No? Oh.

I decided now was as good a time as any to start blogging here again. I have a problem with waiting for the “right” time but there is no such thing. I made the “official” announcement on Youtube in a fit of inspiration and as a result of soaring sugar high, but as you can see on the video, it’s been over a month since that and I’m just now writing a blog post.

I’ve been absent from this slice of the Internet for damn near 5 months. That’s approx. 3.5 years in Internet Time, girl. Dedicated blogging (as opposed to my word vomit on Tumblr) felt laborious and yucky and I was trying to be all encouraging Oprah Life Class on dat azzz, but in reality, I felt like poop. Poop!

me, feeling like poop.

I graduated college and didn’t really know what to do or how to get there. I was accepted into a “newbie reporters of the world” type of program and wasn’t offered a job at the end of the gig. I wanted to go to New York to live in Magical Black Brooklyn and commune with the fly people worthy of a million notes on Tumblr. That didn’t pan out (and I haven’t bothered to ask why).

I just sat at home, day in and day out, sometimes freelancing, sometimes not. Sometimes looking for jobs, sometimes not. This went on for a year, broken up only by the productivity of that summer in Phoenix. I didn’t feel like writing about that. Who would want to write about that? I HAVE BROUGHT DISHONOR TO MY FAMILY, MULAN!!!

My parental units never actually made me feel like that, by the way. Ashamed or like I was somehow less than. They get 100,000 gold stars in parenting – I know it must have been rough. Stepping on eggshells because not only am I a Leo, but keep in mind that I’m an artist *points to you to finish the quote*

Then one fateful day, through no voodoo of my own, I get an email from my former internship supervisor. There’s a job opening. If it’s my thing, I should apply. So I did. Then a phone interview. Then a face-to-face interview. Then a “you got the job”.

In less than a week, I went from Hopeless in Seattle Jobless in Texas to shopping for renter’s insurance, stuffing all my crap in my Toyota, and running through Ikea like a madwoman. I had one day to find a place to live. I moved back to the city I went to school in to work for a company I had an internship with. It’s so disgustingly full circle that sometimes I look up and ask The Ancestors why that one year dry spell had to happen. But I gotta trust my struggle or whatever people who are already successful say…

It’s been almost two months since I started the job, and things are going ok. I always feel like I’m slacking, but I’m not sure that feeling goes away for people like me. Some of y’all already know where I work and that’s cool — I’m personally not going to blast it over the internets though. We’ll cross paths all in good time.

So that is my update. I have my first Big Kid Job, the kind where I’m in charge of something, not just following orders. It’s scary. I have my first apartment, paid my first electricity bill ($200 initiation fee, Austin? gtfoh) and did all those firsts that will probably turn into future blog posts and videos and discussions.

Got a lot of things on my to-do list if I want this blog to improve and be a real thing. Checking The Post College Life email would be a good start. *crickets*

But yeah, that’s The Post College Life hiatus explained. If you have any suggestions for content or topics or anything like such as, I would tell you to email me, but you know what — just holla at me on Facebook.

When college students graduate, after four years of intense reading and writing, the last thing they want to do is pick up a book.

In fact, many students never pick up a book again, which can be detrimental to their post-grad career. There are plenty of books written about career advancement and how to survive after college, many of which can offer advice and inspiration to college graduates trying to find their way in the real world.

 Here are 5 books new grads should read for career success:

1. What Color is Your Parachute by Richard N. Bolles
It’s not a book about jumping out of an airplane (the appropriate title for that would be God, I Hope I Have My Parachute), but instead it’s about developing goals and learning about what your strengths and weaknesses are. It’s almost like a career journal. The best part is that it’s time-tested: It’s been helping college graduates for more than 40 years, coming out with new editions annually.

2. What Should I Do With My Life by Po Bronson
Whoa. Kind of a heavy question for a book title. But the cool thing about this book is that, through individual stories, it helps readers understand that not everyone knows exactly what they want to do fresh out of college or high school. Sometimes, it’s just life experience that shapes people and how they get to where they are.

3. Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi
One thing your college or university might not teach you is how to network. They educate you in the ways of book-smarts and facts, but when it comes to having relationships with people, that’s not always on the agenda. This book is out to supplement that education.

4. Do What You Are by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger
If you like taking personality tests and quizzes, then this is the book for you. Do What You Are’s aim is to help people identify their personality types and from there discover what jobs for which they may be suited.

5. Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss
Sure, it’s a children’s book, but it offers a lot of amazing adult advice (plus, it’s short!). What’s written can be applied to most any career situation, and it also helps post-grads get out of the “college bubble” their university often unintentionally puts them in.

Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best.

Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.

Because, sometimes, you won’t.

It’s good to humble yourself and remember that when you graduate, there are thousands of college graduates in the same boat out there, vying for the same entry-level positions as you.

Not all of a college graduate’s career questions will be answered in a book, but continuing to read and educate yourself after graduation helps propel you in the right direction toward self-discovery. Remember, that after college, the educational journey isn’t over—it’s never over.

Megan McLachlan writes for Criminal Justice Degree Schools, a career and education resource for individuals interested in getting started in a criminal justice career and featuring interviews with law enforcement professionals and school reviews by students.

Being a licensed practical nurse (LPN) is not as limiting as you might think.  While registered nurses are still on the top tier for pay and employment opportunities, an LPN can still enjoy a wide spectrum of employment opportunities other than the traditional bedside stereotype.

In the US, jobs for LPNs are expected to grow by as much as 25% within the next six years as aging baby boomers begin to require more and more medical services. Perhaps you are about to finish your certification, maybe you already have it completed or, you could just be thinking about the possibilities that exist in this career path. Here are some options available to LPNs that might not have crossed your mind.

First, crunch the Numbers
The typical LPN salary is pretty varied and often comes down to where and what you are doing.  Depending on the type of setting you are working in LPN’s can make anywhere from $28,000 annually to over $50,000.  LPN’s working in nursing care facilities enjoyed the higher end of the pay scale where as LPN’s who were hired by independent physicians typically earned less.

The spread of where most LPN’s end up practicing is pretty across the board.

• About a quarter of all LPNs end up in some form of a hospital setting
• 28% more will find themselves in a nursing care facility of some kind
• 12% will find work in a physician’s office
• The other 35% of LPNs found employment through; home health care services, employment services, residential care facilities, community care facilities, outpatient care centers and a few even in government agencies.

In case you were wondering, I ended up in employment services, making sure other nurses can find the jobs they need, though I had spent a brief amount of time within a genuine hospital and also as a traveling nurse myself.

Ok…Now What?
The information listed above is in fact pretty general. These career choices generally would have been covered at some point in your training and certification courses. Being a certified LPN gives you a few more career options other than what is listed above, as long as you are willing to do a little more leg work and get just a bit creative.

Holding certification to be a practicing LPN can open a lot of doors into some non-traditional career paths.

Clinical Research
We have all heard the commercials and seen the ads on TV.  Pharmaceutical companies are constantly finding new and innovative ways to treat the host of ailments that are prevalent in our society.  While the more technical side of these research clinics require healthcare professionals with a higher degree of certification, many staff a few LPNs here and there to assist in the inpatient and outpatient regiment.  If working in a cutting edge industry sounds appealing to you, this career choice could be right up your alley.

Travel Nursing
The myths that travel nursing is only available for RN’s and other professionals with a four year degree are in fact just that, myths.  If traveling around the country and seeing different parts of the world is something that is appealing to you, an inquiry into some of these agencies would be a great idea.  Travel nursing careers often supply the nurse with travel stipends, accommodations and of course, a guaranteed job from anywhere to a few months to a year.  Most agencies require some time spent in some type of nursing environment, but depending on your clinicals and shadowing, a career in travel nursing is possible when one is fresh out of an LPN program.

Tutoring/Community Services
Being a certified LPN can even mean working outside of a healthcare environment.  Depending on the need in your area, having an LPN certification can open up doors for tutoring and even careers into various community service fields.  Larger tutoring businesses often seek out the knowledge of healthcare professionals to add to their large repertoire of tutors available for their clients.  I have even heard stories of LPNs being contracted to work for large scale races and events where having an on hand medical professional is important.  All you need to do is a little nosing around to see the opportunities that are available for someone with the skills and tools that LPNs possess.

