Entering into the Real World...The First Steps

Hi, I'm Erin and a senior studying journalism at the University of Arizona and my entering into the "Real World" is rapidly approaching. Graduating college and entering into the "Real World" makes me extremely nervous and anxious, and I'm sure there are many like me, feeling like this, out there.

When I was home during winter break, my dad gave me two projects that needed to be completed before I returned back to school. The first was to clean out my room and the second was to start sending out as many resumes as I could. Of course cleaning out my room was something that I was not looking forward to, especially since all I was really looking forward to was sleeping as much as I possibly could. As I finally worked up enough energy to fulfill my dad's requests, I began cleaning and cleaning and found many interesting things that I had saved throughout the years. One of the last things that I found was the four-year calendar that I had received at freshman orientation at UA. The calendar began with the year 2003 and ended in 2007. Remembering back to that day when I had first looked at the calendar, I couldn't believe that May 2007, where a star marking the day of graduation stood out SCREAMING at me on the page, was only 5 months away.

Thus, the second project began, sending out resumes.

As much motivation it took me to begin cleaning my room, just imagine that time times a million. That's how long it took my motivation to reach the level of actually doing something when it came to sending out my resumes. I think it was the fact that I couldn't believe I'd actually be out on my own and working at a real job in a matter of 5 months. I then began to realize that I just needed to do it and May would come if I sent them out or didn't, and I thought to myself that I'd be much happier that I'd sent them out then not sending them out.
My dream is to work at a magazine in New York City or Chicago and that's where I started. I began googling and looking in the Yellow Pages in those cities, for contact information of different magazines and publishing companies. My first resume and cover letter that I sent out was to Time Warner, which houses publications like People. After feeling a rush of excitement and accomplishment after sending out just one resume, I knew that this was what I needed to do and I began to accept that the future was coming and there was no way to avoid it. And in order to make this process go smoothly and not as stressful, I needed to begin to enjoy looking for a job and to begin looking forward to life after college.

I'm hoping that this blog will not only help and answer questions for myself in my search for jobs and with keeping my motivation high, but for others as well. By posting tips on sending out resumes, how to dress for interviews, where to search for jobs, and many others, I hope this blog will be useful.
In the meantime...here are a few links to job search websites that I started with:
http://www.monster.com/
http://www.craigslist.org/
And from the words of Monster.com..."Today's the Day," so get started! I know I will.