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“How much did they pay you to give up on your dreams?” – Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) in “Up in the Air”.
…is a quote that I think rings true with a lot of people in the workforce. Especially with the job market being as tough as it is – a lot of people are settling for less than their dreams. A lot of people don’t even know what their dreams are.
But this quote doesn’t ring true to me. For me it’s more, “how much did they pay you to REALIZE your dreams?”
There is a lot to be said for job satisfaction, dreams and opportunities. I remember a year ago I had NO CLUE what I wanted to do. I was sitting in my PR Design course – rocking Adobe CS4 and checking out a placement program called the University of Dreams. Through this program – for a mere $8,000, you can pick your industry and a location and get an internship (and there’s a lot more to it than that, but you get it). You have to still be enrolled in school, and you’ll have to figure out how to survive in whatever location you desire – but you’ll have an unpaid internship ready for the taking.
I remember sitting in the classroom with two of my classmates, daydreaming about a PR internship in Barcelona or Chicago or New York. Big cities, far away places, and locations where I didn’t really have any connections yet. I had a few connections in New York that I was talking to, but nothing that was really leading to anything.
I started looking into options to make this opportunity financially possible. I was slated to graduate that summer, so there was no way for me to save up $8,000 in three months. I didn’t need any more school credit – so the opportunity was actually not all that great. OH AND IT WAS EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS.
So I went to the restaurant that night, bartended my face off, and continued to save for my trip down to Austin to SXSW. Which, ultimately, changed my life.
I seriously had no idea what I wanted to do after graduation – I just knew I wanted it to be big, and glamorous, and full of opportunities to learn and grow. The career path for a typical PR grad from USF is to go through the program, have a few internships, graduate, and go work for a non-profit or a local small agency if you’re lucky. The small agencies required internship experience – but to get that internship experience you had to have a flawless GPA. Which I didn’t have. So in the end, neither of those sounded like what I wanted to do. I was totally and completely open to any opportunity, but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what I was looking for.
Until I got to Austin. The plan was to go to SXSW and come back with some new friends, a boat load of business cards, and some internship/job possibilities lined up for after graduation. In Austin, I had three informal interview-type situations.
Through all three conversations – I realized what my dreams were.
I talked to the president of a boutique agency who had offices in Milwaukee and Chicago. He told me that I didn’t have what it takes to make it in the agency world. But, he helped me with my resume and told me what agencies look for when they are considering candidates. So that was helpful.
I talked to a couple of guys from a creative agency in New York – which lead to big dreams and aspirations of working in a primarily digital and social environment. This company rocked my socks. It was my dream job. Digital work, big clients, challenging and fun atmosphere and OH EM GEE it’s in New York.
And then I talked to the guy who would eventually become my boss. That story is all over this blog, so I’ll spare you, but the point that I want to make is this:
You never know when you will discover your dreams. And you definitely don’t have to pay $8,000 to have the opportunity to do so.
Yes, SXSW was an investment. But it wasn’t $8,000. In fact, the internships that I found and held before I moved to Chicago for an internship with Weber Shandwick were all word of mouth. One of the girls in my classes was an intern at Moffitt and she loved it. So she gave me their contact information, I interviewed there and landed that one. Then there was a speaker who came to talk to our PRSSA chapter and after she was done speaking, I introduced myself, we had a moment that only KU fans can have together, and then we went our separate ways. Two months later, she needed an intern. Guess who she called?
You never know who will advocate for you. You never know who will find you interesting, who will see your promise, and who will invest time in your success. That being said, networking is single-handedly the most important thing you can do to get to where you want to be. And fortunately, networking comes in many shapes and sizes and most of the time is a minimal cost.
The fact of the matter is, there are a lot of amazing, talented, smart students out there. If you’re in college and reading this, you’re probably one of them. But being talented, amazing and eager to learn will only get you so far. You need to have someone behind you that knows this – that really believes in you – to be your champion and to get you in the door.
For more info on how to find an internship: read this. Then this.
Would you pay thousands of dollars for the opportunity to work through an unpaid internship? If you’re in college – how did you find your internships? If you’re out of college – how did you get your first job?
And to everyone – what are your dreams? Do you know what they are? Are you happy where you’re at? If not, what are you waiting for?