Terminal Certification? Says who?!
Becoming LPN certified is certainly not the end of your career path.  With possibilities for advancement and bridge programs abound, LPN’s can enjoy the same room for growth that other health care professionals are capable of.

• Bridge Programs
  Many RN hopefuls enter into an LPN program just to get their foot in the door.  As the popularity of health care jobs increase, the spots available in most schools and programs are dwindling and one can often find themselves on a waiting list of a year or more.  Starting out as an LPN and making use of the available LPN to RN bridge programs can be a great way to gain a leg up on those RN classes and cut around those pesky waiting lists

• Continued Education
  Once you have your LPN certification you can choose to become even more specialized and increase your marketability and pay scale.  Opportunities for LPN advancement include IV Therapy, gerontology (the study of the different facets of aging) and even pharmacology.

A career as an LPN does not have to be as limiting as once imagined.  Tons of opportunities are waiting for anyone willing to put in just a little more effort into what is out there, just waiting to be tapped into.

Kathryn Norcutt can often be found researching and reading about the newest innovations in the health care field. In her free time, she loves to work at perfecting her strength and fluidity in her Vinyasa yoga. Kathryn currently writes and blogs for RN Network.

“In 2011, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) released a report that compared life expectancy by degree of education attained. The gap in the life expectancy at age 25, by education, widened between 1996 and 2006 for both men and women with a bachelor’s degree or higher.”

From: OnlineCollegeCourses.com

um…

DUH!!!!!!! Higher education (usually) means you have a higher paying job, health insurance, and can afford healthier foods. You can trade in that pasteurized cheese product for the good stuff (shout out to Sargento). Throw in a LA Fitness membership and some sweaty night yoga for good measure.

Those of us without health insurance have to think long and hard before we go to the doctor. There are people in our country who don’t get checkups. WTF is a checkup????? Just drink some Robitussin!
Everybody Haaaaaaaaaates Chriiiiiiiiiiiiis.

The thing about health is that prevention and management of a condition are often our saving grace. As a child, I had severe breathing problems. My parents were able to afford doctor’s visits, inhalers, and nebulizers – a pricy piece of machinery that allowed me to inhale my medicine through a mask. How many kiddies in this country are struggling to breathe, but a $100 inhaler is just not doable? It breaks my heart, because E.V.E. luhhh da kidz, man.

The basic point that the infographic illustrates is that formal education is correlated to financial resources. And as we all know, C.R.E.A.M. 

It’s crucial to note (and the infographic did) that correlation does not imply causation. It’s not like once the diploma touched my hand I was free from all ailments. Your bachelors doesn’t equal a long, healthy life. It doesn’t mean that those with college diplomas are always more intelligent and therefore make better health choices. The findings simply reveal that there is some correlation between diplomas and life expectancy.

I wonder what this the CDC’s report will look like 20 years from now, especially for Texas, who “is on the path to 57% obesity.”

Thoughts?

In my opinion, the most important stat in the infographic below is that 94% of parents expect their children to go to college. I feel like that percentage increases to 250% if you have parents that were immigrants to this country. College was never a question for me! It was always in the books, whether I wanted to go or not! And a phD in JESUS NAME!!!!! -____-

Presented by DegreeJungle – Is College Still Worth It?

In my experience, college was one big (and expensive) networking opportunity. My professors were Pulitzer prize winning journalists, editors of major American newspapers, and from what I could tell, people who actually wanted to teach me. I interacted with people from different cultural backgrounds. I got to travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to study the effects of stereotypes in the media against women of color – something I wouldn’t have the opportunity to do without the structure and travel grants that a university provides.

