May 22, 2008  •  In Career, Personal

5 Pieces of Advice for Recent Graduates, Part 5

Part 1: The world doesn’t owe you anything.
Part 2: It’s never too late.
Part 3: Make the best of it.
Part 4: Be ballsy.

5. Sometimes, it really is pure luck.

When I first started job-hunting, I didn’t have much going for me. My grades weren’t good, I had little experience, and I had no clue what I wanted to do for a living.

I sent out my resume to hundreds of companies and never heard a peep.

Soon, the bank of mom and dad threatened to cut me off. “Get a job or move back home.”

I decided to try temping while still job-hunting, just so I can prove to the parents units that I wasn’t lying on the couch watching TV all day.

I contacted a temp agency, and what happened next was one of the luckiest, most fortunate events of my life.

The first job the temp agency offered me was to work as the personal assistant to the CEO of a large, multinational company (you probably heard of it if I told you). The gig would last two weeks – was I up for it?

Immediately the image of the nightmare boss from The Devil Wears Prada popped into my head. However, I quickly pushed my overactive imagination aside to accept the offer.

A couple of days before my two weeks was up, the CEO called me into a meeting he was having with the VPs. He then said to them, “This is Jenny. She’s a good worker and she needs a job. One of you should give her a job.”

The rest, as they say, was history. I had landed my first full-time job out of school.

I’ve said before that you should take advantage of every opportunity, no matter how small, life throws at you. I’ve preached that you need to work hard to be successful.

But sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to make it.

Or you may be living the good life and an act of God comes to take it all away.

We should always keep trying. But we also need to realize that there are some things we cannot control. And we have to roll with it.

I hope you enjoyed this series! If you have any ideas for more, please let me know!

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