I'm clueless and I graduate in 2 weeks. Help?

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>I joined this site in high school and found all the advice here very helpful. I was extremely excited for the process as I had a high GPA, scores, and some national awards. I was blown away when I was rejected from most of the schools I applied to and flat out couldn't afford to go to the few I got into. I ended up at a mid-level liberal arts college. I have done reasonably well here, but I completely failed to get any direction for my eventual career. </p>

<p>I opted not to major in business because it seemed so frowned upon here. I ended up with a degree in Sociology (It's ok to laugh about it, I know I do). I have no passion for the field but managed to get good marks in it. I went through a stint of wanting to go to law school, but due to sites similar to this I ultimately became disillusioned about the whole field (no jobs available, horrible work/life balance, etc.). </p>

<p>Now I'm beginning to realize that I may be royally screwed. I feel that life is a journey and not a race, but it's hard to not get discouraged when my best friends/roommates have everything lined up (science majors, going to engineering management programs at Stanford and Dartmouth). </p>

<p>What do I do? I am confident I ultimately want to end up in business and hopefully on the consulting side of things. However, I'm in a small market and all the entry-level jobs here want a degree in a business-related field and don't offer much training. I've tried to market my degree as an excellent starting point and emphasized my critical reasoning and analytical skills, but it's mostly fallen on deaf ears as they refuse to believe a non-business major could transition into the corporate world. </p>

<p>My degree would let me get into some segments like marketing research, but I don't want to be pigeon-holed into a support-role for the rest of my career. </p>

<p>I have the option of going to my school's MBA program that is catered towards students without work experience, but I think the school is a joke and ultimately want to end up at a top MBA program. </p>

<p>What do I do? I'm applying for several analyst positions but my major seems to be preventing me from finding much success. I know that I have what it takes to succeed, I just don't know where to go from here. What are some companies I should look at? Are there any companies out there that prefer students without formal business training that offer comprehensive training on the job? </p>

<p>I've considered Duke's masters in management program as a stepping stone between the undergraduate and MBA education, but I'm not sure about it since it's so new (and pretty expensive to boot). At this point I think I just need to take a year to get any and all work experience that I can and possibly aim for that program?</p>

<p>Thoughts/advice? Anything would be appreciated. I'm in my final two weeks of my undergraduate career and I should be jubilant--instead I find myself depressed and somewhat hopeless for the future.</p>

2

<p>Can you afford to live at home and intern somewhere? That might be a good first step; many businesses will take on recent college grads as interns, and it will give you a foot in the door. </p>

<p>Cold-calling alums in the field might also work; not ideal, I know, but I’m aware of a few grads who received great jobs in business just by showing above-average interest to the right people. Definitely try tapping the alumni base.</p>

3

<p>Op, your post brought up a very important area for all the students that is in or about to start college. “Know thy school’s Career Center/Services”. A good Career Center will offer a lot of resources for students to learn about different fields of work, internships, opportunities, etc. They will help a student to formulate what they want to do. Everyone shall start knowing that “Important Resouce” the first semester in college. nose2Drind had some good suggestions for you. Just try your best to look for jobs at this point and best wishes.</p>

4

<p>A couple of things to point out here.</p>

<p>First of all, most businesses aren’t necessarily looking for business majors. They look for people who have done SOMETHING, regardless of what it is, that gives them real world responsibilities of some sort. From the eyes of recruiters, they can teach you their business, but they need to see something in you that tells them you can think critically and handle yourself well.</p>

<p>Secondly, something like 40% of people who start work immediately after college get their offers in April or later. Getting down on yourself doesn’t help anybody, so just keep applying to as many jobs as you can find that interest you, and let the chips fall where they may. If that means getting a job that isn’t necessarily the greatest in order to make ends meet, you will have to do that, but you won’t do anything if you maintain an attitude of despair.</p>

5

<p>Did you do any internships throughout college? Do you have any work experience? Having a degree alone doesn’t cut it anymore. You need work experience. See if you can get an unpaid internship somewhere. There are a few for recent grads.</p>

<p>Otherwise, get a job in retail and work your way up.</p>

6

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<p>That’s really not a good reason.</p>