BUT, and this is a big B U T:

We need to rethink the purpose and content of a four year college education. Degree saturation changed a bachelors degree from some magical Key To The World into the Base Requirement To Have Someone Glance At Your Resume. College doesn’t mean we’re smarter than our peers without degrees. Be honest. Sometimes it felt like college was a game. I didn’t need to be intelligent or innovative – I just needed to figure out how the professor graded papers and act accordingly. Why on earth am I taking Texas History as a college sophomore when I had Texas History in Mr. Goodwin’s 7th grade class? Why aren’t we problem solving? Why do we value info regurgitation? Why was my advertising book for non-majors still $105??????????? We have to revamp education in its entirety – from the babies in first grade to the people in college. All we do is make the books a little bigger, the words a little longer, but the content is essentially the same.

And let me say that all the thought provoking classes challenge the system, so they are always few and far between. Where are the classes that discuss how white privilege, male privilege, able-bodied privilege, heterosexual privilege, cis-gendered privilege shape the way our world works? Ezzakly.

True, college is what you make it. Even more true, college is infinitely more bearable when you have a desired job title in mind. I have to also acknowledge that, money aside, some people simply have a passion for learning, and threatening a History or Linguistics major with the you’re never gonna make any money spiel is pointless.

Was college worth it for me? I’d say about two semesters were absolutely worth it. Intriguing, challenging, inspiring, helpful. The rest…not so much.

What do you think of this infographic? Is college still worth it?

So a few months ago, I started blogging for American Student Assistance, a non-profit organization that will help you get your finances together, whether you’re still in college borrowing money, or if you’ve begun the task of repaying your loans.

They offer neutral student loan advice, as they aren’t affiliated with a bank. They do it for The People, y’all! You can use online loan repayment calculators, read thorough explanations of different types of loans, and find answers to all your student loan FAQs.

ASA recently launched a new membership website called $ALT. It’s an extension of ASA, continuing their mission to equip us with the basic principles of personal finance that, for some reason or another, are not taught in schools.

We want to revolutionize the way students finance and repay higher education, transforming them from passive financial aid recipients to instead proactive, financially savvy consumers who truly own their student loans and finances.
- ASA.org

Aside from their professional advice, they have a team of bloggers that provide personal insight into their college (and post-college!) lives. This is where I come in.

You can read the posts I’ve done so far by clicking the links below. Drop me a comment there, and give me suggestions on what to talk about next!

Meet Evelyn Ngugi, in which…you meet me. But you already know me. So read at your leisure.

Why I Decided to Consolidate My Student Loans, an article about the benefits of smashing my multiple federal loans into one easy payment.

What Next? How I’m Starting My Job Search…Kind Of, in which a much less emo me explains how I’m plannin’ to git my money right.

3 Reasons Why Making Friends After College Is Expensive, where I provide exactly three reasons why turning strangers into buddies post-college can break the bank (but it’s frikkin’ worth it, man).

So check to see if $ALT is available through your university. Peruse through the diverse perspectives from the other bloggers. Make it from the student loans to a benzo.

I’m not tryna be like one of those fast food or automobile commercials geared toward Black people. Cue the generic hip-hop or R&B instrumental! Cue the well dressed bearded man or the adorable socialite with natural hair! Add a “mmmhm, gurl!” after you sip your refreshing beverage and make sure all the friends in the backseat are varying shades of brown! WHAT’S IN THE NEW CHICKEN WRA–

As a young person in the media business, branding and social media are everything. I know my colleagues and future employers lurk check out my social media outlets. Am I a good fit for their brand? Do I look and sound like I’d be a good addition to the team?

My goal is to help you represent yourself responsibly on the internets with your integrity and authenticity in tact. We’re multifaceted people with diverse interests and backgrounds. Unfortunately, sometimes I feel like I have to drastically change my online behavior to impress my Potential Employer who, 97.8% of the time, is White. (Yes I made up that percentage. It just feels right.) Even though I have a generic American accent, I too, have a White Voice that I can switch on and off at the drop of a snapback. I wish I didn’t feel the need to have one, but I do. Such is the world we live in.

So here are my tips to you, Young Urban aka Black Professional! Note: I’m varying degrees of horrible at following my own tips.

