Outside In! by Becky Rickard

Life after college is hard. However, I'm not knocking the difficulty of life during college. College and life after college is a "grass is greener" situation.

Like most of you, I am a UM-St. Louis student. However, I don't really have a "class" to which I belong. There isn't a neat little category for people like me. I graduated from UM-St. Louis with a BA in English, but I did not return as a graduate student. I'm way past the "senior" classification, but I'm not in the "continuing education" category, although I am continuing my education. It's challenging to describe my status on those index cards they hand out on the first day of class.

Like most of you, I just wanted out. I worked as hard as you are working to get that leather-bound diploma holder, which is supposed to contain the key to the locked door, otherwise known as your future. To this day, that piece of paper proving my successful completion of higher education is my biggest accomplishment. Of course, I'm only a 24 year-old, unmarried, childless, boomerang member of society.

While in college, I lead a typical college student's life. I studied hard, partied hard, worked hard, and consumed enough caffeine and nicotine to keep Mountain Dew and Joe Camel around for a very long time. However, I dreamed of the day when corporate lunches, office memos, and happy hours were weekly occurrences in my life. Now . . . I've learned that corporate lunches are not glamorous, office memos are just busy work for the administrative assistant, and I can't afford to attend a happy hour as a result of my student loans.

This column is not intended to be the Office Space or MTV's The Real World of columns. All I want to give you is a realistic, yet humorous look at what really happens when you graduate from college. Lesson #1, "How To Find A Job - Really": Many of you will have had internships by the time you graduate. That's good. On the other hand, I did not have internship experience because I couldn't afford to work for free with two jobs, a full class load, a car payment, and outrageous credit card bills. That's bad. I learned this the hard way after about 10 interviews. Simply put, COLLEGE + INTERNSHIP = JOB. You can have the best GPA and the most awards, but that is not going to mean squat if you are competing with someone with "experience."

You've probably heard the term "networking" about as many times as an Alanis Morissette song. What is networking, really? You've also heard the phrase, "It's not what you know, but who you know" as many times as you've heard the term ".com." Networking is the ability to utilize the people you know to get you ahead in the rat race. To network, one must perfect the handshake. It's a fine art; any salesperson will tell you the correct procedure. After a good introduction and handshake, you need to have a conversation that will gather pertinent information like what company they work for, what industry they are in, what job title they currently occupy, and what their company does. After obtaining this information, tell them how interesting it sounds (even if it isn't) and ask for a business card.

The most important part of finding a job isn't a resume or experience. It's putting the word out on the street. Call everyone you grew up with, inform your current friends and ask them to tell their friends and families, and, finally, talk to your business card contacts - don't just leave voice mail. You have to find a job because a job won't find you. It may sound desperate, but think of how desperate you could be when you realize that your first student loan payment is due and Anheuser-Busch isn't keeping a desk open for you just because you graduated magna cum laude.

That's my view from the outside in.