A Letter

For some bizarre reason I was asked by my friend's sister to give advice to her friend on...well basically on life. On trying to find your way, figure out what you're passionate about and look for a job. I suppose I have had enough trouble finding my way after graduating that I...while not an expert...have certainly learned a lot from my mistakes and my successes. It can be easy to forget what you've learned and what you've accomplished. I'm not sure how much my letter helped this girl, but I think writing it helped me remember and reflect on my life thus far. Perhaps it can help other recent graduates as well...


Hello new friend,

Sorry for the delayed response. I wanted to give you a thoughtful response and then ran out of time for thinking.

So I'll start with background information on me. I started my undergrad straight out of high school, which may seem irrelevant, but I think it played a roll in my story. I studied Natural Resource Conservation in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC and absolutely loved it.

The summer after first year, I worked 7 days a week at two restaurant jobs (Subway and a local restaurant). I honestly think that it was great experience, but I had to work all the time (I only took 4 days off that summer because my boss forced me to) in order to make enough money to pay for the following school year at $8 an hour. Because of that, I decided to join the co-op program, which was a great decision. This meant that it took me a year longer to graduate, which I think helped in terms of being slightly less young when I graduated, and it meant that I had 20 months work experience when I graduated. The first summer I worked for BC Timber Sales, then the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, then for a university in South Africa.

They were all great experience (South Africa especially shaped who I am today and inspired the topic of my undergrad thesis: community participation in the management of parks), but each one paid less than the one before and I ended up having to take out a student loan for my last semester at UBC. This meant that when I graduate I was broke and in debt, so I decided to work in a restaurant, while I looked for other work. I cried a lot that summer because it was the first time my future was uncertain (hence the influence going straight into my undergrad had). My parents' graduation gift to me was a flight to Ireland (my father was born there), so I spent that summer making money for my trip and training because I had decided to cycle around the country, so I could see it better. This was good because it gave me a goal to work towards, but I was acutely aware that after that trip, I had nothing planned.

Now, looking for jobs is a depressing enough task and if you're not in a good mood when you go for interviews, you're likely not going to get the job...especially if you didn't use a contact to get that interview. I knew this, so to fend off the depression, I tried to keep busy. I would volunteer bird banding from 5am to 1pm, go home, nap, then work from 5pm to 1am. Keeping busy was good in that it made me feel like I was actually still doing something with my life. I was making money working in a restaurant and doing something I loved in my volunteer work (bird banding in the summer and being a girl guide leader in the school year). It was stuff that I always wanted to do while I was at school, but didn't have time for...one of the perks of graduating.

You asked me how I found the job market in the Lower Mainland. I found it hard. Keep in mind that I didn't put all my energy into looking for a job with everything else that was going on in my life, but I looked for work from May after I graduated until February with no luck and very few interviews. I don't say this to discourage you, but to tell you that mass applying for jobs rarely pays off. Though, that being said, a friend of mine sent her resume and cover letter to every law firm in Vancouver and got 3 interviews and 1 job as a result, so it can pay off, but the odds are not in your favour.

In January, I got an email from UBC saying that they were looking for applicants to a new Trans-Atlantic Forestry Masters program. It involved a $14,000 scholarship, two three week field courses (one in Europe and one in Canada), a year at a European university and a year at a Canadian university. You would graduate with two degrees (one from each university). It was the first year that they offered this program, so I decided to apply...not thinking I would get in (I originally wanted to work before going back to do my Masters), but laying down the foundation so they would know my interest if I decided to apply again in the future. To my surprise, I was accepted in February.

To be honest, it was mostly fear that made me accept my place in the program. Don't get me wrong, it was a great opportunity and I was flattered to get in. But I wasn't ready to go back to school. I went into the Masters defeated...I couldn't find a job, so I went back to school. I see from your message to me that you are thinking of going back to school to do a Masters. This is awesome and, if you love school and love academia, by all means you should go for it. But a Masters is not an out. By going into it and not being ready and passionate about, it is going to be much much harder than it has to be. I mean my grades were great in the courses I took and I was genuinely interested in the subject matter, but it is incredible hard to self-motivate for your thesis, if you a) go into it feeling defeated, and b) don't have a specific passion you want to study. From the sounds of it, you're not interested in academia. As tempting as it is to hide out in school for another 2 years, or probably more if you're not passionate, my advice would be to stick it out in the real world for a bit and really give yourself the opportunity to shine on your own.

If you want to go back to school, it will always be there and, if you work for a while on getting to know yourself and what you want out of life, you'll have a better idea of what to study. It sounds like you're a bit like me from your message. I also don't really know what types of jobs I want to pursue. From my work experience, I have learned what I don't like and some of what I like, but I'm still discovering myself. I think that this is something you're always doing and that there is no one perfect job for anyone, especially because we are always changing. So don't put too much pressure on yourself to find the one thing you're passionate about. Chances are there are many things you would love to do and many parts of those jobs you would love you will become less fond of with time. In this vein, apply for the jobs that you are truly passionate about. It will come across in your application and you won't waste time interviewing for jobs you'll feel obliged to accept even if they don't interest you.

The other piece of advice I have in terms of job hunting is something that you've heard a million times, but, if you're anything like me, it hasn't sunk in yet. The jobs you'll have, especially when you're starting out, are all about who you know. To me networking always seemed fake and manipulative. I felt I needed to get jobs on my own merit and not because my mom's friend owns such and such a business.

When I moved to Fredericton in the second year of my Masters (the first year was in Finland), I had one friend in the working world and the rest of them were students like me or recent graduates looking for work. My working friend was amazing. We had worked together in South Africa and she became a huge advocate for me (from this I suppose you can take the advice to always do a job you can be proud of even if you're not making any money...the stipend I got in South Africa didn't even cover my rent). My friend introduced me to her friend who was looking for help with her job. This friend ended up giving me her job and I went from poor student to the part-time executive director of a non-profit overnight. It was, quite obviously, a huge learning curve, but it made me excited about working and about my future again. Since then, my friend and the woman I replaced have both helped me find other short term work around Fredericton. I think that the importance of who you know is more obvious in a small town, like Fredericton, but it is just as relevant to job hunting in a big city as well.

Making use of your social network is incredible important and something that is super undervalued in our generation. We were raised to be strong and independent and able to move from bottom to top on our own, but that's not realistic and it's not fair to us. You studied biology, we are pack animals. We can work well alone, but we do so much better when we work together. Why waste energy doing it the hard way when we can put that energy to good use? Now, I say this confidently, but it is a lesson that I am still trying to learn myself. I know in my heart that it is true and logically it makes sense, but it is hard to untrain yourself to want to be independent. In conclusion, I'm working on it, dammit!

I think that is all I wanted to say to introduce myself. I hope it wasn't too overwhelming and a little bit helpful, but at least you don't have to feel bad that your email was too long!

Cheers,
April