**assumption: you use your real name on social media**

Common problem: you tweet every damn thing that comes to your mind. #Nofilter

Solution: make a concerted effort to balance your tweets between professional and narcissistic/leisure. For example, I should retweet news of the day or link to an article I’m reading and sprinkle in some “day in the life” tweets. It shows I’m engaged in my industry, but I’m also a real person who complains about being stuck in traffic.

Common problem: you utilize urban vernacular.

Solution: we all have different opinions on using “nigga” in our everyday language. And adding the #badbitch hashtag to your twitpic does NOT mean you’ll make a bad employee. But that’s rarely the point, isn’t it? I suggest you avoid the usage of slurs or curse words, but don’t completely change your speech pattern. Nawwwmsayin is much more effortless than do you know what I’m saying. You only have a 140 characters anyway. Aint nobody got time for subject-verb agreement and “correct” spelling, ya eeeerd meh?

Other solution: make a public, professional twitter and a private, leisure twitter.

Problem: the above solution is inconvenient and annoying. Granted, I know people who straddle multiple twitters easily. As for me… well…this is the last tweet on my professional twitter:

And I don’t care what app platform thing you use, you’re bound to make a mistake and post something unprofessional on the twitter that your clients follow. #dropittothefloor #makethatassshake

Common problem: the people you follow can be ignorant, but they’re hilarious.

Solution: be stingy with your retweets. even if you slap a disclaimer in your profile description, who you retweet is a reflection of who you are. Just click “favorite” instead and giggle about it later. I admit this is very hard for me, because Black Twitter (and Black Gay Guy Twitter more specifically) is effortlessly entertaining. Y’alls similes and metaphors and ugh I love y’all so much. But those blasted urban vernaculars will get me in trouble one day…

Common problem: Your friend posted that video of you twerking and tagged you in it. Or it may be something as low key as you enjoying alcoholic beverages while dancing on a table or consuming certain herbs that may or may not be legal in your state…

Solution: WHY HAVEN’T YOU CHANGED YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS YET? Facebook lets you divide your friends into lists and manipulate the privacy settings for each list. I have a list called ADULTS!! and it includes older family members, church members, colleagues, mentors, etc that don’t need to see every Big Sean music video I post on my wall. And you know that friends of friends (that aren’t YOUR friends) can comment on YOUR stuff just because of that one degree of separation??? CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS.

Common problem: Facebook is an important part of your career publicity, but you’re not ’bout that 5000+ friend requests life. You don’t want your readers/viewers/audience seeing conversations between your family.

Solution: Start a Facebook “like” page! It’s like a regular Facebook, except you’ve never actually met any of the “friends” in person! You can professionally communicate with a large number of people without potentially exposing your close friends’ or family’s business.

(I don’t know why you’d advertise your tumblr as a way for potential employers to get in touch with you. Child please, it’s where you go to vent and reblog hot supermodels and scroll through Breaking Bad gifs! And people post breasteses and penile related things here.)

Common problem: it’s like twitter and tumblr at the same damn time.

Solution: exercise self control and use your discretion when posting things on Instagram. Flaunt what you got but remember who may be watching. It’s a steady stream of real-time images from your life, so it paints a picture (however Valencia-fied) of who you are and what you’re doing. A lot of beautiful young people are posting before and after P90x photos. “I just woke up” photos. You and the boo photos. Freakum dress photos. I’m happy for you and ima letchu finish, but do you really want your boss to know what you’re up to from 5 to 9? Maybe you do, in which case, I’m not here to judge. But maybe you don’t. So yeah.
Bonus: we’re all 21+ now, so go ahead and Earlybird that Sunday brunch mimosa pitcher.

That’s all I got! Our generation is so used to having no privacy that we don’t realize our online actions could have serious consequences. If you’re in the public eye as a media personality, for example, one unsavory urban vernacular could get you fired. Sometimes the way we express ourselves as vibrant, young, urban aka black adults can block opportunities that we’re more than qualified for. I’m making light of stereotypes and Black Youth as a monolith, but in all seriousness, your next boss might be Googling your name.

Hopefully you’re okay with what they see.

It’s definitely September, y’all.

