Dear Seniors,
By now, we have all come to the realization that senior year is a complicated relationship. There are so many wonderful memories- partying with friends at Senior Ball and 100 Days Ball, going on the best Spring Break vacation and living everyday knowing we are one step closer to walking across that stage and leaving the gates of Holy Cross. However, this is where things get complicated. For those of us who may not have a job yet, the idea of leaving Holy Cross may not be too appealing. If anything, there might be a longing to have an extra month or even year to figure out what our future is going to look like outside of college.
Even though we are trained to plan meticulously and be organized here, our future is not set in stone. If we take a look back at our lives, so many unexpected things happen all the time. As Oprah said during her speech at Harvard University in 2007, “Sometimes you find out what you are supposed to be doing by doing the things you are not supposed to do.” Graduating without a job is not the end of the world. It can be a chance to take interesting classes to gain experience, find a new opportunity that wasn’t available during the school year or simply do some self reflection and awareness.
The important thing to know is that at the end of the day, we are finally receiving a Bachelor’s degree from Holy Cross after years of hard work. But before we do that, here are a few things you can do while you wait to hear what will happen after graduation:
- Make your LinkedIn profile stronger
Companies may be using this time to assess your profile as they are reviewing your application.
- Strengthen your resume
No matter where you are in the job search process, you can always come in to the office for Drop In Hours, Monday- Friday 1-4 PM.
- Research yourself
Find out what information is online about you. Maybe you didn’t know that that crazy picture from Spring Break was public to everyone and now you know you should probably untag yourself asap.
- Create a list of people for networking
You can never have too many connections. Use the waiting time to continue building your contacts, especially by using the Career Advisory Network.
- Find a project to do
For those of us who may have extra time on our hands, it may be helpful to find a project that is related to what you may be thinking of pursuing. This is a great way to build more experience and skills that you can later transfer over to your resume.
Overall, take your time to enjoy senior year. We have the rest of our lives to be working towards building a future but only one year to have a last year of college. Everything will fall into place and it’s all going to work out at the end.
Sincerely,
A Fellow Senior
