Opinion: Seniors start out worry-free, but as graduation nears they start to consider the professional and personal changes it will throw at them
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My last term at the University of Oregon is already jam-packed with work and stress just a couple of weeks in. Even without taking classes, there’s plenty to fill my schedule and mind. Like many of my friends, I delayed thinking about graduation until now because the fall term felt too early and winter felt too busy. Although I’ve been professionally preparing for life after college, my mind is a few steps behind.
College seniors can feel like they have nothing or everything to do during their last year. Whatever their schedule looks like, a large part of their last year is coming to terms with graduating and moving on or away to the next thing. There are heartfelt and stressful parts of grappling with leaving undergraduate life, such as setting up job opportunities while coping with moving away from friends.
To prepare for a career after college, students use extracurricular activities to learn real-world skills and get experience that can help them when it comes time for a job after graduation.
“There really is this culture of working super hard now to set yourself up for success in the future,” Jack Chasin, a senior advertising major student, said. “We’re told since the very beginning, at least in the SOJC, that we need to get qualified in order to get these entry-level jobs.”
Throughout his time at UO, Chasin used the resources available to him through student groups like Allen Hall Advertising to network and find job opportunities. As most of us discover with experience, applying to internships or job openings can feel bleak as some places ignore or reject our applications.
During his junior year, Chasin applied to “around 70 to 80” internships, only hearing back from one. “I was just really lucky to get an internship from that interview,” he said.
The job hunt is discouraging to go through for anyone, and for seniors it can feel like you should grab any chance that comes your way. As job applicants find out as they go, there is an overwhelming amount of jobs to apply to, but it’s about finding the right fit as much as getting an interview offer.
“There’s a lot of pressure that I put on myself to choose a job I know I’ll be happy with versus just getting a job,” Christina Nguyen said. Nguyen, graduating this June with a degree in advertising, says it’s tempting to give in to an easy but unsatisfying job due to how stressful applications can be.
“If I’m spending 40 hours working somewhere, a majority of my week will be working so I need to choose something where I’m not dreading to go there and work,” Nguyen said. “In the long run, I don’t mind waiting a little bit because I don’t wanna make a rash or really rushed decision for security.”
Fresh out of college, seniors can think it’s easier to settle for a job that doesn’t fit quite right with what they want due to a lack of better options. Whichever mindset seniors have about getting jobs, there’s no judgment here. We all just want to find something that works for us.
Alongside preparing for the professional world, seniors begin to face the prospect of leaving college behind and moving away from the campus, peers, friends and roommates that have been home for four years.
Nguyen gave a refreshing take on breaking apart from college friends and roommates.
“We were once freshmen who were so scared that we weren’t gonna make any friends and look at us now,” she said. “Imagine in three years from now, when we look at each other and look at how our lives are, it’s gonna be so cool to see where everyone ends up.”
Since I’m a senior struggling with already missing my hallway conversations with friends, this perspective gave me hope. With graduation looming, I get caught up in the sad parts of leaving UO in the rearview mirror. But I hope this last thought warms other hearts as it did mine.
“We’ve been through so many phases of change and growth, that it’s [graduation’s] just another cycle of that again,” Nguyen said. “Looking back at who we were four years ago, and then four years before that, gives us a little peace of mind … because everything was okay before and everything will be okay again.”