*silence*

…

*crickets*

Even Mark Wahlberg is disoriented.

I’ve been wanting to talk about this topic since MARCH, people. That’s almost enough to send me on an eating binge. Just slide into Whataburger one day and order every damn thing on the menu. Uhhh, lemme I get a uhhh, number 1 through 16, please. All the damn sauces. All dem thangs. Do y’all sell gallons of sweet tea? No? I’ll settle for five large cups of drank then.

TIME IS MOVING AND I AM NOT SO IMA CHICKEN STRIP MYSELF INTO OBLIVION. That’s what I want to do, yes, but I’ll write this blog post instead. My waistline thanks me.

Remember when I posted that video on Youtube challenging us to sit the hell down and figure out what we want to do with our lives? Yeah, me neither. Well, my “checklist lifestyle” (vs. climbing the proverbial ladder of success) makes it hard for me to focus. I know I’m a big idea person. I’m a dreamer. I want to do it all, but since I have no ultimate end-all-be-all goal, I don’t know where to start. I’m often overcome by a sense of what if I miss out on something exciting because I’m doing something else?!?!?.

My job search is half-assed at best. Why? Because I got NYC on the brain. Magical Black Brooklyn is calling my first, middle, and last name with perfect pronunciation. The yearning is real. I’ve come to terms with my desires and I know that I can’t move on with my life until I “do” New York (or it “does” me, nawwmean). I’m restless, emotional (I had my first post-graduation crying session for about 8 minutes last night), and it takes me forever and a half to fall asleep because I’m weighing my options, scolding myself, changing my mind, making pros/cons lists, calculating how much monies I need, how and when should I notify the parental units, and what makes me think I’m good enough to do blah blah blah, etc. etc. to infinity and beyond.

Mi cyan tink straight.

My male parental unit is starting to express concern. Doesn’t want me to get stuck. I wish I was methodical and normal and wanted to get a job at a newspaper/magazine/website and get a steady paycheck and move out, and decorate my apartment with ghetto resourceful crafts off Pinterest, and forcibly pay back the female parental unit for my car (she refuses to take my freelance monies. grrr).

It’s truly my desire to do those things for my well-being and growth. It’s also my desire to do those things for my pride. Full-time employment is a social marker. First comes love college then comes marriage a gotdamn job, right? But I have a chance to travel the world first. I can go back to The Motherland, y’all. The. Motherland. Let me hit the ancient dance of my ancestors right quick –

I’ve been so obnoxiously torn between my desires and my responsibilities that I’ve taken no action. No forward movement. Just stagnant as all hell. Collecting dust. Blink. Blink. Eight months post-college graduation. I can’t believe I just typed that has it really been that long oh god i’m throwing up everywhe–

I remember telling myself “Oh I’ll get a real job after SXSW!”

Then SXSW ended. Didn’t really look for a reporting job. Then I said, “Oh I’ll apply to this program in Phoenix to get my foot in the door!”.

So I did. My foot’s kind of in the door I guess? And now…

I’m here staring at JournalismJobs.com and mediabistro.com searching for a job description that remotely describes what I’m into and actually wants newbies. Even 30 minutes scouring the job listings is draining. What if I don’t find what I’m looking for? Or worse…what if I do? Then I have to make a decision. By going to New York, I’m trading stability and monies for adventure. Granted, working as a reporter guarantees I learn something new and speak to different people everyday, so my “stable” option isn’t exactly a drag. I just don’t want to disappoint my parents, yo. I want to give them something concrete to talk to their friends about when everyone’s chatting about What The Kids Are Up To. I feel like validation comes from other people hiring you, to be honest. Self-starters git no love.

Did I already say it’s almost been one year since I graduated oh no you guys I don’t feel so good all of a sudd–

My stay in NYC would still relate to my field and use the skills I’ve learned over the years, but I need to buy some equipment and figure out some steady freelance opportunities in The Concrete Jungle. WTF is a subway? Is a borough a freakin city or not??? Do they have Targets over there???? So many questions. Some laughable, most not.

