Monday, November 2, 2009

Job Hunting

I graduated a year and a half ago from a master's program in Political Communications. I am bilingual. I believe that I'm rather smart. My quantitative skills leave something to be desired, I'll grant you that. I have interned at the French National Assembly. I've also interned for a U.S Senate campaign where I got to know wonderful and incredibly smart, cultured, and well-connected people who have been supportive and have tried to help me find internships in U.S politics.

I am underemployed, undervalued and underpaid. It's not to say that I don't like my job. I like it most of the time. I cherish the opportunity to learn more about education and the work of academic staff and the problems that our education system is faced with. I also like working with kids. I hope that by the end of my contract, they will have learned something, that they will have developed an interest in learning and that they'll realize that they have potential. Ideally, they will have learned to construct a simple English sentence. This is more unrealistic, but I also hope that they will have started reading a book once in a while. Hopefully, they will have realized that there are people who don't want them to fall through the cracks and that I am one of these people. 

Still, I have two BA's from a joint program in politics, philosophy and economics and a master's degree and some potential that I feel is going to waste. I have applied to dozens of jobs that I haven't got. I've been really close to getting a fantastic internship at a prestigious polling firm in Washington, D.C. I have also been really close to getting a job working for a regional union where I would have written and designed their brochure. 

I am interested in a lot of things. I adore U.S politics and would chop off a limb if I could work on a campaign again.

I love photography, am serious about it and am really striving to improve. I would die if I had 1/1000th of my brother's talent. 

I love the internet and all the opportunities it provides for people to express themselves, and discover new things. I am in awe of people who start cooking and decoration blogs and build a community around their work. I am a blog lover, I really am. Photography, cooking & decoration blogs are my favorites. I love Joy the Baker. I love Design Sponge. I love Apartment Therapy. I read blogs every morning. It's my routine. 

I love newspapers and magazines. I love insightful articles, which are getting rarer. I love in-depth articles in the New Yorker, the New York Times, The Atlantic and Newsweek.

I love fiction. Quality fiction that is. I worship people like Paul Auster, Richard Russo,  J.D Salinger, Adam Langer and Douglas Coupland. No-one can make me laugh like Adam Langer. 

I love nonfiction books about popular culture. I love the way they look at entertainment. I would die to spend an afternoon as a fly on the wall of any room Chuck Klosterman or Christian Lander are in. 

I have become discouraged, that's true. Sometimes, I get hopeful and I think I'm employable. Most of the time, I look at the state of the economy and realize that there are very few opportunities in communications right now. And my hopes get shattered. I realize that I'm not special, and that there are thousands of people like me. I'm probably too nice, not assertive enough. But I work hard, I'm diligent. I'm attentive to detail. I would be great in any copy editing department. I'm great at spotting grammar and spelling mistakes. I love grammar and spelling. I'd be a great assistant to someone. I just want to be given a chance to prove my worth. Until then, I'm going to continue trying to shape young people's minds and making them want to stay in school. 

And because I use this blog to post pictures, here are two from yesterday. Taken at a pub in central London called Adam & Eve where the menu should be expanded but the atmosphere is great. 


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are expressing the same frustrations that so many are feeling right now. Ultimately, I believe that with your academic pedigree you'll be just fine. You have a very engaging blog here and the photos are excellent.