It took me six years to graduate from California State University, Northridge. Three of those years were spent in trying to figure out what I wanted my major to be.

 

After college, I envisioned myself in my dream job or at least in the company that I wanted to work in. I knew that in order to get there I would have to start at the bottom, so I was willing to pay my dues.

 

I listened to my advisors and professors emphasize that having internships are very important to break into the career path I had chosen. I chose to major in Cinema and Television Arts and minor in Public Relations, but now to break into the entertainment industry is more difficult than ever. However, I would hear my peers and staff say that having an internship was having one foot in.

 

So I would apply to well-known companies’ internship programs, but I wouldn’t get an email. Then, some of my peers would tell me to try small production companies, but I wouldn’t even get an email from them either. As my last year of college started to approach, I gave up looking for internships and just applied to a full-time position because I was only going to school three times a week and my classes were at night.

 

Once again I wasn’t hearing anything back from the places I would apply too. I started to feel like I was the problem, so I would go to every workshop my major would have. I would go and listen to people that worked at Disney, ESPN, CBS and other companies, their stories and how they struggled to get into the industry. I remember my professor asked an old student of his to come to our class and talk about his experience. He told us that if we don’t hear anything back from the companies we were applying to that we were not the problem it’s just that we weren’t meant for that job. He works at NBC, but before his job he worked as a production assistant for many shows before he landed at NBC. He gave me that drive I needed to keep on applying to these jobs.

 

I still wasn’t getting any emails back or callbacks. So, my graduation was approaching and some of my peers already had jobs at production companies or had been accepted to colleges for their masters.

 

Here I was letting my reality sink in and feeling like I had failed at life. Once I had graduated I just kept on remembering on how internships are very important and how I let my pride interfere with me approaching people that were willing to help me. After, college my friend and I would go to companies to drop off our resumes and we still didn’t get any response.

 

So, here I am eight months from when I graduated and working at a retail store. I still haven’t given up applying to jobs in the entertainment industry. I realized that there are many more people that are going through what I am going through. There are expectations that one has for life after college, but sometimes that really isn’t the reality of life after college. Life after college is one that most college graduates are going through and it’s becoming the common norm. It’s sad to see that we as a society put pressure on children that having a college degree will help you land your dream job, but in reality it doesn’t. Having your college degree is one component to landing your dream job, but you need to know someone in order to get to where you want to be and have experience in your major.

 

If any college graduate is reading this and feels that they are not where they thought they were going to be after graduating you are not alone. I share the same emotions that you are going through, but no matter what keep on applying to that job because you might never know what life has in store for you.