The beginning of my last semester at JMU....and the job hunt begins!

Well, I have officially completed my last "first week" of college ever! It's an exciting, yet bittersweet feeling, but I know the battle of conflicting emotions will only increase as the semester progresses and brings about many more realizations of "lasts" as a JMU student. My professors have certainly wasted no time dishing out assignments; I have 6 chapters of assigned reading to complete this afternoon, along with writing a news brief, and getting started on a video project. So much for a gradual transition back into the typical college workload. That's certainly one thing I already miss about my "real world" internship experience in D.C.; when I left the office at the end of the workday, the evening was mine to enjoy (well, with the exception of several reading and reporting assignments for my NJC internship component, but those assignments were nothing compared to a semester full of coursework)! Getting re-acclimated to this concept of having massive amounts of homework is proving to be rough thus far. Then again, I've survived the same transition at the start of every semester for the past 3 years so this should be no different, however, this time there's an added component that I hadn't fully considered until a few days ago: job hunting!

Throughout the summer, I was continuously presented with this seemingly simple question: "So what are your plans for after graduation?" Not being the type of person who plans my life out in advance, I usually responded with something along the lines of "Oh, you know, I'm just gonna look for a job in TV news, or maybe something in politics if the media market still isn't doing any better by then." And so it went that I would provide this rather vague response time after time, taking relative comfort in having the padding of one more semester at JMU standing between me and the real world.

Then, last week, I had a few extra minutes to spare in between classes (but not enough to warrant starting on any homework), so I stopped by the office of someone who has become a mentor-like figure to me over the past year, with the intention of catching up on each other's summer experiences. Well, the conversation quickly turned to him asking me: "So, you're graduating in December...how many resumes have you sent out so far?" I stared back at him with what I'm sure was a comically blank expression on my face. "Well, just one so far," I replied. "But I don't graduate for several months and the jobs that are open need to be filled now; nobody is going to even consider my resume when they see that I can't start working until January!" He then started shaking his head and provided me with some insight that somehow hadn't occurred to me previously: It's better to have your resume on file now so that employers might make note of it if a position opens up when graduation time rolls around, as opposed to receiving and seeing your resume for the first time in January along with 15 others who are applying for the same job. This seemed logical (and I don't have a logical mind, hence why I probably hadn't thought of it before, lol), but despite being the typically relaxed, take-life-as-it-comes-at-me kind of person that I am, now I felt like I was already behind on this whole job hunting process.

Thus, I spent some of my spare time this weekend perusing numerous career search engines and relevant websites, looking for leads on media or political jobs. There doesn't appear to be anything out there currently, unless you have at least 3-5 years of experience, but of course, I'm going to keep looking and praying that the right job will be waiting for me when I graduate. In the meantime, I get to teach myself the art of balancing school and job hunting, without letting senioritis kick in and destroy my GPA. Ha!

Sorry for the rambling personal narrative....I'll aim to post something of actual substance soon! As always, take care and thanks for reading! :)