Okay, you did it! You graduated. Your little butt somehow made it through powered by pizza and Pediatelite. Summer was fun but now a few of your friends are moving into office jobs their uncles got them and you’ve sent out a couple job applications and nothing yet…your mom keeps yelling at you to get your stuff off the floor and your high school boyfriend is prowling – it’s time to get out. You might feel like you unprepared to do any job and the truth is, it’s true. Maybe you padded your resume with 100 internships and are ready to roll, but if you were fairly normal and enjoyed yourself in your college years then chances are you’ll need a little boost. This is a GREAT time for that college dude to come back into your life and offer you a free place to stay because he already got that job in finance from Unlce Mike. As great as it sounds, here are some alternatives to getting experience, getting out there, moving to a new city and beginning that life you always dreamed of. Now remember, you will probably be poor, but you’re going to be poor in your twenties anyway and these opportunities will get you more identity capital than working at Starbucks in your hometown. If you rest, you rust. It’s important to keep the spirit up and move on forward – exciting things are ahead! Ok? Ok. Let’s begin.

Read The Defining Decade really it’s worth it. It’s written simply, is easy to understand, helps to debunk the whole “twenties are to burn” mentality, because they are definitely a time to have fun but burning them will burn you later. Feel victimized by this statement? Then you definitely need this book. You’ll thank me later.

Great for Those Who Are: You.

AMERICORPS
Heard of it? Maybe you have. Americorps is a little bit like indentured servitude because you are given like $5 to live off, BUT it is a wonderful way to move to a new city, make new friends and gain experience that no one is going to pay you for. These positions can pay off big time down the road and get you valuable connections in any industry if you do it right. There are a bunch of different kinds of placements for different durations of time, some of them provide housing, and the nice thing is they give you an “education grant” at the end of your service to help pay off those pesky loans. Woo! So, sign the heck up, get out of your tiny town and then hit the pavement getting to know people in your down time and applying for jobs in the city you want to be in when your service ends!

Great for Those Who Are: Wanting to go into nonprofit work, have zero experience other than college classes, service-oriented, looking for a change of scenery or to move to a different part of the country, anyone looking for an adventure and to gain experience

TEMP
Can I tell you a secret? No one gets jobs the traditional way anymore. Either you know someone or you convince a company/organization that you are capable of stapling things together or picking up a phone and then show them you’re capable of other things. Honestly if you live in a city this is the way to go. Just Google: “Temp Agencies in —-” and add accessible cities and apply! You’ll need to make sure your resume isn’t a total mess and be sure to have a clear skills section, and let them know you are open to any opportunities. Temp agencies don’t care so much about your hopes and dreams, they want to know you aren’t going to embarass their business if they take you on and send you into a placement.

Great for Those Who Are: Business-oriented, looking to make more money, already in a city, unsure of what you might want to do with your time

Working at Starbucks in your hometown? Chill! Some good ways to move forward
Look, we all need to make money and it’s totally normal to have to live with your parents for a second and rekindle your relationship with the manager from your high school job. But there are still plenty of ways to gain identity capital and keep moving forward during this time while you plan your next move! A few of these are:

1. Build your network – even if you think you don’t have one at all, you do. Dear God if you don’t have a LinkedIn please make one, connect with everyone you can find, build your presence and check out content being posted by companies or organizations you may be interested in. The REACH OUT. Ask your relatives, your professors, your family friends, if they have anyone who might be willing to chat on the phone or get coffee to discuss their career paths. You are NOT asking them for a job, just learning how they did it. This idea is called “surrogation” and it’s the basic notion that the best way to determine whether you will be happy in a future position, will be learning how other people like doing it. This will pay off, trust me. Networking sucks, do it anywyay. It will be more successful than you think I promise, people love to talk about themselves.
2. Volunteer – anywhere is good, but best if you can do so in a field you may be interested in in SOME way, even accounting firms do volunteer work so if you want to crunch numbers, try to volunteer where they’re doing it.
3. Learn the things you lie on your resume about – actually figure out how to make that grid in excel, watch videos on Salesforce so you can say you know how to do it, read the job descriptions of positions you might be interested in but aren’t qualifed for and see what the required softwares are, depending on where you live there may even be free courses at your local library or towncenter.

INTERNSHIP

Yikes, right? Hear me out. You are elligable for a bunch of internships in the year proceeding your graduation. I know you might feel like you’re now too good for internships ’cause you did the graduation thing but it’s not true. If you can swing it, internships can be really amazing ways to get in with cool companies and organizations and convince them they need to pay you and have you stay. Also, it’s totally fine to not know exactly what you want to do at this point in your life. If you’re interested in Nonprofit work Idealist is a great resource, otherwise LinkedIn is awesome and you can filter through internship opportunities.

Great for Those Who Are: Living at home in a city, needing more experience, want to test the waters in an industry they are unsure about

GET OUT OF THE COUNTRY
No money but really looking for that adventure? I hear you! It’s the time to do it. There are a few ways to do this. You can apply to work for somewhere like EF tours providing trips to kids, or you can apply to teach English in China, or go to ProFellow and check out possible grants to go abroad. You can also become an aupair and take care of kids in someone else’s family abroad in exchange for room and board. If you want to do it, you can do it. Traveling is NOT burning your twenties, and there are ways to make it work.

 Great for Those Who Are: Williong to hustle to see the world, have a little money saved from college, willing to babysit abroad, have an education background or interest in teaching abroad

Side Hustle Options while trying to make it work
We all need to eat. Here are a few options for making extra money to support your broke butt while it pursues its dreams:
1. Restaurant jobs will always be there. If you’re doing something to move forward in the day, waiting tables at night can be a great way to stay afloat. Doing both is, of course, exhausting but occasionally necessary. Catering is another good option for weekend gigs.
2. Walk Dogs – If you like dogs and live in a city you can become a dog walker through Wag! Or Rover. It’s $25 to sign up due to a background check but then it’s pretty easy and you can do it on your own schedule.
3. Subsititute teaching – ooof right? I know. But $100 a day to pretend kids aren’t on their phones and are actually doing the textbook work assigned to them isn’t so bad. Good option if you’re in your hometown and can use a connection at your previous middle or high school
4. Teach English online. If you have any education experience, check out opportunities to teach online. Reviews vary but plenty of people have had success through VIP kid or other platforms that allow you to work your own hours.