumé and a well-written perfect cover letter thinking with a wide blissful smile on your face “I perfectly match the ideal candidate profile…there's a 99% chance that they will take me right away!” or gone to a job interview wearing brand new shoes and your lucky shirt under a mystical vibrating aura only to later find out that…oops, you are part of that remote 1% and yes, they are very sorry but the position has already been filled, but thank you for your interest in us, we’ll keep your CV in our files and as soon as another position opens up, we’ll definitely take you into consideration. Yeah right, that’s exactly what you expected to hear, huh? But who could have been that one better candidate? Well...probably someone that knows someone who knows that special someone that already works there!  Affirmative Houston, nepotism sucks big time! Over. Roger that!  

Sadly, we live in an unfair world where the best is reserved for the few privileged, who are already privileged and who have always been anyways. In our wonderful Earth, the rich get richer, the poor poorer, and the young are given less and less opportunities. How smart and reasonable, right?! Yet another crystal clear proof that we, the homo sapiens, are the "wise man".

You could have attended the most prestigious, demanding, and intellectually-stimulating university, strived and thrived nonetheless, but if you do not know someone who knows someone at that particular place, where your dream job awaits you, then you have a problem, a big problem most of us face:promoting yourself, meaning properly convincing your prospective employer that yes, you are inexperienced, butyou are a passionate, ambitious, keen person and you’ll undoubtedly succeed if you are just given that one chance to try. Unfortunately, few will have faith in you. However,he who laughs last laughs best! 

At the end of the day, when you do get that job, after many days, weeks, months or even years of fighting against all odds to get what you deserve, you’ll sit at your work desk, look around your brand new office, and think to yourself, “it was worth the fight and the wait.” And you’ll appreciate it more, work better and harder, and eventually become the best at what you do. So there you go, maybe life isn’t that unfair, maybe it pretends to be, so that the few who are willing to sacrifice themselves, the few who dream and hope even when it seems that there is nothing left to do, the few who never give up, the few who always believe in themselves… will ultimately make it. It’s true pals, the things we are given without any effort, we don’t appreciate, and in this life nothing and no one should be ever taken for granted. Never give up the fight!