I just need to grow a pair (of ovaries) and do the damn thing…right? I don’t necessarily need permission from the parentals, but I would like their blessing. Moving forward and not having it be what you expected is better than not moving at all…right? Why aren’t you answering me?????

I’ve turned in my blog posts and invoices for the week (see – I’m not a total bum! I still keep busy) and once I click publish on this post, I’ll retreat to my room and continue plotting, writing, proing n’ conning. My goal is to clue the parental units on my plans this week. Yeah I know it’s Wednesday already.

No idea what the point of this blog post was, but I’ve released it to the internets now, so maybe someone out there feels the same? Let’s go to Whataburger and be all in our feelings some more.

Well, The Post College Life is elated to report that Jamal is now Mr. Jamal, Music Teacher Extraordinaire to children pre-k through 5th grade!!!!

He was caught off guard in this picture. Mr. Jamal is actually a pretty jolly guy. Or so he claims. >___<

The kiddies filed into class last week, so I hopped on Skype to ask Jamal how things are going so far.  “I grew up in a month — isn’t that crazy,” he says. He was hired in late June and moved a couple hours away to his new school district in August. Just like that, he’s in a new city, new apartment, and has a full-time job with benefits, ya digg! “Everything happens for a reason,” he says. “You know you get cut off insurance at 26, right…” Now that’s perfect timing. Can I git an Amen??

As the teaching gods would have it, Jamal went to college with his co-teacher! That definitely makes their teaching dynamic strong early in the game. The hardest thing about teaching so far? Being stern with the students. “I made a few kids cry and I didn’t like that,” he says. “But it’s the beginning of the year and with being new teacher it’s really important.”

We all know kids caint keep a grudge that long though, right? Despite Mr. Jamal serving as classroom disciplinarian, the chirrens are already forming bonds with him. “They call me Mr. Cool Cat and I get hugs in the hallways, so I guess I’m doing something right,” he says. Mr. Cool Cat. HOW FREAKIN’ CUTE IS THAT?!?!?!?!

This is a drawing of Mr. Cool Cat and his co-teacher. We think. ^___^ So cute!

He also has to rethink how he’ll instruct the students to sing (imagine a room of 1st graders growling to match his deep Man Voice), but overall, his first days on the job went smoothly.

Jamal says getting his career underway is a breath of fresh air and a weight off his shoulders. “This is still the honeymoon phase,” he says. “Most people say the beginning is really rough, but I didn’t feel like I wasn’t prepared. Having a co-teacher really helps and the administration is really supportive. I feel like a competent teacher.”

Mr. Jamal, I’m so happy for you. Wishing you smooth school year!

After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with honors in only 2 1/2 years, Toni immediately entered graduate school in the Fall of 2011. After only 3 semesters, she graduated again with a Master of Arts in Education, concentration early and elementary education with a specialization in child development.

I thought I would be underemployed forever. Well not forever, but at least for a few years.

When I graduated from undergraduate I immediately started graduate school, so I just took a job as an intern at an investment bank because I could do my readings and such at work and still get paid. This was working well for me until I realized that I needed to actually have some experience in the education field before anyone would accept me into an education doctoral program. Then came the job search…

So here I was looking for a job, an honor graduate from the freaking University of Texas at Austin, almost finished with a Master’s degree in education and I was having a ridiculously hard time finding a job that I was qualified for. I was turned down for a director of a day care position, assistant director, preschool teacher, admissions representative, etc. etc.

While I was in the middle of my unsuccessful job search one of my classmates from graduate school suggested that I work on an alternative teaching certificate, take a job as an “instructional assistant”, and possibly start teaching the next school year, if everything went well.

Long story short, everything went well. The principal loved me with the children and when a teaching position became available she interviewed and asked HR to offer me the job.

But before that job offer came no less than 35 applications submitted online at various school districts, daycares, preschools, private schools, career colleges, basically anywhere that had anything to do with education.

Moral of the story: Your resume can only take you so far. Who you know matters. If you can get in the door and “show them what you got”, go for it! Impressing your boss now in a job you are just settling for can mean landing that job you’ve always wanted in the future.

- Toni