“What are you doing next year?” If only I had a way to travel back in time and erase the ability of those combination of words to form into that phrase. Conversely, if only I had any clue of what I will be doing after June 13, 2008. Yes, there will be packing and moving and some relaxing at home with family and old friends. But soon a quiet desperation will creep in. The celebratory atmosphere after graduation will dissipate to form a cloud of anxiety following my every move until I find that one job, internship or career path.
My job search started the summer before senior year and has yet to culminate into any successful offer that does not involve me whoring myself out to corporate interests or a “thrilling” adventure into the world of finance and number crunching. I am a political science and global studies enthusiast and, as such, am looking for research-oriented or advocacy-related work experience before heading into grad school. However, the positions I had in mind went to graduates of elite private schools with better connections and career centers. UCLA provides excellent educational and extracurricular opportunities to its students; however, it does not even come close to providing any decent support to graduating seniors to get accustomed to life after college. Sure, there are career fairs, filled with companies looking for accountants and engineers. And yes, I went to the one for NGOs and non-profits, and again, received word that I was competing against Harvard and Stanford students across the nation. I hear we have a student alumni association, but what it actually provides to its members is rather ambiguous, as is the success rate of converting alumni meetings into actual job offers. There is no useful class on how to conduct a job search or how to present yourself during a group interview. The career center, an overflowing and understaffed resource on campus that provides such workshops, fails to go beyond the obvious “Be yourself!” in preparing seniors for what is to come.
We will hear speeches during commencement and graduation on how to go after our dreams and never let any obstacle get in our way. This is all well and good, but as a graduating class entering into the job market during a recession, what we need are tangible tools to convert our degree into income without selling ourselves or our interests short. I know I am not alone in dreading finding meaningful work, and I hope the university and the incoming USAC members pay special attention to this concern for future Bruins. Churning out students with paper degrees but a dubious future should not be the end goal of any educational institution, much less one like UCLA.
Srivastava is a fourth-year political science and global studies student.