What’s next?

AN INTERVIEW WITH A UW GRAD ABOUT LANDING YOUR DREAM JOB AFTER COLLEGE

By Kora Quinn, Staff Writer Illustrated by Keely Bradish, Arts Curator

Success is subjective. What someone views as an accomplishment — what idea, person or place from which they draw their inspiration — may look entirely different from those around them. When I think of success, I picture a driven woman living in New York City, writing professionally about the abounding ideas surrounding her. I aspire to be that woman, fueling my creative endeavors and living the life I’ve always dreamed of. For college students, individuals who land their dream job right out of school are a wonder. Studies show that only 27% of college graduates work in a career that matches their degree.1 For students already full of ambiguity about their dreams for the futures, the looming question remains: how do you manage to land that dream job? Recent UW-Madison graduate and former Moda Culture Editor, Katie Herrick, graduated from UW-Madison in May of 2020. Now, she works as the Communications Coordinator at Read Better Be Better, a literacy nonprofit in Phoenix, Arizona. Working at a nonprofit, however, wasn’t always Herrick’s dream job. While she worked for several nonprofits throughout her college career, she too dreamed of living in New York City as an independent woman. It was her first internship at a for-profit in New York,however, that changed her concept of success. “Deep down I came to a realization — the overarching mission of the companies I was working with was a whole lot of nothing. The work I was doing was to make money for people who already had too much of it, and while some of the companies were doing good behind the scenes, it didn’t feel like enough.” “I realized that I didn’t want to work outside of the nonprofit sector,” Herrick shared. “It wasn’t the money or the promotions or the notoriety that would make me feel successful — I needed to know that I was actually making a difference in the world.” Before graduating this past May, Herrick shared she had applied for hundreds of jobs. It wasn’t until Herrick was asked to interview with Read Better Be Better and had the opportunity to re-read the job description that she realized this was her dream job. “I do what I do — both literacy and nonprofit work — for the kids who grew up like me. I always seemed to believe the opposite of everyone else, wear the clothes no one else liked, or experience the things at home no one else was. The one activity I could always turn to that made me feel welcomed, safe, and at home was reading.” “Students that get left behind in school don’t get to find this love and this passion,” Herrick continued. “They don’t get to write their stories or have the same opportunities others do, all because of arbitrary things like their skin tone, the people they love, and where they were born.” So how did she do it? Was it her internships, her obvious passion, or her personal experience in the shoes of the children Read Better Be Better aims to help? “I think job hunting has less to do with skills and abilities and more to do with luck, timing, and interests. I don’t think I got my dream job because I am more talented than others,” Herrick said. “I think I got my dream job because everyone’s dreams and expectations are very different.”2 To Herrick, managing expectations and defining your version of success are the key to landing your dream job. “I think that there is 100% an unreal expectation put on people graduating and finding jobs. Finding jobs is not easy, nor fun. Finding a job, let alone your dream job, straight out of college is pretty unrealistic. My story is happy and cool, but it is not normal.” ■