Thank You Thursdays: The Wisdom of Experience (College Grad Edition)

We’ve gotten a few emails from you college kiddos making your final jaunt across that stage for the very coveted and damn expensive diplomas. You’re excited. You’re scared. You’re maybe a little hungover. You’ve asked us for advice on getting jobs in the feminist/blogging/writing worlds, and so I thought I would offer a few little things that I’ve learned the hard way in case they can be helpful:
1. Don’t just apply to law school because it feels like something that you can tell your aunts and uncles at your graduation parties or makes you feel safe in this economy. Do it if you really want to be a lawyer.
2. You’ve heard it before from us. You’ll hear it again from us. Negotiate. Even in this economy. Even with women bosses, who can sometimes be the worst about giving you the “oh, we’re a poor organization, we couldn’t possibly, we thought you were down” rigmarole. The worst they can say is no. And you shouldn’t have to live off of Ramen noodles.
3. Take your work seriously, but have a sense of humor about yourself.
It’s really important to be confident–you’re a badass and you know it–but also to be humble and have a good laugh at yourself in the workplace.
4. Seek feedback. If you act like you’ll break if people give you pointers, then you’ll never improve or being more self-aware.
5. There’s nothing wrong with combining creative or “intellectual” work with a job that pays the bills. I still think about waitressing sometimes because (a) I loved waitressing and (b) I loved the feeling of going home with cold, hard cash in my hand. Writing and activist work can sometimes feel like one long exercise in delayed gratification. Sometimes it’s awesome to do something straight-forward, physical, and food-related.
6. Be patient. I know you hate that one, as did I, but it’s just necessary. My first job out of college was nightmarish (think racism, plastic surgery, chain smoking in a tiny office, and control freak all packed into one tiny body of a boss), but I got through it.
7. Health insurance is important. I wish it weren’t, but it is. Check out Healthy New York-type programs for low income people in your area. That’s what I did for the first few years. Now I’m on Freelancer’s Union health insurance.
8. Seek out mentors. Thank them often. Teach them about the world wide web and they’ll love you.
9. House parties are way cheaper than going out to bars.
10. Just because you want to “do good” doesn’t mean you should work at a nonprofit. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of jobs in the nonprofit sector that are awesome, but I think this is a default for so many young feminists who want to have meaningful work that ends up feeling really disappointing. What’s more important than the 501c3 status is the quality of the relationships you can have at that office and the access to interesting work. And if you’re drawn to the nonprofit sector, don’t miss out on The Revolution Will Not Be Funded. I’m reading it right now and it’s sploding my brain.