Living it up in NYC

Hello fellow job hunters! My name is Janelle, just graduated from college with a major in psychology and living on Long Island, close to NYC. My goal after graduating was to find a research assistant position in a hospital that focused on my particular interests in psychology. I've had a little bit of research experience working with professors while in school and I wanted to gain more experience before going on to grad school. No such luck yet on getting that research position unfortunately.

After graduating with no job, I knew that I needed something that would provide me with a little income while I continued my search. I figured a mall job would suit my purposes nicely and since all the high school kids were still in school in May, I figured I could beat them to the punch. It's interesting when you get turned down for a cashier position at a clothing store. One store told me that I didn't meet their qualifications. To say that kinda hurt would be an understatement. If I couldn't get a regular hourly wage job, how in the world can I get something better than that? Well I continued going to various stores in the mall and sending in online applications and eventually I heard back from Macy's. I went for the interview and they hired me. Great! (Said with a bit of sarcasm). It's certainly not what I had envisioned when I was planning my career goals, but at least now I have some money in my pocket.

Meanwhile, I continue to search for a better job; one that is in my field and one that gives me benefits (since my dad continues to remind me that after graduating I'm no longer on his health plan). I've been searching for research positions by going to hospital websites, specifically those hospitals that have psychology or psychiatry departments. Most will have pages discussing the various research being conducted and a phone number or an email address to contact someone. I've also been looking through monster and the New York Times classifieds (nytimes.com/classifieds).

Yeah, job searching is annoying as hell and I've gone through periods where I just stop looking altogether. But then after that I go back to searching. I know something will come along. When that store told me I didn't meet their qualifications, I was ready to quit. But I kept searching and got hired by Macy's. So I'm gonna do the same for my research position. It's all about staying positive.

-Janelle