Undecided, but not unsuccessful

One evening, I was reviewing for exams with five or six other students. Things had gone smoothly; we had rattled off key terms like model students, and not one of us had defected to Facebook (shocking, but true). During break, one person posed a question that stumped the entire room:

Julia Vann | Daily Trojan

“What do you want to do after graduation?”

Instantly, our faces went from “I’m in control” to “I’m scared and possibly in kindergarten.”

I’ve witnessed this reaction countless times. Actually, I’ve given it. It seems like nothing scares a college student more than the idea of not being a college student.

This fear has an understandable basis. It’s hard to know if you’ll like a so-called dream job after a few short internships in the field; plus, if there really are endless possibilities, some of them are bound to be terrible.

Of course, the job question is not one we can avoid if we plan on being financially independent. With this in mind, I’ve wondered why it’s still so difficult to answer.

I haven’t found “the” answer, but I think I’ve found one of them. People usually approach the question by thinking of jobs that exist and trying to pick one of them. This approach works for people who see a career as a means to a comfortable life — but if you happen to want more, it can be pretty unfulfilling.

I’m neither a career counselor nor a fortune teller. There’s no magical equation for career-related happiness. Still, I think there’s a different way to look at things.

Step one: Ask yourself what you love to do for hours on end. Step two: Find a way to get paid for it. Step three: See if you can stand the working conditions. If you can’t, find the next best thing.

This approach avoids determining a grand goal and coming up with obstacles to fight on the way. I know that when I think like that, I come up with massive, video game-worthy obstacles and end up imagining myself homeless. I prefer the path of least resistance.

I’ll give an example from someone I worked with last summer. He went to Stanford for studio arts — weird, yes, but commendable. Along the way, he found a passion for food and went to culinary school. He worked in catering before one thing led to another, and now? He’s doing marketing for a small tech company.

At first, I could not fathom the switch, but he explained that his current job involves both drawing and event planning. In other words, it combines many of the things he liked in ways he hadn’t expected.

I’m sure his path was uncertain, but for anyone who dreams of finding a job that really fits, that journey should be encouraging. The economy might have tanked, but that means jobs in general are limited, not that all nontraditional jobs have gone away.

If you’re willing to take some risks, you can try to fashion your own job. The Internet helps — big time.

Perez Hilton, the Hemingway of the blogosphere, actually started out as an actor (and failed). He then freelanced, blogging on the side “because it seemed easy.” Well, blogging is now his job. He now says he finds the trappings of fame exhausting, but you can’t deny the appeal in getting paid to do something you would have ended up doing anyway.

The Internet option isn’t limited to people who like being snarky. Like vintage clothes? Some people make a living off eBay. Spend all your time stalking celebrities on Twitter? Many companies now pay people to tweet.

These are starting points, but if they pay the bills, you don’t always have to think of where they’ll lead — you can trust yourself to get there when you get there.

I realize that this path-of-least-resistance stuff might lead to a rather jumbled résumé. However, many people with a lot of experience are saying that the days of having one career are gone.

In One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success, Marci Alboher explains the slash concept. She is a writer/teacher/public speaker and according to her, leaving the stable job sphere used to be “like burning a bridge.” Now it’s becoming much more socially acceptable to blur the lines — especially, she said, among young people.

I’d be surprised if you haven’t heard a professor say something similar. The point is, having experience in both sales and massage therapy doesn’t make you unfocused anymore. In fact, it can make you more multi-dimensional. You might not be as experienced as some of the other job candidates, but at least you can count on standing out.

If someone asks you what you’re going to do after graduation and you have the urge to panic, resist. Stop thinking about 20 years from now. What about next year?

Here’s my answer: I’m going to find the best possible degree/party.

Maya Itah is a junior majoring in communication and international relations. Her column, “Wait, Think Again,” runs every other Friday.