My
senior stress
Amy Dunlap, posted Oct. 31, 2006
“I am never going back!”
I had this dream that after high school graduation, I was
headed to bigger things than the small town I was leaving
behind. I swore that when I walked across that stage, I was
never going back. I was going to MU and that town I grew up
in was too small for me now. Nothing was holding me back.
Now four years later, I want nothing more than to return home.
With a ring on my left hand from the hometown farm boy and
a planned wedding date, I march through another week at school,
anxious to go home on the weekend to see him. It is funny
how things change, how once I was willing to do anything to
get away from that small town, I am now willing to do anything
to get back there, but with a college degree.
Being a senior, I am now facing the certain reality that most
of us have to face four years into our college educations,
and that is the question of, “What will I do after graduation?”
I knew what I wanted to do. I had it figured out. I knew what
job I was perfect for and I was ready for CAFNR Week’s
career fair. I put on my best clothes, had copies of my resume
printed, and with a smile on my face, I set out to talk to
my potential employers.
The term I would use to describe what happened to me at the
career fair was blindsided. Have you ever woke up from your
sleep and didn’t watch where you were going and walked
into a wall you did not see coming? That is exactly what it
felt like. I walked up to a potential employer, told them
my story, and was blindsided. I was told basically, if I was
not willing to relocate, I was not going to get a job in the
profession I wanted. It was either my fiancé, or my
job, and I was going to have to choose. I was in shock, and
almost to in tears I was not going to be able to have the
job I wanted. To say the least, I was depressed.
I left the career fair that day with a lot of things flying
around in my head, like why I was even at MU, why did I even
go to the career fair, what did other college students do
in my position, and how did I all of the sudden become non-desirable
in the workforce? I went with all of my questions buzzing
in my head to my academic advisor, who helped to calm me down.
He told me to go see Director of Career Services, Stephanie
Chipman.
Chipman had a lot of great information for me during our meeting.
She told me that there were five different things that I needed
to do during my job search. She said I needed to list five
to ten job descriptions that interested me, research employers
in my area, list ten employers that are interesting possibilities,
have my resume written and reviewed by a professional and
register with HireMizzouGrads.com.
I learned that the Web site, hiremizzougrads.com, is a Web
site that allows students to browse job openings, career fairs,
sign up for on-campus interviews and browse employee directories.
Chipman also explained to me that there are a lot of other
students in the same boat that I am in and are planning on
going back to the farm after graduation.
There are plenty of students that are coming straight off
the farm and going directly back after college, just as Chris
Webber did. Webber graduated from MU in 1988 with a degree
in general agriculture, with minors in political science,
hotel and restaurant management and agricultural economics.
I had the chance to speak to him about his education here
at MU. I asked him why he chose to attend MU, he replied,
“I knew that they [MU] had the best offering of courses
in agriculture.” He told me that it was always his true
intention to come back to the farm. He also told me that he
believed that the education that he received at MU was very
beneficial to his career in farming. He said if he could,
he would have changed some things about his time here at MU.
“I wish I had been more specific in what I was doing,
maybe specializing more in animal science or agronomy. If
I had to do it over again, I would have gone more the animal
science route, like courses dealing with feed rations and
animal nutrition.”
After visiting with Webber and Chipman, I began to feel better
about coming to MU. I realized that instead of thinking about
my situation being constricting in me finding a job, I needed
to look at it in a point of view that it was going to help
me. It is going to take effort and time on my part, but I
am going to try my hardest to find a job that I love.
