Reply to I Don't Think I'll Ever Make it in DC, Thinking of Giving Up

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[quote=Anonymous]I sympathize.  My son may be in your shoes in 5 years (freshman now).  He's interested in Public Policy.

My DH got a grad degree from Georgetown in the 90s and never had a really decent paying job during the first 2 years after graduating.  In my opinion, DC has always exploited interns and newbies.  So we relocated away from DMV so I could get my grad degree and never went back due to the unaffordability of real estate and the difficulty of breaking in to the truly high-paying job market.  My husband switched to an IT career and doesn't use his undergrad or master's degree at all.  It happens.  We have no regrets now.

Instead of DC, have you considered moving to any state that might have a healthy local job market instead?  Have you thrown yourself on the mercy of former professors and alums?  The Dean of your grad school?  Your congressperson from home state?  Does anyone in your family have connections?  Have you interviewed with any DC temp agencies?  Do you have friends headed to DC that you can crash with while you look on the ground for a few weeks?   Times are tough and people are looking out for themselves right now.  I've lived through many recessionary periods and this is definitely one for white collar people.

I just noticed a former "retired" MBA colleague of mine has taken a retirement job as a groundskeeper at my alma mater.  Didn't see that coming.  My MBA friend who is in her 50s has been underemployed for about 5 years due to our local job market being hard for her industry specialty.  Those are some of my personal proof points on how bad things are.

Please don't take this too personally.  It's easy to end up in your shoes in a tough economy.

The most important thing when you don't have a job is to stay busy and keep trying.  It's mentally soul-sucking but there's not really a feasible alternative.  Find ways to meet more people/keep meeting h.r. people in person (job fairs?).  Internet applications are low yield compared to personal connections.  And maybe try some volunteering.

Good luck.[/quote]

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